The Masters: Takeaways from the second round at Augusta National including Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood

Justin Rose's mid-morning Masters

Matt Cooper

Back in early 2021 Justin Rose told The Daily Telegraph that, having hit 40, he was aware that only the major championships and the Ryder Cup could now define his career. He’d be happy to win other titles, of course, but it was the big weeks that would alter his legacy. He added a line about the excitement he felt ahead of those big weeks and the extent to which he primed himself for them.

Within weeks he’d grabbed the first-round lead at the Masters and later added a quick start at the Open, but he was overlooked for that year’s Ryder Cup.

In retrospect, that latter snub might have been the first time that 40-something Rose was doubted, but it has not been the last and, in recent times, they have come at a tremendous rate.

He played the 2023 Ryder Cup and his avuncular treatment of Robert MacIntyre had some thinking of a future as a captain or vice captain. There was the weekend at the 2024 PGA Championship when he flirted with the lead before finishing sixth. There was the terrific fight for the Claret Jug at Royal Troon the same year, when he was superb but denied by Xander Schauffele. There was last year’s magnificent Masters. And then a Ryder Cup in New York in which he shed the uncle vibe to become something else entirely.

Every time, conventional wisdom cried 'Last hurrah!' and every time he shook his head, dug deep and had another go. This week, with opening rounds of 70-69, he is at it again.

It is a winning attitude and there’s something else about Rose that’s very appealing: his slightly awkward array of facial expressions and body movements.

He’s not quite in Colin Montgomerie’s league. The Scot’s top three, of course, were the tea pot, the furious glare into middle distance and the exasperated raspberry-blowing lips.

Rose’s are more subtle and more deliberate; Monty’s were pure instinct while there’s a sense with Rose that he’s doing what he thinks he should be doing.

So, when he needs to concentrate, he applies his serious face. When fortune goes his way we get the cheeky 'Aren’t I lucky?' face. When something doesn’t go his way it takes the brows a millisecond too long to furrow. You can almost see the boy in him, doing his best to behave like he knows he ought to.

In the second round he drained a nasty par putt on 17 and walked it in with his chest out and finger pointing at the hole. It’s as entertaining as it is endearing, more Alan Partridge than Jack Nicklaus.

Possibly, however, there is something else in it. Consider how he left the 16th green during the first round after another testing but well-holed par putt: shoulders back, chest out, chin up, concentration face on.

When Luke Donald was the world number one he often talked of the importance of body language and you sense Rose appreciates that sentiment.

The weekend promises another test of both his resilience and body language. Paradoxically, the best thing we might all do is doubt him.

Fight or flight from Rory to Reitan

Ben Coley

One of the great things about sport is seeing players at the very top of theirs in full flight: Rory McIlroy breezing to a 63, Scottie Scheffler hitting every damn approach shot pin high, Tiger Woods, dressed in red, refusing to allow a golf ball to stay above ground.

There's something equally satisfying about seeing them have to fight for things that another day come easily and there is no greater sport than golf for this, because there's no sport with golf's day-to-day and week-to-week variance. Great tennis players very seldom lose matches to good ones and they win tournaments regularly. Great golfers frequently lose battles and how they respond can determine so much.

We saw a heck of a lot of fight on Friday. Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton both produced it, the latter spectacularly so despite a bogey at the final hole in an otherwise brilliant 66. Cameron Young produced it through the second half of Thursday's first round and into Friday's run of birdies. Marco Penge, Brian Harman, even a scolded Robert MacIntyre, all of them battled when it would've been easy not to.

And then, late in the evening, Tommy Fleetwood produced it too, in his own sort of way. I admired how he smiled his way through a peculiar TV interview on Thursday night, having let slip a dream start, his journey from four-under to one-under completed by two bogeys over the closing three holes. Because Tommy is Tommy he didn't let the tone of the interviewer irk him as it absolutely would have others.

Perhaps the most underrated quality of the elite professional golfer is how good they are at grinding and on Friday at the Masters we were treated to a dozen short-term demonstrations of it.

The long-term version, meanwhile, was brought wonderfully into view by Kristoffer Retain, who moved to four-under and within sight of the Masters lead. He's the leading debutant among a high-class bunch having carried over the form he showed in Texas last week, his first notable effort in what's been a tough start to life on the PGA Tour.

Reitan knows what it takes to fight. It was him, rather than his friend Viktor Hovland, who was the first Norwegian man to play in a major. He was thought of as just as promising for a time, but having given up the chance to play college golf and instead elected to turn professional early, it has since been a much more complicated path to Augusta National, where Hovland first played as an amateur while Reitan was preparing for the Trophee Hassan II.

Success came early when Reitan contended at around the same time, but just as he began to lose his way along came Covid and five years after coming through Q-School as an amateur, he was back down on the Challenge Tour. From February 2023 through to July of the same year he missed 11 cuts, shot three rounds of 80-plus, and appeared to be on the very brink, his entire professional career hanging in the balance.

The following year was make or break and it was a twist of fate in the Swiss Challenge that set in motion a series of events which in the end led him here. That event was almost a washout, but they managed to get 36 holes in and Reitan finished second, earning points that would see him sneak into the Grand Final, where he entered the final round in the mix with Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen and Angel Ayora, players seemingly destined for stardom.

Reitan beat them both, earned a DP World Tour card for doing so and then, the following spring, his career exploded in ways which didn't seem plausible. He finished second to Marco Penge, another set for bigger and better things. He won, picking the pocket of Ewen Ferguson, in Belgium. He shot 60 on Sunday the following week, second this time, and just kept on playing well until he had a PGA Tour card sewn up.

It has been a remarkable journey and whatever happens over the weekend, the most likely scenario among many being that he is swamped by elite golfers at the world's most famous golf course, it comes back to the one thing he's always shared in common with the likes of McIlroy, Rose, Hatton and Reed: grit, fight, a sheer determination not to let this unbeatable game beat him.

In so many sports, Reitan's story would not really be possible. Golf ought to celebrate them and thanks to Reitan's stunning second round, we're at least going to hear a bit more about a player who, this week, is Norway's best golfer.

Hao not to prepare for a round at Augusta

Matt Cooper

On Wednesday a giddy Haotong Li described the experience of playing the Par-3 Contest alongside Bryson DeChambeau and the comic actor Kevin Hart as, “the best day of my life.”

Thursday night, by contrast, was probably among the worst of his 30 years on this planet.

That had nothing to do with his opening round of 71 and everything to do with the fact he’d spent more of the night in the bathroom rather than the bedroom.

After adding a second round of 69 that included four birdies on the bounce from the 13th, he was asked if was surprised by his score.

“I am, actually,” he said. “Especially because I went to the toilet a lot of times last night. This morning, when I got to the golf course, I didn’t hit many balls on the range. I was still feeling really bad and kind of, like, living in the toilet.”

A touch too much information, maybe, but Haotong is evidently the kind of fellow who’s happy to overshare.

“I was feeling really, really bad. No energy, fuzzy, wanted to throw up something. I actually just planned to play a few holes and see how it goes. So, I’m glad I survived today.”

The hard work was worth it because he sits at four-under for the tournament and will have the best part of 24 hours to recuperate ahead of his third-round tee time.

At first glance the four-time DP World Tour winner has nothing more than an average record at Augusta with finishes of T32 in 2018 and T43 a year later. But he opened his debut with a 69 to sit T4 on the first round leaderboard and his final-round 68 seven years ago was bettered by only two golfers (who both carded 67s).

His second appearance was also memorable because he played the first two rounds with the eventual winner, Tiger Woods.

Nor is it the first time he has shown up on the first page of a major championship leaderboard in recent times because he was T4 in last year’s Open at Royal Portrush when playing the final round alongside Scottie Scheffler (and he finished third at the 2017 Open at Royal Birkdale).

Asked after Thursday’s first round why he seems to enjoy the big occasions he answered: “I just feel super calm every time I play in the majors.”

He might yet be a contender this week, but the question might be whether the impact of that unsettled night will unravel in the long term because sometimes the fatigue takes a little time to play catch up.

The other question is whether Scheffler ever answered his calls.

After the final round of the Open last summer Li told a nice story about their lap of Portrush.

“I just said, ‘Is there any time I can practice with you when I go to the PGA Tour?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ But I said, ‘When I text you, you better reply to me.’ And he goes, ‘Haotong Who?’ That was actually funny.”

More Masters content

• The Masters: Player-by-player guide
• Stats and in-play betting guide
• Augusta National: Hole-by-hole