AUGUSTA, Ga. – The wind swirled, flagged whipped, and scores soared.

Well, except for Scottie Scheffler – and a few others.

The second round of the 86th Masters Tournament was about survival for many, a day to forget for others, and a time to pull away from the pack for the hottest player in golf.

Here are the top stories from Day 2 at Augusta National.

THE LEADER

Scottie Scheffler just keeps right on going.

The newly appointed No. 1 player in the world, and the No. 1 player in the FedExCup, Scheffler came into this week having won three times in his last five starts. All he did on Friday was shoot 67 – tied for best round of the day – to reach 8 under going into the weekend.

That means Scheffler has a five-shot lead over Charl Schwartzel (69), Sungjae Im (74), Shane Lowry (68), and defending champion Hideki Matsuyama (69).

Jason Day was the last player to win four times in six starts, in 2015.

STORYLINES

Wind gusts create havoc: Garrick Higgo shot 83, Abraham Ancer 79, and Jordan Spieth triple-bogeyed the 12th hole on the way to a 76. Tiger Woods looked for direction from the swaying trees as he bogeyed four of the first five holes.

It was that kind of day.

“It’s just sort of one of those days that, even the ten-footers are sort of difficult,” said Rory McIlroy, who shot his second straight 73 to go into the weekend at 2 over par. “Because the wind’s gusting and you’re thinking, is it going to affect the putt? Is it not?

“And just getting settled over it,” he continued. “Just one of those days in these conditions where it unsettles you a little bit and puts a little bit of doubt in your mind.”

McIlroy’s round threatened to unravel completely shortly after he made the turn. He bogeyed the 10th hole and double-bogeyed the 11th as he came to the guessing game that is the par-3 12th.

“And in front of us, Jordan hit two in the water, so that wasn’t a great visual either,” McIlroy said. “And then Brooks hit it first and hit it straight over the green. The wind died.

“It’s just, it’s so up and down. I’m glad to be off the course at this point.”

Harold Varner III in contention: Masters rookie Harold Varner III shot his second straight 71 and at 2 under par overall will go into the weekend six back.

Only three Masters rookies have won, most recently 43 years ago, and Varner is still seeking his first PGA TOUR victory. A Jordan brand athlete, he said he has to give Jordan himself eight shots when they play but, as per Jordan’s dictum, he’ll have to give 10 shots after he wins.

“He’s obviously given me awesome sponsorship, but he’s been a great friend,” said Varner, who has played the par-5 second and 13th holes in a combined 5 under. “I’ve asked him all kinds of questions, business questions, hung out with him here and there. So that means a lot more to me.

“I think everyone just sees the logo, and they’re like that’s super cool,” Varner continued. “He’s the greatest athlete. But for me just being able to pick up the phone and call him has been the best part of the relationship.”

Charl Schwartzel turns back clock: Charl Schwartzel called his 72-69 start, “the two best ball-striking rounds I’ve had in a very long time.” He said he got fortunate Friday morning, when he played the first six holes in cold but relatively calm conditions.

As for his lackluster record elsewhere, he struggled to explain it.

“Hands were a little too active,” he said. Then, later, he added, “Mind is too active.”

Whatever the case, it’s been a season to forget so far for 2011 Masters champ Schwartzel. An 11-time DP World Tour winner and two-time PGA TOUR winner – most recently at the 2016 Valspar Championship – Schwartzel had missed six straight cuts on TOUR when he came to the site of his greatest victory. He’s 172nd in the Official World Golf Ranking. 

As part of his preparation for this week, Schwartzel, 37, watched footage of his Masters victory 11 years ago, when he closed with four straight birdies. The goal, he said, was to give himself a hard reset, “to erase all the last couple of weeks, the results.” So far, so good.

Bubba Watson authors another miracle: It would be hard to top Bubba Watson’s physics-defying wedge shot that hooked around the trees and won him the 2012 Masters, but it may have happened Friday.“I’ll be honest,” Watson said after signing for a 73. “Not that you want to know, but that was the best shot I’ve ever hit at Augusta National, that one right there.”

The adventure began when Watson missed his drive right at the tight par-4 18th hole. When he got to his ball, he found it was in a nest of leaves and sticks. He found a tiny gap high in the trees and was ready to aim for it when a gust of wind blew another leaf over the top of his ball. With a rules official looking on, he carefully removed the leaf so he could at least see the ball.

Then he swung as hard as he could. 

“It was a pitching wedge from 138 as high as I could hit it,” said Watson, who will go into the weekend at 2 over par and still with an outside chance. “And somehow it went a foot from the hole. They all said, ‘good shot,’ the guys I was playing with. I said, ‘where did it go?’”

Thinking he was destined to double-bogey the hole to finish 5 over par, which would have put him in danger of missing the cut, Watson tapped in for birdie and a 2 over total.

“Stop it,” ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt said on air. “That is outrageous.”

NOTABLES

JUSTIN THOMAS (67, 1 under) – After posting a deflating first-round 76, rallied with one of the best rounds of the day to get into red numbers and give himself an outside chance going into the weekend.

JON RAHM (72, 2 over) – He birdied the first two holes but gave those shots back and will go into the weekend at 2 over. Asked what he’s most encouraged by so far, he said, “That somehow I’m still not far from the lead because I haven’t played good at all.”

JORDAN SPIETH (76, 6 over) – Among the pre-tournament favorites, Spieth hit two balls in the water at the par-3 12th hole, which sunk his chances in 2016, and will miss the cut. 

RORY MCILROY (73, 2 over) – Still needs to win the Masters for the career Grand Slam, and went 2 under for his last seven holes to make the cut at 2 over.

CAMERON SMITH (74, 2 under) – After ending his first round with a double bogey the PLAYERS champ picked up where he left off with a front-nine 39. Steadied himself on the back, but suddenly finds himself six shots behind going into the weekend.

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU (80, 12 over) – Has missed significant time this season with hand and hip injuries, and never looked 100 percent healthy at this Masters.

BY THE NUMBERS

24 – Holes-in-one at the 16th hole, by far the most of any of the par-3s at Augusta National, after Stewart Cink made another with an 8-iron from 166 yards.

6 – Holes-in-one by Cink since the PGA TOUR began keeping track in 1983.

22 – Consecutive Masters cuts made by Tiger Woods (74), who bogeyed four of his first five holes but steadied himself the rest of the way.

23 – Consecutive Masters cuts made by Fred Couples and Gary Player, who share the record.

SUPERLATIVES

Longest average driving distance: Rory McIlroy (327.0)

Most fairways hit: Bernhard Langer (27/28)

Most greens hit: Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton (29/36)

Lowest average proximity: Cameron Smith (31’11’’)

Scrambling: Matthew Fitzpatrick (10/12)

Fewest putts: Justin Thomas, 52

Lowest score: 67, by Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas

Most birdies or better: 11, Scottie Scheffler

FIRST ROUND

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods playing the Masters again, his shirt as pink as the azaleas at Augusta National, would have been enough reason to celebrate Thursday.

It felt that way to him, too.

Woods twirled his club after good shots, and there were enough. He pumped his fist after his longest birdie putt. And then normalcy gave way to reality when he used his wedge as a walking stick for his once-battered and now weary legs for a final climb toward the 18th green.

Another par save for a 1-under 71, four shots behind Sungjae Im.

But this wasn’t just about a score. Woods was competing in a major, the first time in 508 days since a car crash some 14 month ago that shattered his right leg. That much was clear when asked if simply being able to play felt like a victory. His answer: “Yes.”

“If you would have seen how my leg looked to where it’s at now, the pictures — some of the guys know; they’ve seen the pictures — to see where I’ve been, to get from there to here, it was no easy task,” Woods said.

It doesn’t figure to get any easier the rest of the way.

Still to come is Friday, the first time he will have walked 18 holes at Augusta National on consecutive days since the accident with what he described as “lots of ice” in between.

Ahead of him are a collection of players who have won majors, who have won at Augusta, and who have spent the last year honing their games instead of figuring out how to get from a hospital bed to finding joy in the simple pleasure of walking.

Im, the 24-year-old South Korean known for rarely missing the center of the club face, ran off three straight birdies at the start, recovered from a pair of bogeys with a 12-foot eagle putt on the 13th and added a late birdie for a 5-under 67.

He was one shot ahead of Cameron Smith, playing for the first time since winning THE PLAYERS Championship a month ago. The Aussie with the mullet had the most dynamic round of the day with his eight birdies, all between a double bogey at the start and the finish.

“To be honest, those couple of double bogeys really didn’t have too bad a shot in them. It’s not like I was scratching it out of the trees,” Smith said. “Just misjudged the wind on both wedges. Just left myself in a bit of a tough spot. Other than that, it was just really solid.”

Im’s 67 was the highest score to lead after 18 holes at the Masters since 2014, and that was to be expected. Even with 2 inches of rain that softened the course, the front that cleared out the clouds brought enough wind to jangle the nerves at every turn.

Dustin Johnson, who held off Im and Smith when he won the Masters in November 2020, was 4 under through 10 holes and poised to present a daunting target with the scoring holes ahead of him. He had to settle for pars, dropped a shot late and was in the large group at 69.

Also at 69 were former Masters champion Danny Willett, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Joaquin Niemann, who holed out for eagle on No. 9 and still didn’t get the biggest roar of the round. He was playing with Woods, who heard them all day.

The crowd was so large that Woods could barely be seen over so many heads as he walked from the clubhouse to the putting green and then to the first tee, big cheers at each station, all the way down to Amen Corner until the end.

“Probably at the beginning I noticed that there was a lot of people, but then I was trying to talk to my caddie, and I couldn’t hear anything that he was saying,” Niemann said.

Overlooked in Woods playing again was the return of the spectators, and it was a beautiful and roaring marriage. There were pockets of cheers from around Augusta National, and endless cheers for Woods.

He missed that. They missed him. And he didn’t waste time giving them reason for hope by making a 10-foot par putt on the first hole.

“The place was electric,” Woods said. “I hadn’t played like this since ’19 when I won because in ’20 we had COVID and we had no one here, and I didn’t play last year. So to have the patrons fully out and to have that type of energy out there was awesome to feel.”

He couldn’t feel the same about his legs. He said they were sore, which he expected, but he could compete over five hours on soft turf and so many undulations.

He came within a few feet of an ace on the par-3 sixth. He made a 30-foot birdie on the par-3 16th, and his other on an approach that hugged the top of the green at the par-5 13th for a simple two-putt. His big regret was a pitch that came up woefully short on the par-5 eighth, followed by a chip that was too strong and a poor putt.

He dropped another shot from a 4-iron chip on the 14th that ran 8 feet by.

It wasn’t his best. But after going that long without serious competition, he had few complaints.

“I’m going to be sore, yes. That’s just the way it is,” he said. “And this is only one round. We’ve got three more to go. There’s a long way to go and a lot of shots to be played.”

But it was a start, and that felt like a win. And he was among 17 players from the 90-man field who broke par, and that was big.

“I was able to finish up in the red,” Woods said. “I’m right where I need to be.”

The thousands of spectators who stood a dozen deep in some spots, who filled every inch of grass around Amen Corner, couldn’t have agreed more.