Hope he sent a wedding present

The Dredge report: It’s safe to say Bradley Dredge, 33, of Wales is just happy to be here. He earned his Masters invitation by finishing No. 50 in the world golf rankings for the calendar year ending Dec. 31.

Dredge edged Justin Rose out at No. 50 by the margin of 0.01. Rose ended up qualifying anyway by being in the top 50 on the current ratings list.

Had Rose not taken some time off last winter when he got married, he might have earned enough ranking points to bounce Dredge out of the Masters.

Dredge got in, though, and then made the cut after rounds of 75-70. His four-over 76 on Saturday left him only three shots out of the lead.

Dredge said he was in Spain when he got word he had made the tournament.

And what did he do with his Masters invitation?

“It is in the house and when I get back it will go in a frame on top of the television,” Dredge said.

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It never hurts to have friends in the broadcast booth. Former Masters champion Fred Couples and CBS announcer Jim Nance were teammates on the University of Houston golf team in the 1970s.

Couples, the 1992 Masters champion, made Friday’s cut on the number, tying Gary Player for most consecutive cuts made at 23. Quite an accomplishment, although Couples said Nance made too big a deal out of it.

“He can make anything sound good,” said Couples, who shot six-over 78 on Saturday. “He made the cut sound like winning a gold medal at the 1980 Olympics,” a reference to the U.S. hockey team’s surprising triumph.

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Rich Beem, who beat Tiger Woods to win the 2002 PGA Championship at Hazeltine in Minnesota, is not going to beat him here. Beem followed his opening round of 71 with rounds of 81 and 75.

Based on what he has seen, Beem thinks over par will win the tournament.

“It was like trying to land a golf ball on your driveway,” Beem said, “but your driveway has mounds on them and they stick the pin near the mounds. Sometimes you just have to giggle about it.”

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Will Stuart Appleby be the first? Australians have produced champions in all of the four majors except the Masters.

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For the last 16 years, the Masters champion has come out of the last twosome.

Nick Faldo is the last player who bucked the trend in 1990. He started in the next-to-last group, behind Raymond Floyd and John Huston, came from four shots down with six to play to catch Floyd and beat him on the second hole of a playoff.

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Lee Westwood, asked if the cold was an advantage for European players: “You kidding? I’m frozen.”

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Thomas Bonk contributed to this report.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com