Couples finally misses a cut

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Fred Couples’ record-tying run of making the cut in 23 consecutive Masters ended Friday when he missed by one shot, as his eight-foot birdie putt stayed out of the hole at the 18th.

“It’s been a long time and it’s been fun,” he said.

A total of 45 players made the cut at three-over 145.

Couples, the 1992 champion, had made the cut in every Masters he played since his first appearance in 1983, but his rounds of 76-72 and total of 148 were one shot too many.

He wasn’t the only notable to miss the cut. Ernie Els had consecutive rounds of 74 and missed for the second year in a row. Sergio Garcia, Aaron Baddeley and Charles Howell III also are done for the weekend.

Rory Sabbatini, who tied for second last year, became the fourth straight winner of the par-three contest to miss the cut.

Gary Player, whose streak of 23 cuts in a row was tied by Couples last year, shot 78 and missed the cut by 14, but said he would come back for his 52nd Masters next year. He said if he had shot 80 or more, he would have called it quits.

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In his 35th Masters, Tom Watson knows he has had his share of success, winning in 1977 and 1981, but it’s been a bumpy ride lately.

Watson shot consecutive 75s and missed the cut for the 11th time in the last 13 years.

Watson, 58, came through with a two-under 34 on the back nine Friday, but it wasn’t enough to make up for a shaky front side that included a two-shot penalty on the third hole. Watson moved his ball marker to get out of the putting line, and when it was his turn to putt, he mistakenly putted from the new position.

Watson’s explanation?

“Well, I am getting old,” he said. “I’m losing strokes the easy way by doing stupid things.”

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The numbers for Raymond Floyd: 65 (years old); 44 (Masters), 10 (straight missed cuts). His second-round 74 couldn’t offset his opening 80, when he had two double bogeys and a triple bogey on the front side.

Said Floyd: “I got rid of some 7s.”

And about the first two days?

“It was a long walk.”

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The Boo Weekley file: Thursday, he said he thought Amen Corner was numbered incorrectly and Friday he said he had a plan and some thoughts about how to play Augusta National.

Question: “You’re just kind of figuring it out as you go?”

Weekley: “Figure it out as you go.”

Question: “What have you figured out so far?

Weekley: “These greens are fast.”

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The Masters hasn’t been that great a place for players from Europe since Jose Maria Olazabal won for the second time in 1999, but Ian Woosnam said it was all cyclical. Woosnam, who shot 71 and made the cut, offered some advice to players from the continent:

“Just try and keep control of their nerves.”

Players from Europe learned how to win the Masters from their peers, said Woosnam, 50, the 1991 Masters champion, and captain of Europe’s Ryder Cup team that won in 2006.

“It goes along with people,” he said. “You see people winning and you think, ‘Well, I can play as good as him’ and it drags you along as well.

“And maybe round the greens, you got to have that little bit more of imagination. Just hitting the balls into the green, you have to have really good control of your ball, distance-wise, and I think that the run of Europeans had [that].”

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Trevor Immelman’s 68-68 start puts him in rare company. Since the Masters started keeping records in 1942, it’s only been done twice, by Sam Byrd in 1942, and by Watson in 1991.

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Try asking Fred Ridley, the Masters committee chief in charge of the Augusta National setup, just how fast the greens are, and you’ll get no answer.

But there are some other numbers made available: fairways are mowed at three-eighths of an inch; the second cut, or rough, is cut at 1 3/8 inches, the tees are cut at five-sixteenths of an inch, the collars at one-quarter inch and the greens at one-eighth of an inch. Impress your friends at parties.

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com