Masters Tournament 2025: A Thrilling Battle for the Green Jacket

The 2025 Masters Tournament has delivered the goods after two rounds at Augusta National. The leaderboard is stacked with 14 of the top 25 players in the world within six shots of the lead. Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, the two betting favorites, are just three and two shots back, respectively. Justin Rose continues atop the tournament, but finishing the job will not be easy. Some of the sport's best are chasing him. Augusta National has held up incredibly well, retaining its firmness and giving players plenty to think about as they chart their way around the course. The course should continue to get firmer and play faster come the weekend, and a warm Sunday forecast should set up a fantastic finish. There are a couple of former Masters champions, Hideki Matsuyama (2021) and Patrick Reed (2018), lurking just outside the top 10 at 3 under. They both know what it takes to get it done on the weekend at Augusta National, and I wouldn't be surprised if either one of them makes a charge over the final 36 holes. There are a lot of guys tied for 12th place at 3-under who are intriguing, but I'm going to go a bit further down and zero in on two-time major champion Xander Schauffele, who is tied for 17th after shooting 3-under Friday and sitting just six shots back of Rose. Schauffele is not in midseason form after missing a handful of early-season tournaments with a rib injury, but his game is clearly still there. The 2024 Open and PGA champion gained nearly four strokes on the field with his approach play Friday and is fifth in the field in strokes gained: approach, per DataGolf. I'll go with Hovland, who is tied for ninth at 4 under. I have no doubt that Hovland is one of the most talented golfers in the world. He is a seven-time winner on the PGA Tour and captured the 2023 FedEx Cup. Even though Hovland won the Valspar Championship on March 23, his first victory since going back-to-back at the 2023 BMW Championship and Tour Championship, his game has been a mess. The Norwegian golfer is constantly searching for perfection and goes through swing coaches like patrons go through pimento cheese sandwiches at Augusta National. Before capturing the Valspar Championship, he had missed three straight cuts at the Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players. He still seemed lost in golf's wilderness. He's obviously in a much better place now heading into the weekend. It has to be Matt McCarty. No, not Denny McCarthy -- that's McCarty, no "h" in the name. The winner of the 2024 Black Desert Championship is a Korn Ferry alum who won three times in one season to earn his PGA Tour card. After winning in Utah last October, he earned his way into this year's Masters and now finds himself tied for sixth heading into the third round. McCarty is probably a name you haven't heard much of, but he is making a name for himself this week. Though the Official World Golf Rankings have him at No. 52, DataGolf says McCarty is more like the 112th-best player in the world. In his debut at Augusta National, McCarty birdied his first two holes Thursday and carded 1 under, an impressive round for a first-timer. His encore was even better. McCarty started Friday with a double bogey and a bogey but then proceeded to shoot 8-under over his next 15 holes, including four straight birdies. He finished at 5 under, just three shots behind the leader.