World No.51 suffers devastating Masters blow at | Sports News

The Houston Open represents one of simply two remaining alternatives to secure a Masters invitation by a PGA Tour victory, and Pierceson Coody has relinquished his golden alternative.

Starting the week at No. 51 within the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), Coody sat exactly one place outdoors the highest 50 threshold needed to earn an computerized invitation to Augusta National. His withdrawal previous to the second spherical nearly eliminates his risk of transferring into the highest 50 through the rankings this week.

Coody required a strong efficiency in Houston to vault into the highest 50. With his departure, the 26-year-old should hope for an unlikely sequence of outcomes from different opponents to stop sliding additional within the standings. This development comes as Brooks Koepka’s Masters declare blew up in his face in Houston.

Coody can be the grandson of former inexperienced jacket champion Charles Coody, who captured the Masters title in 1971. Coody hasn’t been the only participant to withdraw, as Aaron Rai departed with a neck damage, whereas world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler eliminated his identify from the checklist as his spouse Meredith is anticipating one other little one quickly.

Coody withdrew on account of a back damage, having been scheduled to play alongside a number of notable figures, together with PGA Tour returnee Koepka, who’s making his eleventh Masters look in 2026.

“I do feel like it is ready,” stated Koepka, referring to his recreation. “The only thing is I really haven’t put myself in contention with nine holes to go. That’s really the last missing piece that I feel like I need to accomplish here before Augusta. But the game feels good. Everything’s trending in a nice direction.

“Ball-striking feels actually, actually good. Pete’s executed a phenomenal job simply getting every little thing the place it must be.

“The putting was a huge thing. I feel like it’s been so different because I was putting so terribly, I felt like I had to birdie the hole almost from the fairway or from the tee box, where now I can sit back and kind of play golf how I used to play in ’17, ’19, kind of in that run when I was playing very good where I can be very patient and just kind of wait my time.

“I do know I’m going to have 5 good probabilities on no matter gap it is likely to be after which simply take benefit from there. I used to only form of — it felt very boring, simply hit the middle of the greens and sometimes you push and pull one form of proper on the flag. I all the time suppose – I stated it was like conservatively aggressive.

“I picked the right line, the right spot to make sure that I was never going to make double. I made a few doubles over the last few weeks, which has been kind of irritating. My game is rounding into form. I can see it. I don’t know if maybe results-wise, it probably hasn’t looked that way, but I can see it as a whole, it’s really all starting to come together.”