AUGUSTA, Ga. -- It was never going to be easy for Sergio Garcia to make the 36-hole cut after he took 13 strokes on one hole during the first round, and the quest pretty much ended when he played the first nine holes of the second round in 38 strokes Friday at the Masters.
Garcia was then well on his way to missing the cut after dramatically winning the Masters a year ago in a playoff over Justin Rose.
A 78 following his first-round 81 left him 10 shots over the cut line, as he beat just two players, amateurs Matt Parziale and Harry Ellis.
"I'm disappointed I wasn't able to have a better defense of my title,'' Garcia said in an interview with Spanish media that was translated. "Unfortunately, this is golf sometimes, and that is what happens.''
Garcia, 38, was among 11 former Masters champions who missed the cut, which came at 149, 5 over par. There were 53 players who advanced to the weekend, which means that 34 players from the 87-man field did not qualify for the final 36 holes.
Among the others who did not make it were India's Shbhankar Sharma, who received a special international exemption after winning two European Tour events, Patton Kizzire, who has won twice this season on the PGA Tour, Ted Potter, who won earlier this year at Pebble Beach, and Sweden's Alex, who has three top-3 finishes this year on the PGA Tour.
Garcia became the 11th defending champion to miss the Masters cut since the practice began in 1957.
It is also the first time since 1996 and 1997, when Ben Crenshaw and Nick Faldo missed cuts in consecutive years as defending champions, that it has happened twice in a row. Last year, Danny Willett, who won in 2016, missed the cut.
During the first round, Garcia was just 2-over par for his round when he got to the par-5 15th and hit his second shot from 206 yards in the water. After a drop, Garcia proceeded to hit four more wedge shots in the water and recorded a 13.
