Brooks Koepka of the United States acknowledges patrons after he putts on the No. 18 green during the second round of the 2023 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club, Friday, April 7, 2023.

West of Ireland-style conditions didn't help Shane Lowry and Seamus Power as they fell off the pace and Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka battled to turn the Masters into a two-horse race at a cold and soggy Augusta National.

The Irish pair saw their hopes of making a move extinguished by incessant rain in the third round with Lowry two-over for nine holes and 11 strokes behind Brooks Koepka in joint 17th on two-under as Power turned in one-over to fall 15 shots behind the Floridian on two-over when play was suspended.

Already playing catch up after Friday's weather-delayed second round, Masters officials called it a day at 3:15 pm local time as the course became water-logged.

Two strokes clear of Rahm through 36 holes, Koepka was four strokes ahead of the big Basque on 13-under-par when the hooter sounded as they squelched around the seventh green.

They will return to a true matchplay style situation at 8:30 am this morning with Koepka facing an 11-footer for par and Rahm a nine-footer for birdie.

With US Amateur champion Sam Bennett (23) the next best on the leaderboard, alone in third on six-under, there's a chance the two pacesetters could separate themselves further given the difficulty of the course.

Patrick Cantlay, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland were tied for fourth on five-under and they will be hoping fairer conditions and soft greens will give them a chance to make a charge and close the gap.

"Yeah, it's obviously super difficult," said Koepka, who birdied the second and ground out another five pars before a wayward tee shot at the seventh left him struggling for his par. "Ball's not going anywhere. You've got rain to deal with, and it's freezing cold. It doesn't make it easy.

"You've got to make some pressure putts. You know it was going to be a difficult day. You've just got to grind through it and try to salvage something.

"I'm not too concerned about playing 29 holes or however many holes we've got left. It's part of the deal. I'm pretty sure I'll be up for it considering it is the Masters."

Koepka was warm and dry at 8 am when Rahm and another 38 players returned to the course to finish their second rounds.

But with the temperature plummeting from 28c to 8c overnight, they found Augusta National transformed into a soft and demanding beast and when the second round finally concluded at lunchtime, Koepka was two strokes clear of Rahm on 12-under par.

The Spaniard was thrilled to play his remaining nine holes in one-under par and sign for a second-round 69. But he was struggling to keep the four-time Major winner in his sights in the afternoon.

While he matched Koepka's birdie four at the second, he had to make a miraculous up and down to save bogey at the par-three fourth, then three-putted the fifth from almost 90 feet to fall four shots behind.

Despite all that, the two-time Irish Open champion was pleased to par the sixth and give himself a birdie chance at the seventh when play was called for the day.

He'd already experienced the conditions in the morning and knew he faced a tough task in the afternoon.
While he was disappointed to bogey the fourth and fifth, he knows there's still a long way to go and he's up for the fight.

"You know, just too bad I couldn't save at least one par on four or five," Rahm said. "So very happy with the way I finished. I made a great swing on six and great two swings on 7. So feeling confident, playing good golf and there's a lot to be played."

After chiselling out a level par 72 in the second round to go into the afternoon tied for 10th, eight shots adrift of Koepka, Lowry felt he had a chance,

"I'm pretty happy the way I'm playing, and I think if my putter warms up over the weekend, I could be dangerous," he said after his second round.

Sadly for the Clara man, the short stick proved uncooperative and after watching his approach to the first fail to clamber up the false front, he looked disgusted when his four-foot par putt horseshoed out.

Augusta National is a dangerous beast if you are forced to chase and Lowry abandoned his game plan at the par-five second, electing to hit driver rather than three wood before turning away in disgust as it flew right into the deep fairway bunker.

An indifferent third led to a mere par-five and while he would roll in a 20-footer for birdie at the third, he bogeyed the fourth after a pulled tee shots, then dropped another shot at the ninth after spinning off the false front and chipping 10 feet past.

It was an equally frustrating afternoon for Power, who also posted a 72 in the morning as he got up and down for par at the 13th, then birdied the 14th before dropping a shot at the last.

With 54 players making the cut on three-over, officials sent the field off two tees in three-balls with Power off on the back nine with 1992 champion Fred Couples (63), the oldest man ever to make the cut, and Canadian Mackenzie Hughes.

He parred his first four holes but bogeyed the 14th after tugging his approach left of the green.

While he would get that shot back with a birdie at the 15th, where he hit a superb third to eight feet, he would find sand and miss an eight-footer for par at the 16th, then scramble for par at the 17th before play was suspended as he sized up his approach to the 10th.

Now a Las Vegas resident, Power envied the better spring weather the field enjoyed at the West of Ireland Championship in Rosses Point yesterday.

"When we play in these conditions back home, you can run them in and you can keep it down and do all that stuff," he said of the 18th, where he had to hit a four-iron approach compared to a short-iron the day before.

"But you're standing on 18th fairway today and it's not designed for the conditions that you have.
"It's difficult because you have to hit a good long iron that's going to fly into the middle of the green, basically. Even like Rosses Point this weekend, you could run something in, and it'll get there, but here it's different."