AUGUSTA, Ga. — Bryson DeChambeau had turned in one of the day’s best performances, outdriving the next longest driver by an average of 15 full yards and needing only 24 putts to get through his opening round of the Masters. So what did he do? DeChambeau reported right to the driving range Thursday evening for some post-round practice.

He kept swinging, shot after shot, until he was the last golfer remaining. Soon it was dark, past 8 p.m. All of the fans and most of the workers had left for the day, but DeChambeau continued blasting balls into the Georgia night.

He was certain he had a better round in him, and DeChambeau reported to work for the second round Friday eager to prove it. The 31-year old reigning U.S. Open champion made a charge up the leader board, carding five birdies and posting a 68. He entered the clubhouse at 7 under par, a shot off the lead and helping set the stage for what promises to be a memorable weekend, with several of the game’s heavyweights in contention.

Though there were still some golfers on the course battling the afternoon gusts, including Scottie Scheffler, Justin Rose was the clubhouse leader after shooting a second-round 71, putting him at 8 under par after 36 holes. If the lead holds, it’d mark the third time that Rose, a two-time runner-up here, has had at least a share of the lead midway through the Masters.

After Rory McIlroy’s disappointing finish on Thursday — two double bogeys in the final four holes for an even-par round — the North Irishman provided some fireworks on Friday, a bogey-free round that included a spectacular eagle on No. 13. He turned in the lowest round among the day’s early tee times, a 6-under 66 that left him at 6 under and two shots behind Rose heading into the weekend.

The cutline, as of Friday afternoon, was projected to be around 3 over par, leaving several accomplished golfers sweating, including Brooks Koepka (5 over), Adam Scott (5 over), Sergio Garcia (4 over), Dustin Johnson (3 over), Patrick Cantlay (2 over) and Jon Rahm (2 over).

DeChambeau is assured of playing the weekend, though he’s never been viewed as a perfect fit for an Augusta National course that demands precision, patience and discipline. In his first five trips here, he finished no better than 21st — and that came when he was the low-amateur at age 22.

“I think as an amateur, I felt like I knew the golf course pretty well, but I didn’t know how to control a lot of the nerves that flowed through my body,” he said, “and that was something that I still work on today.”

DeChambeau missed the cut in 2022 and 2023, and at one point went six straight rounds scoring no better than 74. But last year he was the first-round leader after posting a 65, and though he failed to break par in the three ensuing rounds, DeChambeau showed himself and the golf world that he knew his way around the course.

“Each year I learn a little bit more about winds and how it affects the golf ball on a certain hole or a certain slope around a pin location,” DeChambeau said earlier this week, “just little things that continue to improve my knowledge around the golf course.”

His opening-round 69 on Thursday meant he’d begin the second round tied for fifth. But he didn’t stay there very long, posting birdies on three of the first five holes, including chipping in from the bunker on the par-3 fourth hole. Perhaps most impressive was his birdie on the fifth hole, which is playing harder than any other hole thus far and has seen only eight birdies compared with 57 bogeys midway through Friday’s round.

Over the years, DeChambeau has approached the game as both a muscle-bound brute and a calculating mad scientist. The current iteration of DeChambeau is a bit of both, an overzealous student determined to master the maddening game.

On the first day of this Masters, DeChambeau hit 210 balls at the range, according to tournament statistics. No one else hit more than 164 and most hit well below 100. Rose, the first-round leader, hit only 30 on Thursday, in fact.

But for DeChambeau, the entire tournament is a process, and he’s constantly fine-tuning — his equipment and his game. On the range, a member of his team carries more than a dozen driver heads in a backpack. Surely, one of those will work, he figures, and DeChambeau will keep swinging until he finds the right one.

“For speeds of my caliber, it has to be super precise,” he said. “So I’m testing different heads to see how it reacts, how I feel, how it feels in my hands.”

The extra work has paid off thus far for the LIV golfer. He was tied for first after the second round last year, but then shot 4 over par on the final 36 holes, ending the tournament tied for sixth. If there’s one thing that is certain, DeChambeau has spent the past 12 months working to improve on that — ball after ball after ball, with visions of a green jacket fueling him.

“A lifelong dream come true,” he said. “Something I dreamt about as a kid.”