Brendan Steele carded two birdies Friday against three bogeys for a 1-over-par round that lifted him into a tie for 19th place at the Masters in Augusta, Georgia. He’ll play in the Masters on the weekend for the first time in his career.

The native Idyllwilder currently is at 3 over par, seven shots off the lead.

Brendan had a rather remarkable second round. From the limited stats available from the Masters, it appears that his drives found 71 percent of the fairways, but that he hit only 55 percent of the greens in regulation, and two of his bogeys came on missed putts of 5 and 6 feet. However, he made putts of 10, 12, 12, 14 and 21 feet to save five pars, and he drained shots of 9 feet and 33 feet for his two birdies, the latter being a chip or putt from off the surface of the 18th green.

Brendan tees off in tomorrow’s Saturday third round at 9:50 a.m. PDT. He’ll be playing with Russell Henley.

Jack Clark can be reached at jack@towncrier.com.