AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tom Watson thumped his hands against his chest. He was thanking the thousands of fans who lined up 10 and 15 deep, craned their necks and stretched onto their tiptoes to watch one of history’s best play the 18th green at Augusta one last time.

Watson has known for a while that this scene – and the tears that accompanied it – would be coming. He thought he might stave it off for two more days.

But the two-time Masters champion shot a 6-over 78 on Friday that left him two shots off his goal this week – to become, at 66, the oldest player to make the cut in tournament history.

Not a tragedy, Watson insisted.

“I’m a realist,” he said. “If I could still play this golf course, I wouldn’t be retiring.”

He’s not done with competitive golf but did say he’s all but finished teeing it up against “the young guys.”

To him, that gave Friday’s windy walk through the pines an even greater sense of finality than his last British Open at St. Andrews last year, and his final U.S. Open, in 2010 at Pebble Beach.

“I’ve made the decision that the kids hit the ball too hard,” Watson said. “This course really shows the difference.”

JORDAN SPIETH was frustrated when Masters officials put his group on the clock ahead of the toughest stretch at Augusta National.

Spieth, Paul Casey and Bryson DeChambeau were told on the 11th hole – the toughest in the second round – that they were being timed for being out of position. Spieth hit his approach 75 feet from the hole and was heard saying to his caddie, “I’m being … timed. I want to take my time, wait out the gusts.”

He two-putted for par, escaped with a par from a bunker short of the 12th green and the group was in position soon after.

ANGEL CABRERA, who won in 2009 and lost in a playoff in 2013, is at 2 over heading into the weekend.

On consecutive days at the par-5 15th, he made a quadruple-bogey 9 and a double-bogey 7.

Had the Argentine made pars both days, the six saved strokes would have left him tied with Jordan Spieth for the lead.

PHIL MICKELSON, who shot a second-round 79 and missed the cut: “The guys that played well got rewarded and the guys who did dumb stuff like I did shot a big number.”