AUGUSTA, Ga. — The only force more powerful at Augusta National on Friday than Brooks Koepka was the violent weather cell that halted second-round play and uprooted a few large pine trees that nearly landed on spectators.

Fortunately, no one was hurt … other than the players Koepka left in his wake, which is most of the field.

Koepka, the beneficiary of the better half of the draw, having played Thursday afternoon and Friday morning before the dangerous weather rolled in, shot a 5-under 67 on Friday.

Combined with his 7-under 65 on Thursday, he was at 12-under and had a three-shot lead over Jon Rahm, who still had nine holes to play in his second round, which is scheduled to resume Saturday morning.

The weather forecast for Saturday, however, is grim, with more than an inch of rain expected and not a lot of windows without precipitation until Sunday.

Masters officials were hoping to at least complete the second round Saturday so they can make the 36-hole cut and try to play 36 holes on Sunday to avoid a dreaded Monday finish.

There’s one group on the ninth hole, so essentially the tournament will try to get those nine holes completed in between raindrops.

There was a scary incident Friday afternoon when, with players and spectators still on the course, a couple of large pine trees fell down across the 17th tee and into a small sparsely wooded area to the right of the 16th green.

Larry Mize, Min Woo Lee and Harrison Crowe were on the 16th green when the tree fell and fans scattered to avoid being hit.

“It was pretty wild,’’ said Saheeth Theegala, whose group with Patrick Reed and Adam Svensson was on the 15th hole when the trees fell. “We thought it was like a scoreboard or a grandstand and we were just hoping it wasn’t anything that would hit anybody. The winds were really swirling.’’

Crowe said, “We heard it … we watched the whole thing. It just started crackling and then it came down. It was scary.”

Augusta National issued a statement Friday night, stating that no one was hurt.

As for Koepka, this Masters is a far cry from a year ago, when he was dealing with a knee injury, missed the cut and he revealed that he was so furious afterward that he tried to smash a window in his car in the Augusta National parking lot.

“I don’t even know if I should be saying this, but … I tried to break the back window with my fist, I tried to put it through the back window, not once but twice,’’ he said. “It was a lot of frustration last year. But … I’ve come a long way since then.’’

Asked what he has seen of Koepka in the first two rounds, when they were paired together, Gary Woodland said, “Everything.’’

“It was a clinic for 36 holes,’’ Woodland said. “We were in the final pairing at Bellerive on Saturday [at the 2018 PGA Championship] and it was the same thing. Just in control of his game.’’

Woodland, who’s friends with Koepka, recalled how “beautifully’’ Koepka was playing during that stretch, when he won four major championships.

“It seemed like, if he was not winning, he was in the top five of every major there for a couple of years,’’ Woodland said. “He’s definitely back in that form right now.’’

Koepka is one of the 18 players from LIV Golf who started in the field this week, so PGA Tour members such as Woodland haven’t played alongside him in a while.

Despite the fact that Koepka won his first LIV event last week in Florida, there was speculation entering this week that the LIV players might not be as sharp at this Masters due to lesser competition in smaller fields.

“I think if you look at the history of Brooks, he’s always lived for these moments,’’ Woodland said. “He’s very similar to Tiger [Woods] in that standpoint, that the other tournaments never seem to bring out the best in him, where the majors did, and it was no different here this week.’’

Phil Mickelson, also a LIV Golf player, said he has seen this coming from Koepka.

“He’s been playing well,” Mickelson said. “He won last week. He’s had some momentum. You knew he was going to have a good week.’’

But Mickelson insisted that chasing down Koepka wasn’t impossible with 36 holes to play.

“We see a lot of low scores and then we see a lot of guys fall back, which you just never know,’’ Mickelson said. “I wouldn’t expect that of him, he’s playing so well, but I also think there’s a low round in there from other players. Guys can catch him if they get hot. A lot of crazy things happen here.’’

They already have. And the tournament isn’t even halfway finished yet.