Masters 36 Hole Recap and Weekend Preview
By Ryan Andrade
You couldn’t script the Masters any better through 36 holes as Jordan Spieth holds a one shot lead on Rory McIlroy
Masters Moving Day is going to be a golf fan’s dream! It looked like Jordan Spieth was going to run away and hide for the second consecutive year at Augusta National. At one point in his round he lead the field by five shots. But the leaderboard convulsed today. At the conclusion of his round Spieth holds a slim one shot lead over Rory McIlroy, who is looking to complete the career grand slam.
After a bogey free 66 in round one, Spieth was off and running early again in round two. He birdied the very difficult opening hole to take really take the lead and send a message to the rest of the field. After a beautifully controlled wedge on the short par-4 3rd hole, Spieth moved to 8-under-par and a five shot lead.
Things began to turn in Spieth’s round when he made a critical error on the 5th hole. After a beautiful drive he came up short on his approach. He had to deal with an extremely steep ridge to get up to the hole. He made things worse for himself by 4-putting the hole and carding a double bogey 6 on the hole. Had he just taken another club to take the ridge out of play, you wonder what his score would be at now.
Spieth would card only two more birdies after his double bogey, to 4 other bogeys. The conditions we’re extremely difficult out there and you just had to hold on the best you could. Unnerving the emotional Spieth even more was the fact he was put on the clock at “Amen Corner.” Swirling winds and having to rush do not mix. You could visibly see his discomfort over some of his shots.
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Spieth was just out of position on a number of holes down the stretch and that put too much pressure on his putter to save pars. Even the best putter in the world can’t make every 10 footer for par. Add in the fact that the greens started to get “crusty” as Spieth said after his round, and that just made those mid range par putts even more difficult.
Joining Spieth in the final group tomorrow is Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy. He appeared out of it as he was eight back of Jordan Spieth at one point. However, McIlroy just stuck with it and played his last 6 holes in 3-under-par. Most impressive, however, was Rory’s incredible par save on 18 after his drive found the trees on the right.
With Spieth coming back to the field, it brought everyone who looked out of it when Spieth was off to that hot start, back into play. Danny Lee and Scott Piercy make up the group two shots back of Spieth. The number one player in the world, Jason Day, is now only 5 shots back. You’d be crazy to count a player of Day’s caliber out.
As a viewer, this is exactly what we all hoped for. A weekend final pairing at the Masters between the two biggest names in the game, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy. Making things more interesting will be tomorrow’s conditions. The wind is supposed to be even stronger on Saturday. It’s hard to picture Augusta National playing more difficult than it did today, but it appears that just might be the case. Throw in the fact that the greens will be even drier and this is starting to look like a U.S. Open.
I would look for the lead to be at 2-under-par tomorrow. I would also look for Jordan Spieth to have the lead for a 7th consecutive round at Augusta. I believe Spieth learned a lot today after having to battle around with less than his best stuff and in extremely difficult conditions.
Next: Masters Debutantes Who Made the Cut
It’s the Masters. The final pairing is Spieth and McIlroy. It doesn’t get better than this.