The Masters: Top five storylines to watch this weekend at Augusta National

The weather at Augusta National through the first two rounds was absolutely immaculate. It was almost as though the green jackets were able to control Mother Nature. Of course, that’s quite literally the one thing at their tournament they can’t control – yet.

Rain is already falling at Augusta on Saturday, and will continue to do so for most of the afternoon. What will that do to scoring? I expect that we won’t keep seeing rounds of 66 or 67, but something in the 69 or 70 range will be very good.

The reason is actually thanks to one thing that Augusta National does, in fact, control. The club famously has a “SubAir” system installed under all 18 greens. It’s been described as essentially a Shop Vac on steroids, giving the club the ability to dry out the greens quickly, even as rain continues to fall. Soft fairways will give players longer shots on approach, but if the greens are still icy fast, as they always are, things could get very interesting.

The final groups aren’t scheduled to tee off until 2:30 PM Eastern, so if the rain subsides by then, we may see some low numbers from the leaders. If not? We could be in store for an even more crowded leaderboard come Sunday’s final round.