by Corona Man » Sat Apr 09, 2016 10:41 am
Well what an intriguing second day of play at Augusta, the wind kept blowing, and the scores went up. Only a handful of guys under par on the day.
Overnight leader Jordan Spieth held onto his lead, but by a greatly reduced margin. Sitting at 4 under through 36 holes, he leads by 1 shot from Irishman Rory Mcilroy. Spieth seemed to loose concentration mid round, when told he and his playing partners were "on the clock". Watching the coverage it looked like he was about to do his lolly! Spieth regained his composure to close out his round in solid fashion.
Meanwhile Rory at -3 has "roared" into contention, and of the leading pack seems to be the only player handling the back 9 with any confidence.
Sitting just one shot back are kiwi Danny Lee, who I know nothing about at all, and American Scot Piercy.... I know even less about this bloke!
From an Australian perspective - Jason Day at +1 is our best placed player. Day is killing the front 9, he is a combined -7 for this side of the course. By contrast he is butchering the back 9, where he is a combined +8. Cameron Smith is hanging tough at +2, recording a 1 over 73 today. Good to see Adam Scott make the cut at +4, hopefully his closing birdie gives him some confidence, going into the weekend.
Reigning US amateur champion Bryson Dechambeau is an interesting cat.....going by the commentary he has nothing shorter in his irons than a standard 6 iron shaft. Weird. Anyway he stands up tall on the "short" irons.... whatever you don't have to draw pictures as they say. Had a nice round going until a triple bogey at the 18th saw him fall back to even par.
Tom Watson, playing his last competitive round at Augusta was given a stirring farewell by the patrons around the course and on the 18th green, where Watson very nearly made a snaking birdie putt. One thing about the yanks.... they respect and honour their champions.
The cut was made at +5 - notables to miss the weekend action include - Mickelson, Schwartzel, Zac Johnson, Rickie Fowler, and Els.
Looking forward to the third round, the traditional - moving day. On what we witnessed today the moving, may well be in reverse!
1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2015.... And don't you forget it!