All honor to Patrick Reed, who wrung 9 birdies out of the firm and super slick greens of Augusta National. Coupled with 3 bogeys, those birds gave him a day’s best score of 66 and a 2 shot lead at 9 under par going into moving day.
Kudos,as well, to affable Aussie Mark Leishman who will play with Reed in the final pairing. Two strokes back at 7 under, after a 5 under 67, with only 1 dropped shot on his card.
The shot of the day (and shot of the tournament, so far) came from Leishman on his approach to #15 green. After a pulled tee ball, Leishman’s path to the green was blocked by trees on the left side of the fairway. Most players, even those sitting pretty in the middle of the fairway, hit approach shots to the right side of the green which is deeper with more margin for error. Not Leishman, who channeled Arnie, and hooked an iron to the narrow slip of the left side of the green. Courage was justly rewarded as his ball settled 6 feet away from the cup and he proceeded to finish it off with the eagle putt!
Jordan Spieth was extremely generous to the rest of the field today, as he opened with double bogey, bogey, coughing up his first day’s lead right out of the box. He never led again after that tough opening hole. A first nine 40 was somewhat redeemed by his second nine 34 and he’s certainly in the mix, sitting joint 4th.
Philly Mick looked like he was on furlough from the old folks home on Friday, carding a 79, his highest score ever in a major. He was all over the lot again today, chopping lots of wood and sweeping plenty of pine needles . I heard that a Silver Alert was broadcast by the local police but that’s likely just in kind rumor.
The other old timer and sentimental favorite, Tiger Woods, gutted out a 75 to make the cut on the number. But at 14 strokes behind the leader and a scrappy game in tow,his full fledged redemption will have to wait for another day.
Eight of the top ten on the leaderboard after 36 holes are major championship winners. A truly great course demands the best players rise to the challenge, and they have, with Reed and Leishman also proving their mettle , at least for now.
Let’s skewer Phil some more. His driving has been suspect all week and his putter stopped performing like some Hogwart’s magic wand. But his short game was surprisingly sub-par. After rinsing his tee ball on #12 his pitch from the right side of Rae’s creek went all the way to the back of the green and a double. His debacle at #9 wasn’t helped with an anemic chip from the right side of the green , one of the seven shots needed in that triple bogey. And, finally , his Philly Flop approach from back right of #11 green was truly a flop- coming up well short of the green. I’m wondering if Phil is pissed that he didn’t shoot 80 and missed the cut?
Rory Mc put himself in fine position for the weekend with an up and down round of 1 under 71. He’s got a comfortable pairing with Henrik Stenson in the next to last group and I’m sure he doesn’t mind that rain is predicted. Rory eats wet Championship golf courses for lunch. I remember him lapping the field at Congressional in 1997 in swampy conditions, winning by 8 shots and setting the U.S. Open scoring record at 268. The MASTERS tailor should start work on his green jacket.
