This is not to say the first round of the Masters lacked for panache, but the tournament could have powered its leaderboard with a 10-watt portable generator.
The weekend finds that the scenery has changed and a host of the world’s top-ranked players are now fully engaged.
First-round leader Charley Hoffman is a nice guy you wouldn’t mind sitting next to nonstop to Fresno, but he isn’t exactly going to blow up PGA Tour.com anytime he gets into contention. The players chasing him Friday morning weren’t exactly a bunch of hellhounds either. The 10 players within six shots of the lead entering the second round shared between them seven major championships. And five of them belonged to 46-year-old Phil Mickelson.
Suddenly, it got very crowded up top. At 4 under, Hoffman shares the midway lead with Spaniard Sergio Garcia, Belgian Thomas Pieters and the multi-colored American Rickie Fowler.
And instead of just 10 players within a half-dozen shots of the lead as the first round ended, there are 17 of them now. The likes of Kevin Chappel and Andy Sullivan have been replaced by six of the top 12 ranked players in the world, making for a global leaderboard with international star power and 10 countries represented.
“I see some of my buddies up there, and I see some really, really good players that always play well,” said Fred Couples, just five shots back at age 57. “… So it’s out there. Someone is going to win Sunday.”
After two days of wind-blasted abuse, the field also sounds prepared to return some of the same treatment that Augusta National meted out as weekend forecasts call for calmer conditions and rising temperatures in the 70s.
“Mid-60s,” Rory McIlroy, when asked what score would put him in striking distance for Sunday. He stands at 1 over after a second-round 73. “The weather’s going to be better, the wind’s not going to be as strong. … So if I can put together a 67 or a 66 (Saturday), I feel like I’ll be right there for Sunday.”
Hoffman is still right there, too, holding on to a piece of the lead after adding 10 extra shots (75) to his opening 65. He wouldn’t make excuses for a swollen score — “Am I surprised that 4 under is leading? No, not really. I think 4 under is pretty darned good” — but he also acknowledged that leading the Masters halfway through is only half a trick.
“Obviously, I know that you couldn’t win the golf tournament (Friday),” he said. “You could pretty much only lose it.”
Bunched two shots back were Justin Rose (world-ranked No. 14) and North Carolinian William McGirt, a Masters rookie who held second place after the first round.
Three shots behind were Ryan Moore, rising Spanish star John Rahm (No. 12), Couples and Mickelson, who shot 73, but came a couple of putts shy of a terrific round. Adam Scott (No. 7), who started the day 10 back, shot 69 to pull to within even par, four shots behind. McIlroy (No. 2), Matt Kuchar, Soren Kjeldsen and Jordan Spieth all stand five shots back.
Sounds like a tournament.
Though the Masters historically favors the experienced — Couples has had five top-20 finishes here since he turned 50 — a few first-timers bear watching. McGirt, who played earlier in the day, has some trouble understanding all the fuss about the wind.
“I know some guys have only been down here when it’s calm, and they don’t know what to expect,” he said. “But this is what I played under in practice. I don’t know what to do when it’s calm out here. I have never played it calm.”
Rahm, 22, shot 70, despite a double-bogey on 10, and cut an eight-shot deficit down to three. And he doesn’t want to hear about the shaky history shared by Masters first-timers.
“First-timers don’t usually have a great history at Torrey Pines either, and I was able to win that,” he said, citing his first PGA Tour in the Farmers Insurance Open. “I kept that in mind. There’s nothing that says I’m going to play bad or that I should play bad.”
Fowler’s 67 claimed low round for the day, his only blemish a bogey 6 on No. 15, when he flew the green with his second shot and wound up in the pond behind it. But he has carded nine birdies and an eagle in two wind-swept rounds. He has to win a major eventually, right?
“My tendency is to kind of speed up and go a little too quickly,” Fowler said. “So the more I can slow down thoughts, my walking, and make sure that I kind of think through everything and not get too quick out there, that’s one of my keys.”
All the forces assembled below him, Hoffman paused to savor the moment, if only briefly.
“I’ve contended in a couple majors and obviously, being in position going into Saturday here at the Masters is going to be special,” Hoffman said. “I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself, but I’d be lying to say it’s not a great feeling and a great spot to be.”
It is, with a lot more company now, too.
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