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5 Quick Observations From Day 2 At The Masters

Patrick Reed 2018 Masters Augusta National

Round two is in the books at the 2018 Masters and the weekend it’s shaping up to be a dandy. The leaderboard is stacked with the best players in the world, but with rain and wind are expected for Saturday, things are about to get interesting,

Here are 5 observations from Friday’s second round.

Leaderboard: Patrick Reed (-9), Marc Leishman (-7), Henrik Stenson (-5), Jordan Spieth (-4), Rory McIlroy (-4), Justin Thomas (-3), Dustin Johnson (-3)

1. Patrick Reed was en fuego

Reed carded NINE birdies to grab a 2-shot lead heading into the weekend. He started and ended the first nine with 3 straight birds, with his only blemish being a bogey on 4, to go out in 31 (-5).

After a bogey on 10, Reed ran off 3 more birdies to get it to -10. But he dropped a shot with a 3-putt on the par-3 16th. A couple more pars and it was good enough for a 66 (-6) on a tough day when many struggled.

So far, he’s birdied 14 of 36 holes (a clip of nearly 40%). Plus he’s birdied all 8 par-5s he’s faced which is what you need to do if you want to win at Augusta National.

Reed has also brought out the helicopter-cut follow through on multiple occasions. It may look insane, but it’s been effective.

2. Tiger is playing the weekend in a major

Let it be known that Tiger Woods made the cut in a major for the first time since 2015, which also was at the Masters. If you said 6-months ago that Tiger would be playing the weekend at Augusta this year, we would’ve said you’re crazy.

Granted, he’s 13 shots back and looked as if the wheels were going to fall off, he grinded to a 3-over 75 leaving him +4 for the tournament and just inside the cutline.

The man had spinal fusion surgery less than a year ago. We should consider ourselves blessed.

3. Phil is exhausting to watch

Phil Mickelson was one or two shots off the lead after he played his 3rd hole. By the end of the day, he was 14 back. Classic Lefty.

While he said he was “fractionally” off, he held it together well enough to be a couple under until the ninth hole where he made triple which dropped him back to +1. He got one back on 10 with a birdie, then bogeyed 11, doubled 12 and added 2 more bogeys on 16 and 18 en route to a 79 … his second 79 since round 2 2016.

From an optimistic point of view, he did make the cut on the number (+5) and will play the weekend. However, we’re not sure he likes his chances. But you never know. It is Phil.

4. This leaderboard is silly

The top 7 are all in the top-25 in the world. Augusta National never lets us down.

2018 Masters Leaderboard Round 2

4. Featured Group Coverage in the morning was … ?

For those folks who wanted to watch coverage before the broadcast started, we got Phil/Rickie/Kuchar and were probably looking forward to seeing Spieth or McIlroy or DJ in the second group because that would make sense. But instead, we got Fred Couples, Haotong Li, and Chilean amateur Joaquin Niemann.

Listen, we could watch Freddie swing it all day, but something wasn’t quite adding up.

The Masters has always been very protective of their broadcast rights, and while we appreciate the addition of protracer – because it only took them until 2018 to realize its awesome – and everything else they’ve done coverage wise, this was a giant duff.

Give the people what they want to see. They’re your most valuable asset.

BONUS: Shot of the Day

Marc Leishman’s 223-yard 2nd shot to the par-5 15th which he drew around the trees and stuffed to 6 feet was a thing of beauty.

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