Spieth drained five straight birdies and had a two-shot lead after the first round, but was struggling early Friday.
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“I don’t know what to tell you”, said Garcia, who eventually signed for a nine-over 81, 15 shots behind first round leader and fellow former US Masters victor Jordan Spieth (six under).
“I had some really tricky putts today, putts that were six feet and outside the hole, and to make some of those in the middle of the hole was a confidence boost”, Spieth said. He plays well around here, he always has.
If the leader gets to eight under par, the 10-stroke rule would mean all golfers who are not at two over or better would miss the cut if they are not in the top 50. Of the past 10 Masters winners, only two have failed to play that combination of holes in fewer than 5 under par for the week. The back nine I was just making birdies and bogeys, until the 16th hole, and then 17th and 18th were bad. He is now 7-over with nine holes to play.
In Spieth’s case, he’s nearly as anxious about the verbal beating he’d take at Woods’ hands if ever got back to the top of the game as he is about losing to him on the golf course.
With the cut expected to fall around 5-over, Sharma would require a couple of birdies and play the back under par to stay on in the tournament.
He bogeyed the par-three 12th after sending his tee shot into Rae’s Creek and while he did well to card a pair of birdies over the next three holes, he dropped another shot at the par-three 16th.
His second shot, with a six-iron from 205 yards, cleared the water but rolled back in, leaving Garcia to lament a game of inches.
“It’s not the first time the pin’s been there, but with the firmness of the greens and everything I felt like the ball was going to stop and, unfortunately for whatever reason, it didn’t want to”. “So, yeah, they were huge”.
“It was a great shot there”, said Woods, who ended up with a bogey.
The 14-time major victor grabbed his first birdie with a delicate downhill putt at the third.
McIlroy shot a 3-under 69, breaking 70 in the first round at Augusta National for the first time since 2011.
“I’ve taken a lot of punches on this golf course, and in tournaments in general”. “I have to hit better shots and better chips, too”.
Interestingly, no former champion has won after leading the Masters after their opening round since Jack Nicklaus did so in 1972.
Of course, Garcia was minus-92 on par 5s until Thursday.
If Garcia’s octuplet bruised his ego, it paled in comparison to what Tony Finau endured.
A day before his Masters debut, the 28-year-old sprinted wildly towards a green after scoring a hole-in-one at the traditional par-three contest and dislocated his ankle. Finau went down, the ankle contorted, and he popped it into place.
When I got to the course, we had breakfast up near the Champions Locker Room.
“I’ve had to do some interesting things on 18 in my career here”, Spieth said.
Tony Finau says he is “optimistic” after a “crazy day” at the Masters.
“You look at it and not anyone is really getting away”, McIlroy said. It had gone ice cold.
The best comeback? That might now belong to Finau. It worked again on Thursday. Woods was more concerned with sticking around for the weekend than chasing a green jacket.
The first standing ovation came on the practice range.
Li qualified for the Masters by closing with a 63 at Royal Birkdale in the British Open last summer.
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“So I have a lot of work to do over the next few days”.
