Problems followed the Australian into the second round, with a bogey at the first, but the Queenslander quickly got that stroke back with a birdie on at the second and another the fifth to sneak under par and start to creep up the leaderboard.
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The 22-year-old amateur still managed his second straight 72, leaving him just four shots off the lead heading to the weekend.
“I was hitting it really well, and that ultimately allowed me to perform at a high level, one that I know I can play in any golf tournament”, he said. But I’ve played this golf course well on the weekend the last couple years, and I have to take confidence from that. “(Spieth’s) doing his thing and I’ll do mine. But amateur Bryson DeChambeau makes a mess of the par-four 18th with a triple bogey to plunge four shots off the pace.
First-round leader Spieth led by five shots when he made two birdies in the first three holes to move to eight-under. When all was said and done, Spieth still was all by himself in the lead halfway through the 2016 Masters, an astounding sixth consecutive round in which he has led the tournament.
“It’s up there”, added the 26-year-old, who was eight behind Spieth after following two early birdies with a double bogey on the fourth and dropped shots on the fifth and 11th. “And then Sunday might get a little bit easier, but I probably doubt that, too”.
“I’m very happy. I think getting anything under par today with the conditions and some of the pin positions, I’m really happy with that and in a good position going into the weekend”.
“I was at 8 under and you finish at 4”. Spieth would overtake Australia’s Jason Day for world number one with a Masters win if the Aussie finishes outside the top five.
“I know [the conditions were] tough, but it wasn’t as tough as I made it look”, Mickelson said.
Just a shot further back is Danny Lee, who is in the best position a New Zealander has ever been in at the Masters.
“It’s not a score you want on the last hole but I just hit a couple of bad drives and that’s what led up to it”, he said. “If you get them downwind it’s hard to stop the ball”.
As one of just seven players under par, Snedeker has surprised us in one way, which is how he’s scored. “I was nearly back to my normal self”.
Watched by packed galleries around the 18th green, an emotional Tom Watson parred the final hole to card a six-over 78 in his last competitive round at the Masters, destined to miss the cut and bow out after making his 43rd career start in the year’s first major championship.
Watson was the only player to benefit from the rule which calls for any player within 10 shots of the lead to make the cut.
Welshman Ian Woosnam, the 1991 champion who has been struggling with joint pain, chose to call time on his competitive run at the Masters after following his opening 10-over 82 with an 81.
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BUBBA’S STILL ALIVE: Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson slipped through to the weekend after Spieth bogeyed two of the last three holes Friday. Among those missing out were Americans Phil Mickelson, Zach Johnson and Rickie Fowler and South Africans Els and Charl Schwartzel.
