Phil Mickelson's Poor 2nd Round Dooms His Chances of 4th Masters Title

Any shot of Phil Mickelson winning a fourth green jacket went down the drain after he shot a four-over 76 in the second round of the 2013 Masters.

Finishing under par for the second round would be considered a major accomplishment. Conversely, if you struggled a little bit and dropped a couple of shots, it wouldn't be a big deal.

For example, look at the leaderboard below:

There's not a ton of great second-round scores. Some performed well on Friday, but it was nothing compared to the first-round play in terms of scoring.

Unfortunately for Mickelson, he didn't have a strong enough first round to cover up for what was a lackluster second. He carried a tally of one over into Friday's action. With the second round, Mickelson is at three-over 147. At this point, that's good enough for 48th place. He fell 25 spots on Friday.

Mickelson started off the 2013 Masters very badly. He went two over on the front nine in the first round before getting four birdies in a five-hole stretch. That strong play carried over into the front nine on Friday, as he was even par after nine holes.

That's not bad considering what it put him relative to the competition. Weather has caused problems for many on the course. Augusta National is difficult enough without any help from mother nature, but wind gusts have compounded many golfers' issues on Friday.

Then, on the back nine, Mickelson wilted. He had three bogeys and a double-bogey, which undid all of the good work he had done on the first 27 holes.

Much was made of the slow-play penalty doled out to 14-year-old Tianlang Guan. Dan Jenkins of Golf Digest decided to have some fun at the expense of Mickelson:

There's nothing you can do about the weather. You simply have to make the best of the circumstances. Unfortunately, Mickelson wasn't able to do that on Friday, and he's paid the price.

Considering what's ahead as well, there's not much chance the weather will get any kinder.

The forecast is calling for very little letup in terms of wind for this weekend. The Weather Channel is calling for winds in the range of five to 10 miles per hour on Saturday and possibly 13 miles per hour on Sunday.

As if that's not bad enough, he's looking at a leaderboard on which Jason Day, Angel Cabrera and Tiger Woods have skyrocketed up as a result of strong second rounds. Day and Woods are tied for the lead at five under, and Cabrera is a shot back at four under.

Since missing the cut in 1997, Mickelson has never failed to finish below 27th at the Masters. He could very well turn his luck around and start playing like he did toward the end of the first round. Three strokes separate Mickelson from the 26th position, so it's realistic that he'd continue that streak.

It's a very tall order, however, to make up an eight-shot deficit, especially when one of those golfers to overtake is Woods.