Jordan Spieth at Masters 2016: Leaderboard Score, Twitter Reaction from Friday
Reigning champion Jordan Spieth battled his way through a two-over round of 74 during Day 2 of the 2016 Masters. He still left the course atop the leaderboard with a one-stroke lead over fellow superstar Rory McIlroy heading into the weekend.
The windy conditions, which he successfully navigated to grab a two-stroke lead after Day 1, posed more of a problem throughout Friday's action. It forced last year's breakout sensation to merely fight for pars to prevent the round from becoming a total collapse.
Let's check out the hole-by-hole results for Spieth's second round, followed by an updated look at the current leaders and a review of his eventful trip around the picturesque course.
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Round 2 Scorecard
| Par | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 36 |
| Score | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 36 |
| Total | -7 | -7 | -8 | -8 | -6 | -6 | -6 | -7 | -6 | - |
| Par | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 36 |
| Score | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 38 |
| Total | -5 | -5 | -5 | -5 | -5 | -6 | -5 | -4 | -4 | - |
Tournament Leaderboard
Day 2 Recap
Spieth cruised through the opening round despite breezy conditions that made life difficult on golf's other top stars Thursday. After the bogey-free 66, he discussed the sense of comfort he feels every time he arrives to play at Augusta, per Brian Wacker of PGATour.com:
"I enjoy this tournament more than anywhere else. It's easy for us. We don't have any or many distractions in our preparation, and we enjoy that you're able to kind of feel like you get enough done and you have enough time to do everything, and I think that's useful when we start on the first hole.
"
Those positive vibes continued during the early portion of Friday's round as he birdied two of the first three holes to reach eight under par. At that point, it felt as though he was getting ready to run away from the field the way Tiger Woods used to do in his prime.
The PGA Tour shared a replay of his second birdie of the afternoon:
Augusta and its slippery greens started to fight back, though. The 22-year-old Texas native four-putted on the fifth green en route to a double bogey, which dropped his lead back to three and immediately changed the vibe.
The fact that it happened on No. 5 wasn't a shock. It's one of the few holes on the course that's given Spieth some trouble, as ESPN Stats & Info pointed out:
The second-ranked player in the world got a shot back on the par-five eighth but followed that up with back-to-back bogeys. The rhythm he'd shown over the first 22 holes of the tournament suddenly got lost in the Georgia wind.
Making matters worse, his group, which included Paul Casey and Bryson DeChambeau, was placed on the clock during that stretch of lackluster play, as Sam Weinman of Golf Digest noted:
Joel Harrington of the 4 Deep Golf Blog calculated the time it took the trio to play the first 10 holes at three hours, seven minutes. Even when factoring in the tough conditions, that's a slow pace for an extended stretch.
The Cauldron captured Spieth discussing the situation with his caddy:
"Jordan Spieth is NOT happy he's in a group being timed https://t.co/eBPf5rIeAT
— The Cauldron (ICYMI) (@CauldronICYMI) April 8, 2016"
It wasn't an ideal situation, and if he ends up losing the event by a stroke or two, he'll probably look back at that series of holes as one of the main reasons why.
The Masters provided some of the highlights from Spieth's up-and-down front nine:
After his bogey on the 10th, Spieth strung together four straight pars to bring some semblance of consistency back to the round. Around the same time, however, DeChambeau started making a move toward the top with three birdies in a five-hole period to put some pressure on his playing partner.
The amateur, who won the NCAA title last year at SMU, briefly moved into second place with the hot streak. Doing that while playing alongside one of golf's biggest names was an impressive feat. But some issues on the 18th caused him to drop down the leaderboard.
Meanwhile, Trey Wingo of ESPN summed up Spieth's effort:
He went through another rough patch before closing out the round, though. He had his second stretch of back-to-back bogeys following a birdie on No. 15. He nearly dropped another stroke on the 18th but came up with a clutch up-and-down from the greenside bunker to stay on top.
Justin Ray of Golf Channel explained the latest rare feat accomplished by Spieth:
Paul Hayward of the Daily Telegraph looked ahead to Saturday's high-profile clash on moving day:
Phil Casey of the Press Association showcased their past head-to-head performance:
Ultimately, what started out looking like a potentially fruitful day for the defending champion ended up becoming a grind. Of course, the silver lining from Spieth's perspective is the fact that he's still in prime position heading into the weekend.
He'll have at least one more day of windy conditions to deal with, however, as AccuWeather projects 14 mph winds with 22 mph gusts for Saturday before the weather calms down ahead of the final round.
Spieth is the player to beat heading into the weekend, regardless of the weather. But he'll need to play better than he did throughout most of Friday's round to capture his second straight green jacket.
Post-Round Reaction
ESPN passed along Spieth's interview after the round with Tom Rinaldi:
Mike O'Malley of Golf Digest noted the two-time major champion joked when asked about showing a little more emotion than normal during Friday's round.
"You guys try it," Spieth said.
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