Masters of their own destiny
● The top of the post-cut Masters leaderboard is packed with golf’s greatest talent and has set up the season’s first major for a thrilling battle tonight (SA time).
Whoever wins this Masters will have had to overcome the grand old course and the top players in the world, playing at their best. Seldom have so many of the world’s top players sniffed the lead of a major at the same time.
Jordan Spieth, Henrik Stenson, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Louis Oosthuizen and Justin Thomas — major winners all — are in contention while Patrick Reed, Marc Leishman and Ricky Fowler are in search of their first major.
The sport’s two most successful active players, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, will be around today, but barring a miraculous weekend, won’t be driving down Magnolia Lane with another green jacket.
Both Woods and Mickelson, who arrived at Augusta in good form, made the cut, but going into yesterday’s third round were respectively 13 and 14 shots off Reed’s halfway lead of nine-under.
Tiger still roaring
With seven Masters between them, Tiger and Phil were expected to challenge this year. Instead, they will stalk the hallowed Augusta fairways as a reminder of how the game has moved on.
Tiger though, ever the competitor, was not ready to wave the white flag after a disappointing three-over 75 on Friday for a four-over aggregate score.
“Now I know I’m (here) for the weekend,” Woods said after surviving the cut. “Even though I’m a lot behind, if I play a special weekend, shoot two rounds in the mid-60s, you never know.”
It’s that unflinching will to win and belief in his ability that earned Tiger 14 majors between 1997 and 2008. His body is finally healthy after years of back problems and his private life appears to be on an even keel.
But overhauling a 13-shot deficit over the weekend has never been done. The biggest 36-hole comeback was eight shots by Jack Burke Jr. in 1956. Even Tiger can’t do that, can he?
Reed, who studied at Augusta University and led their golf team to the national title in 2008, was in dominant form on Friday, shooting 66 to take a two-shot lead over Leishman heading into the weekend.
The brash American is already a Ryder Cup star and with nine birdies in his second round has proven that he understands Augusta’s slick, rolling greens. He appears to thrive under pressure as his performances in the Ryder Cup have shown, so a complete collapse is unlikely.
World No 16 Leishman, the big Aussie who won the Nedbank Golf Challenge in 2015 and was paired with Woods for the first two days at Augusta, has also looked in control of his game. He carded eight birdies and an eagle in the first two rounds with one a single bogey and one double bogey.
Oosthuizen stayed in contact with two rounds of 71, but despite carding nine birdies, also returned seven bogeys.
Augusta offers numerous birdies, but it is also a penal course when mistakes are made, which makes it such a compelling spectacle 82 years after it all began.