Spieth takes some punches, stays in Masters contention
Steve DiMeglio
USA TODAY
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Jordan Spieth took it on the chin the first two holes in Friday’s second round of the Masters.
But the overnight leader, who shot an opening-round 6-under-par 66, got back up from the well-manicured Augusta National Golf Club’s emerald grounds and kept himself right in the 82nd battle for the green jacket.
“I've taken a lot of punches on this golf course, and in tournaments in general,” Spieth said. “I told Michael (Greller, his caddie), ‘Look, when this course plays tough, I'm good for a double here or some bogeys there. Let's make these the only ones.’ He was really good at saying, ‘Man, you always take punches out here and come back stronger.’”
Spieth did just that once again and after making a double-bogey 6 on the first hole and a bogey 6 on the second hole – tangling with the Georgia pines on both occasions – Spieth was 1 under the last 16 holes and signed for a 74.
That kept him on the first page of the leaderboard through 36 holes at 4 under.
The 2015 Masters champion kept his wits about him even though, for the first time in 18 rounds in this tournament, he didn’t make a birdie on the front nine and shot 40. He kept his wits about him even though his first birdie didn’t come until the 13th hole, his second not until the 15th.
And he kept his wits about him even though he lost a two-stroke lead and was suddenly two strokes back after playing for 45 minutes on Friday.
“I'm not going to downgrade my skill level, but I'm also not going to downgrade my ability to take punches and fight back on this course,” Spieth said about keeping his round intact. “Good starts are really nice out here. Bad starts are tough to come back from. If I look at it one way, I mean, in 2016, I went bogey, bogey, quad and then was able to rebound from that. I could have been 3- or 4-under the rest of the way after something like that.”
Spieth, who also finished runner-up in 2014 and 2016, was referring to his infamous collapse in 2016, when his five-shot lead with nine holes to play evaporated with a bogey on the 10th, a bogey on the 11th, two balls into Rae’s Creek and a quadruple-bogey 7 on the 12th. He eventually lost and had to slip the green jacket onto the shoulders of Danny Willett.
“So what's the first couple holes on a Friday start mean? It doesn't really mean much to me,” Spieth said. “It means let's figure out what was wrong and fix it, but it's not going to affect the outcome of this tournament off of those two holes. I'm still in a great position.
“I just had two really bad tee shots to start the day. The conditions made it challenging, as well. I felt like I hit some really good shots on a lot of holes and just got kind of gusted by an opposite wind, or were one or two yards away from being phenomenal. I didn't have very many really good birdie looks. With the way the back nine was played today, the wheels could have come off. But I made some nice par saves and made two birdies and I'm still in this golf tournament.”