Big two endure gusts of Augusta
Just as everyone predicted the leaderboard would read halfway through the Masters. It’s the Big Two: Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy.
There was supposed to be a third guy in there — Aussie world No. 1 Jason Day, who went walkabout at Augusta National for two rounds — but Spieth and McIlroy will play together in Saturday’s final group, which will delight TV audiences and writers and live fans.
It took an improbable series of events to bring the pairing about.
First, the entire field had to go backwards, en masse, allowing McIlroy, with a mere one- under- par 71 in the bluster and swirl of Augusta’s wind, to ease past all but Spieth, who did his own downward spiral from eightunder- par to four, meaning what was once a five- stroke lead is now a single shot.
But even more wrenchingly, it took an 18th-hole calamity by U.S. amateur champion Bryson DeChambeau, who could have got into the final pairing with a birdie and instead made an unsightly seven.
Few finishes, not counting Jean Van de Velde’s at Carnoustie, have been uglier. DeChambeau — with his Ben Hogan cap, with his thickgripped irons, each with its own nickname and all cut to 6-iron length — looked totally at home playing with Spieth, until he fell ingloriously to pieces at the last.
He hooked his tee shot into a holly bush, unplayable, re-teed and hit the next one even further left, into a concession booth. “I hit it, I hit it, I hit it, I hit it …,” he explained later, mimicking the famous Seve Ballesteros quote.
Spieth, meanwhile, got upand-down from the greenside bunker for 74 and his oneshot cushion over McIlroy, who had been cooling his heels watching the red numbers slowly disappear from the scoreboards.
Spieth, who had opened with a six- under- par 66 despite what he called “averageish” ball- striking, evidently had cause for concern, because he was all over the yard Friday.
Shortly after starting with birdies at two of the first three holes, with everyone else seemingly undone by the winds and struggling to pick the correct club, Spieth found himself five strokes clear. There was a very real chance that for the second straight year, he would remove all the drama from the weekend.
But the course bit back, even at Spieth, who came up short with his approach at the fifth and four-putted for double- bogey, made further bogeys at the ninth, 10th, 16th and 17 th, with only a birdie at the par-five 15th to staunch the bleeding.
McIlroy was the primary beneficiary.
“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,” said the 26- year- old from Northern Ireland, who would love to complete his career Grand Slam this weekend.
He didn’t seem to be making any headway on his own ball, but “JP (his caddie JeanPaul Fitzgerald) kept telling me, it is really tough out here and pars are good,” McIlroy said. “Because after the fast start, the course probably didn’t feel as tough to me as it was playing. I felt 2‑under through 3, great, I’ve still got a par 5 to play on the front nine, I can get it going, blah, blah, blah …”
But no one really got it going. There wasn’t a single score of 70 or better, on a day when the field averaged 75.14 strokes.
DeChambeau was fourunder-par after 15, easily the best score of anyone in sight of the lead, but let it all get away at the end.
“I’m only four shots back,” he said. “I just have to clean up my play on the par-fives. If I birdie half the par-fives the first two days, I’m in the lead.”
Spieth had started the day with a two- stroke lead over Danny Lee and Shane Lowry, but both fell back — Lee with a 74 after bogeying the last two holes, and Lowry with a 76.
McIlroy said he’s not concerned about the hype of the Spieth matchup. “I don’t think I can get wrapped up in that and buy into the Big Three,” he said. “Of course, it’s great for the game. But I need to think about what I need to do to win this golf tournament, regardless of who else is up there.”
Spieth said he had a dream start, and could have birdied the first three but for missing a short one at No. 2. He wasn’t beating himself up about the lost shots afterward, but was plenty hard on himself while the round was going on.
“I think I can use the back nine today as a learning experience,” he said. “It was very tough to stay cool. It’s a lot easier said than done. You could say, ‘ looked like you got emotional out there.’ I mean, you guys try it. That was a hard golf course.”
He laughed. On the outside, anyway.