The past two days of the Masters has been very entertaining and has prepared us for some spectacular golf over the weekend. Jason Day has taken sole possession of the lead at 6-under par and is aiming to become the first Australian to win the green jacket. He leads fellow Aussie, Marc Leishman and the ageless Fred Couples by one shot. In his post-round interview, Day talked about his strategy for playing Augusta – he has “played the corners” rather than followed them, meaning instead of trying to draw a shot around a hole that goes right to left (hole 13), he would aim straight at the corner and play a fade instead. This strategy has worked well for him so far! He also said the Masters is one of the tournaments he’d love to win and one of his favorite places to play and hopes to peak for during the season. He has said this many times, even in the CNN interview above! There are also a lot of big names within striking distance – Jim Furyk, Brandt Snedeker and former Masters champion Angel Cabrera is at 4-under; Justin Rose, KJ Choi, Lee Westwood, Adam Scott and Tiger Woods is at 3-under and Rory McIlroy is at 2-under.
The leaderboard might’ve looked a lot differently though – Dustin Johnson was off to a hot start and was 7-under for the tournament at one point, but faded off towards the second nine and eventually shot a 76, finishing at 1-under. Other players that had some abnormal shots included Fred Couples’ shank on the 13th – you can check out the video below! It happens to the best of us! Jim Furyk also had a chunk shot that fell way short and into the water to set him back a couple of shots. Woods also had a shot that we’ll all be talking about – he hit a lob wedge that was so perfect it hit the flag on the par-5 15th and spun backward off the green and into the water. Instead of having a short birdie putt, he had to scramble to save bogey.
On another note, 14-year old Tianlang Guan is the only amateur to make the cut at this year’s Masters. He finished the 2nd round at 4-over par for the tournament, even with a penalty stroke for slow play on the 17th. Luckily, it didn’t cost him a chance at playing this weekend, but playing partner Ben Crenshaw, as well as many of the patrons at Augusta and over Twitter, were not happy with the decision. He took the rule for what it was, saying that “rules are rules,” but make sure you find out more here!
Source: The Masters
