Saturday, April 11, 2015

Masters Update

A player with the odd name of "Tiger Woods" has charged onto the leaderboard after birdieing holes 2, 3, and 4.  Spieth doesn't tee off for another 30 minutes, but here's the top of the board right now:

1.  J. Spieth:  -14 (36 holes)
2.  C. Hoffman:  -9 (36)
T3.  J. Rose (ENG):  -7 (36)
T3.  D. Johnson:  -7 (36)
T3. P. Casey (ENG):  -7 (36)
6.  P. Mickelson:  -6 (36)
T7.  T. Woods:  -5 (40)
T7.  C. Schwartzel (RSA):  -5 (39)
T7.  E. Els (RSA):  -5 (36)

69 comments:

  1. Yesterday, Rory McIlroy was 3 over par for the tournament when he made the turn, and then he shot a 31 on the back nine to move to 2 under. Now he completes a 32 on the front nine, and he moves to 6 under par for the tournament.

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  2. Leaderboard at 3 P.M.:

    1. J. Spieth: -14 (36 holes)
    2. C. Hoffman: -9 (36)
    T3. J. Rose (ENG): -7 (36)
    T3. D. Johnson: -7 (36)
    T3. P. Casey (ENG): -7 (36)
    T6. R. McIlroy (NIR): -6 (45)
    T6. P. Mickelson: -6 (37)

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  3. Spieth's five-shot advantage ties the record for a 36-hold lead at the Masters.

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  4. Mickelson birdies the second hole to move to 7 under.

    Tiger birdies the 8th hole to move to 6 under.

    The middle-aged men of America could hardly be happier.

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  5. Jim Nantz says of Spieth that "the kid appears to be unflappable," but then points out that Spieth is being chased by "the biggest names in the sport."

    The Masters is one of the very few sports where I listen to the TV announcers.

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  6. CBS has a very nice opening here with a bunch of former champions signing their scorecards -- although it's a bit ironic given what happened at the 1968 Masters.

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  7. Look at those azaleas. We used to have some really pretty azaleas at our house, and they are one of my very favorite flowers.

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  8. On Tuesday, by the way, I explained to several of my friends -- in great detail -- why Tiger's appearance at Augusta would likely be an embarrassing disaster.

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  9. Dustin Johnson birdies the 2d hole, and he's now 8 under.

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  10. Mickelson birdies the 3d hole, as does Casey. They are now both 8 under par.

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  11. But Spieth is unflappable! He birdies the 2d hole, and is now 15 under par.

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  12. Leaderboard:

    1. J. Spieth: -15 (38 holes)
    2. C. Hoffman: -9 (38)
    T3. P. Casey (ENG): -8 (39)
    T3. P. Mickelson: -8 (39)
    T3. D. Johnson: -8 (38)

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  13. Spieth took a three-putt bogey on 4, but now he holes a long, curling birdie putt on 6 to move back to 15 under, thus regaining a six-shot lead on the field.

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  14. Leaderboard:

    1. J. Spieth: -15 (42 holes)
    T2. P. Mickelson: -9 (43)
    T2. C. Hoffman: -9 (42)
    T4. R. McIlroy (NIR): -8 (51)
    T4. D. Johnson: -8 (43)

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  15. Tiger hits a terrible drive on the par-5 13 -- a duck hook that causes him to drop his club with dismay. But the ball hits something and bounds back into play. Tiger then lays up short of the green, pitches onto the green, and DRAINS THE FIFTEEN-FOOT PUTT FOR BIRDIE. He gives the putt an old-school fist pump, and the crowd goes nuts. Tiger is now 5-under for the day and 7-under for the Tournament.

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    Replies
    1. this middle aged man of America is indeed ecstatic.

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  16. McIlroy finally cools off -- he bogeys the 16th hole, and he is tied with Tiger at 7 under.

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  17. Tiger, who is incredibly pumped up, sends his drive on 14 screaming off into the gallery.

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  18. Spieth misses the green on 7, and takes a bogey that drops him to 14 under.

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  19. Tiger ends up having to navigate between two trees to have any chance of reaching the 14th green. His shot ends up bounding off to the fringe at the back of the green, roughly 100 feet from the hole. He doesn't look happy, but from where he was it's hard to see what else could have happened.

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    Replies
    1. Well, it's hard to see how he could have done better. Lots of worse things could have happened.

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  20. Leaderboard:

    1. J. Spieth: -14 (43 holes)
    T2. P. Mickelson: -9 (44)
    T2. C. Hoffman: -9 (43)
    4. D. Johnson: -8 (43)
    T5. R. McIlroy (NIR): -7 (52)
    T5. T. Woods: -7 (49)
    T5. K. Streelman: -7 (45)
    T5. P. Casey (ENG): -7 (44)

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  21. Mickelson, Woods, and McIlroy are frantically going for birdie on almost every hole in a desperate attempt to catch Spieth. It's making for some incredible drama.

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  22. Tiger cannot save his par on 14, and he falls back to 6 under.

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  23. Hold the phone -- Mickelson has birdied the 9th hole. He is out in only 32 shots, and is now 10 under par -- only 4 shots behind Spieth.

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  24. Hoffman birdies the 8th hole, and now he's at minus 10.

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  25. Leaderboard:

    1. J. Spieth: -14 (44)
    T2. P. Mickelson: -10 (45)
    T2. C. Hoffman: -10 (44)
    4. D. Johnson: -8 (44)

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  26. McIlroy bogeys the last hole to finish with a 68 that leaves him at 6 under par. He will really regret the bogeys at 16 and 18.

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  27. Meanwhile, Spieth hits an approach shot on 9 that just misses the bunker, and rolls to within five feet of the hole.

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  28. Meanwhile, Tiger reaches the par-5 15th green in two, and then two-putts for his birdie. He's back to 7-under par.

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  29. Spieth rolls in the short birdie putt on 9, and he is out in 35 shots. He's 15 under par, and his lead is five shots.

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  30. Leaderboard:

    1. J. Spieth: -15 (45 holes)
    T2. P. Mickelson: -10 (46)
    T2. C. Hoffman: -10 (45)
    4. D. Johnson: -8 (45)

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  31. Mickelson bogeys the difficult 11th hole, and he falls back to 9 under, six shots behind Spieth.

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  32. Leaderboard:

    1. J. Spieth: -15 (46 holes)
    2. C. Hoffman: -10 (46)
    3, P. Mickelson: -9 (47)
    4. D. Johnson: -8 (46)

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  33. That's it for me today. I'll wrap up later.

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  34. OK, Phil Mickelson is now 10-under, and Charley Hoffman is 11-under. They're both still pretty far behind the leader, Spieth, at 16-under. But the announcers are talking about how hotly contested this battle for second place through Saturday is. Nick Faldo joins in on this point with some enthusiasm to point out that, if you can just wedge yourself into that final group, you get the juice of thinking, well, if I could just put together a special round, I might be able to also rattle the leader. Those are my words, not his, but they're the gist of what he was saying--and Faldo knows of which he speaks.

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  35. Spieth, though, is making it tougher and tougher for anyone to have hope. On No. 13, it appeared he had run his approach well over the green, but then the ball suddenly came to a stop. And then Spieth holed a long putt for his second straight birdie, to get to 17-under.

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  36. 1. J. Spieth -17 (49 holes)
    2. C. Hoffman -11 (49)
    3. P. Mickelson -10 (50)
    4. J. Rose -8 (50)
    T5. D. Johnson -7 (50)
    T5. Streelman -7 (52)
    T5. P. Casey -7 (50)
    T8. R. McIlroy -6 (54)
    T8. T. Woods -6 (54)

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  37. Phil slams in a birdie on No. 15, and we have a tie for second.

    1. J. Spieth -17 (49 holes)
    T2. C. Hoffman -11 (49)
    T2. P. Mickelson -11 (51)
    4. J. Rose -9 (51)
    T5. K. Streelman -7 (52)
    T5. P. Casey -7 (50)
    T5. D. Johnson -7 (50)
    T8. R. McIlroy -6 (54)
    T8. T. Woods -6 (54)

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  38. Spieth's 6-foot par putt on No. 13 whips around the left lip of the cup and flies out another 4 feet. Dan Jenkins had just Tweeted the only thing Spieth was leaking was "gold," and that's probably still true. But you got to figure Phil's feeling it a little right now if he knows about Spieth's bogey.

    1. J. Spieth -16 (50 holes)
    T2. C. Hoffman -11 (50)
    T2. P. Mickelson -11 (51)
    4. J. Rose -9 (51)
    T5. P. Casey -7 (51)
    T5. D. Johnson -7 (50)

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  39. AND NOW PHIL HAS ROLLED IN A LOOPING PUTT OF THREE OR FOUR DOZEN FEET! HE'S 12-UNDER, ALONE IN SECOND AND FOUR BACK OF THE LEAD!

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  40. Even we middle-aged men of America with sump-pump difficulties this weekend are having a lot of fun with this.

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  41. And Justin Rose has three birdies in a row to get to 10-under.

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  42. Spieth's blasts his second shot on No. 15, trying to get over the water--"Be enough! Go!" we hear the leader urging his ball--and, indeed, he clears the hazard. It appears Hoffman, his playing partner, is not so lucky.

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  43. Now Rose gets another! He’s 11-under and T3 with Hoffman, four behind the lead.

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  44. Spieth steadies to birdie the par-5 No. 15, and his lead is back to where it started today: five strokes.

    1. J. Spieth -17 (51 holes)
    2. P. Mickelson -12 (52)
    3. J. Rose -11 (52)
    4. C. Hoffman -10 (51)
    5. D. Johnson -8 (52)

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  45. Having slipped from second alone to fourth alone over the last half hour, Hoffman sticks his drive on par-3 No. 16 to within about 5 feet.

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  46. Spieth, too, will have a birdie try.

    Mickelson, though, just misses his par putt on No. 17.

    Tiger and Rory, by the way, have charged up the leaderboard to T6 since going off the course this afternoon.

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  47. AND SPIETH KNOCKS IN HIS 15-FOOT BIRDIE! HIS LEAD IS NOW OUT TO SEVEN STROKES!

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  48. Birdie, birdie since the bogey for Spieth. Amazing stuff!

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  49. But Hoffman misses right, and, for as short a putt as that was, it wasn't really very close. Danger time for the 38-year-old.

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  50. 1. J. Spieth -18 (52 holes)
    T2. P. Mickelson -11 (53)
    T2. J. Rose -11 (52)
    4. C. Hoffman -10 (52)
    5. D. Johnson -8 (52)

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  51. Spieth's drive on No. 17 is in the gallery and trees.

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  52. Huge cheer for Phil, of course, on his walk to the 18th green.

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  53. Now here's Spieth in the trees. It sounds like he's trying to figure out with his caddy whether to try to sail over and shoot under the trees toward the hole.

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  54. He goes high and gets to just short of the green--good shot.

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  55. Phil's birdie try at No. 18 starts right and stays right, and he'll hope to stay T2 going into tomorrow. Will depend on Justin Rose, who swats a giant drive on No. 18 and then eats a banana.

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  56. Spieth's pitch grabs the front of the green and never goes anywhere. The leader's laboring a bit on here on No. 17.

    Phil hits his par putt, and he heads to the clubhouse at 11-under.

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  57. Rose's second shot flies to the back of the 18th green and then trickles a bit back toward the cup. He'll have a chance for birdie to move to second alone.

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  58. Oh, my ... three-putt after the trees on No. 17 ... Spieth double-bogeys back to 16-under. That's still a five-shot lead, of course. But ...

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  59. 1. J. Spieth -16 (53 holes)
    T2. P. Mickelson -11 (54)
    T2. J. Rose -11 (53)
    4. C. Hoffman -9 (53)
    5. D. Johnson -7 (53)

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  60. ROSE ARCS IN HIS BIRDIE PUTT ON NO. 18, AND HE'S 12-UNDER!

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  61. The Spieth lead is down to four strokes.

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  62. Dustin Johnson misses his par putt on No. 18, and now Rory and Tiger--part of a big tie for fifth--will be second-to-last pairing on Sunday ... Rory/Tiger ... Phil/Hoffman ... Spieth/Rose.

    Well, probably ... "a gigantic miss," someone on CBS says as Spieth sends his approach on No. 18 into the gallery ...

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  63. Hoffman will have an 8-foot try for birdie and to stop his bleeding.

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  64. Spieth recovers with an excellent, excellent pitch to within about eight feet of the green, and NOW HE GENTLY ROLLS IN A PAR TO STAY AT 16-UNDER AND FOUR AHEAD OF ROSE. Jim Nantz points out that Spieth now has the 54-hole Masters record. That's pretty cool.

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  65. And Hoffman gets his birdie.

    1. J. Spieth -16 (54 holes)
    2. J. Rose -12 (54)
    3. P. Mickelson -11 (54)
    4. C. Hoffman -10 (54)
    T5. R. McIlroy -6 (54)
    T5. T. Woods -6 (54)
    T5. K. Streelman -6 (54)
    T5. K. Na -6 (54)
    T5. D. Johnson -6 (54)

    This is great. I hope Spieth wins.

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