How to beat Jordan Spieth and win the Masters
No one has ever played Augusta National Golf Club for the first 36 holes of a Masters as well as Jordan Spieth.
The 21-year-old set the 36-hole scoring record on Friday at 14-under 130, ending Raymond Floyd’s 39-year mark from 1976. Spieth is five shots clear of 38-year-old Charley Hoffman, who is known more for his now trimmed long hair and propensity to break clubs than for seriously contending in major champions.
His closest pursuers with stronger resumes are another two shots behind Hoffman.
This thing is over, right?
That was the sentiment here 19 years ago after Greg Norman opened with a course-record-tying 9-under 63 and followed it with a Friday 69 to carry a four-shot edge into the weekend. He expanded that lead to six on Sunday as Nick Faldo shot 73 to Norman’s 71. The expectation was that Norman’s final lap around Augusta would be a coronation, with the Shark finally earning the major that teased him most. (All four did.)
A simple Wikipedia search tells us Norman didn’t win; Faldo, who closed with 5-under 67, did somewhat repentantly as Norman collapsed to 78 on Sunday.
Norman, perhaps having flashbacks on Friday afternoon, had some advice for Spieth: Don’t let up.
“You’ve got to make sure to play the way you’ve been playing,” Norman said, according to Golfweek. “Don’t change your game plan. You can easily go unconsciously into a bit of a conservative game. That’s happened to me a couple of times during the round where instead of going at it, I will just put it 15 feet to the right. So you disrupt your normal game plan by having a Masters lead. There’s a little bit of, I guess, fighting within at times.”
Perhaps, but Raymond Floyd shot a pair of weekend 70s in 1976 (after going into the final two rounds with a 5-stroke lead) to win by eight over Ben Crenshaw. What Floyd avoided and Norman didn’t was the big number. Spieth couldn’t avoid it down the stretch a year ago when he tried to pull the lead back from eventual winner Bubba Watson on the second nine. The then-20-year-old Spieth found Rae’s Creek with his tee shot to the par-3 12th, leading to a bogey. Spieth wouldn’t make another birdie the rest of the way, as Watson cruised to a second Masters title.
Mistakes are fine, but they cannot be compounded.
Spieth will have to come back to the field, or at least tred water for a long time, for someone to have a chance to catch him. However, they’ll have to go deeper under par as well. Making three eagles in a round, like Dustin Johnson did on Friday, would be a great start.
Three-time Masters winner Phil Mickelson thinks the field will need some help from above — not divine intervention, but heat.
“I think for us to catch him, we’re going to have to get a little fire in the golf course,” Mickelson said. “But for that to happen, the rains have to hold off.”
Unfortunately for Mickelson, the Augusta weather forecast calls for a 100 percent chance of rain on Friday night, meaning Augusta National will likely again play right into Spieth’s hands.
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Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
