Masters Saturday

It's Moving Day in Augusta, and I've got to move pretty quickly here to make my 8:50 tee time...

Jordan, Jordan, Jordan - Wow, that was impressive... or ta least it would have been had the Grand Poobahs deigned to let me see any of it....

All sorts of records falling, as per Steve DiMeglio:

Spieth's total of 130 ties the lowest total after the opening 36 holes in the history of major 

championships. Martin Kaymer in the 2014 U.S. Open, Brandt Snedeker in the 2012 British Open and Nick Faldo in the 1992 British Open also shot 130. 

Further, Spieth equaled the largest lead after 36 holes in tournament history, joining Herman Keiser in 1946, Jack Nicklaus in 1975 and Floyd in '76 as the only players to hold a 5-shot advantage after two rounds. 

Keiser, Nicklaus and Floyd all went on to win.

Now you're just messin' with the kid, comparing him to Herman Keiser.... But who remembered that Jack led by 5 in '76?  But the names most frequently crossing analysts' lips these days come from back to back years, i.e., Norman and Woods.  The latter because of the precociousness and the former because of, well, you know...

Charley may not wet your whistle, but there's some fire power in that group at -7, it's just that they'll need some help.

Most importantly, folks in the know think conditions are not ripe for movement:

"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 Phil, the odds of that are longer than him making a historic comeback. At the time of Mickelson's post-round comments, Weather.com listed the chance of thunderstorms in Augusta Friday night at 100 percent. After that, however, it looks like a dry weekend, which Mickelson thinks could expose Spieth's relative inexperience at Augusta National. 

"Certainly, the firm conditions make angles important, past knowledge important, but there's no fire in the golf course right now," Mickelson said.

Shack's been on this all week, and here's his latest micro-rant:

While you'll hear over and over how the club will just turn on the Sub-Air units beneath the greens, they won't work. Besides being overrated in their ability to dry out the greens, there's a bigger issue in getting Augusta National to play with a little more "fire."

It's too green. 

Whether because the club is in love with deep green turf or simply the perfect rye grass growing conditions, the grass is just too healthy, too well fed and growing too fast between the 7 am mowing by the time afternoon play is going strong. Throw in the longish fairway cut designed to slow down the ball and mix it with the robust second cut, and the course looks downright fuzzy by the early evening.

Expect more of the same good scoring no matter what you hear. And considering that the best player has been identified so far, that's not all bad.

 The Sub-Air is over-rated, and it's probably far too late for anything to significantly change...But leading wire-to-wire is difficult, so we might as well watch.

Other Quick Notes - How about DJ making three eagles yesterday, playing the Par-5's in a tasty -7.  If you had tuned in after he had completed two holes and was even par, you'd be excused for thinking you hadn't missed much.  But he opened double bogey-eagle, a bounce back on steroids.

Every year an alter kocker surprises us, and this year it has to be Mark O'Meara with a 68 yesterday...must have been the hug.

Tiger has to be thrilled, and word is that his people expect a big summer from him....I think the optimism is justified, the only issue is the deep fields he'll have to beat.  Lot's of discussion as to the Masters selection of Feature Groups for streaming coverage.  The short take is that you could watch Tiger (with Jimmy Walker and Jamie Donaldson) on the streaming coverage on Thursday, but not Friday.  What makes that a bit maddening is that we didn't need it on Thursday, because he was playing in the ESPN coverage window.  This is the yin and yang of the Masters, at points they seem to deliberately impede our enjoyment of the event...

Enjoy!.