The Masters has been up and down like a roller coaster

Published 4:32 pm Friday, April 6, 2018

It doesn’t look like any players’ lead is safe in the first two days at The Masters.

Thursday, Jordan Spieth looked to be getting on one of those rolls where he just doesn’t stop. You know what kind I’m talking about.

Instead, he comes in Friday at 6-under and double bogies No. 1. Things only got stranger from there, and not just from Spieth.

Email newsletter signup

Matt Kuchar, who was sitting at a sweet 4-under at the end of Thursday, could only find one birdie through his Friday round amongst a herd of bogies, particularly on the back nine. Tony Finaue also finished 4-under Thursday, but has tripped with a 2-over performance on Friday. And then Tiger, who had all the opportunity just lying in front of him, hasn’t had any luck so far.

The story of this year’s Masters so far is: If you have a lead, don’t get used to it.

With the way the course is being played, it’s looking like the winner will barely be in double digits, if at all. I wouldn’t be surprised to see 10-under be the winning score here. Who takes home that green jacket is completely up in the air though.

Spieth has the ability to take this tournament wire to wire, like we saw in 2015. If it weren’t for that awful start to Friday, he’d still be the sole leader right now. I’m not counting him out by any stretch, but I haven’t seen him come up big from behind or duel with a co-leader in a while.

Rory McIlroy is surprising me a bit here. He has slid off the radar lately, but had a great win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last month. Augusta has always been the course that seems to get in his head the most. If he can continue grabbing those gimme birdies and drop a clutch putt here and there, I’ll be cheering for him on Sunday in one of the final pairings. He and Spieth together would be a cool sight.

As I write this column, Patrick Reed is sitting atop the leaderboard at 6-under through seven on Friday. With how this tournament is going, I wouldn’t be surprised to see that lead change a dozen more times before Sunday.