AUGUSTA, Ga. — Doctor Jekyll, meet Mister Hyde. Augusta National on Thursday, meet Augusta National on Friday.
You knew the red numbers that made Thursday's scorecards look like AIG's annual statement weren't going to happen again Friday. That just wouldn't be like the National, which is flat-out the hardest darned great course in the world. The difference was the wind. Friday morning broke sunny and clear with a pleasant breeze, but those nice little breezes took steroids later in the morning and turned into strong, swirling winds, gusting upwards of 25 miles per hour.
The course can be somewhat vulnerable (but not easy, not ever) with soft greens and no wind. With wind like we had Friday, it was a battle. The course was playing two full shots harder than the first round at one point during the afternoon before easing up to a little more than a shot and a half harder by the end of the day.
Someone asked Tiger Woods if the wind was difficult. "Yeah," he said without smiling, making it clear he'd just been asked the golfing equivalent of, Is General Motors having a bad year? "You might say that."
Woods never got anything going in Friday's wind, but he still parred his way onto the first page of the leaderboard before bogeying the 18th hole for a second straight day. His finish was better than Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, who was four under par and in contention until he doubled 16 and disastrously tripled 18, but Woods was undoubtedly every bit as hot after his round. A concise Woods, two under par after a round of 72 and seven shots off the lead, had little to say. "Conditions were tough," he said. "It was just tough all around."
Anthony Kim might beg to differ. He made an astounding 11 birdies, a Masters record, during the worst wind in the afternoon and shot 65. In a way, that tells you how hard the course really played. To shoot seven-under 65, he needed to make 11 birdies.
"I really don't know what happened," said Kim, who rallied from an opening 75. "The putter got hot. When the putter is hot, nothing really gets in your way."
Woods, meanwhile, is hardly out of it. Seven shots over 36 holes on a dangerous course like the National is easily within reason. Do-able, he was asked? "Yeah," he said expansively. Then he went to the range and spent more than an hour hitting drivers while his coach, Hank Haney, watched.
There is an extenuating circumstance here for those waiting for Tiger's expected (but so far missing) charge. His name is Kenny Perry. The man from Franklin, Ky., added a no-bogey, routine 67 to his first-round 68 to tie Chad Campbell for the lead at nine under par. They're both former Ryder Cuppers and both known to be streaky players. Campbell actually had the 36-hole lead here in '06 but fell back on Sunday, when a rain delay forced him to play 32 of the final 36 holes.
Others near the lead include a veteran group of former major champions: Angel Cabrera (-8), Todd Hamilton (-6), Jim Furyk (-4), Phil Mickelson, Geoff Ogilvy and Vijay Sing (-3). And, of course, Woods. Sergio Garcia, widely considered the best player never to have won a major, is also in the thick of things at four under.
But Perry is officially the new man to watch at the Masters. Campbell is a formidable player who nearly won the 2003 PGA Championship, but Perry is a hot player who stays hot once he gets hot. For weeks on end.
Perry is driving it great. He's hitting his irons great. He's putting great. His short game, featuring the 64-degree sand wedge he put in his bag at Doral, is suddenly great. He's making the game easy and playing stress-free golf, and he's doing it at big, bad Augusta National. The only thing he's not doing great, he said, is reading the greens. Possibly because he didn't play here last year, or in any of the other majors. (He played one round at the PGA, actually, but then had to withdraw due to a scratched cornea.)
At 48, Perry is playing some of the best golf of his life. He starred in his home state at the Ryder Cup last year, the biggest week of his life. After succeeding under that kind of pressure, Perry may not break a sweat again in a major championship. He's already won this year, at the FBR Open, and he didn't make a bogey Friday. It was nearly flawless golf.
"It's been an awesome, very relaxed two days," Perry said. "I missed two shots today. How many times can you say you missed two shots? That was probably one of the greatest rounds I've ever played, to be honest. I just didn't have any nerves. I don't know why. But it was just easy. I had a confidence in my head."
(From Website : http://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,1890778,00.html)
