Based on his first two rounds at the Masters, setting records could become a habit for young Jordan Spieth.
The 21-year-old from Dallas, Texas broke a record that stood for 39 years at the most prestigious of all PGA tournaments on Friday, finishing with a 14 under par over 36 holes.
“It was pretty awesome,” he said shortly after his second round of play. “The hardest thing to do was to put aside wanting to win so bad, and just kind of going through the motion and letting my ball striking and putting happen.”
On Thursday, Spieth was just a single stroke away from equaling the record for any round played in a major championship, shooting a 64 to distance himself from the pack in the first round.
American Charlie Hoffman finished 5 strokes behind Spieth, 9 under par for second place.
Spieth’s combined score of 130 over two rounds equals the major tournament mark set by three other golfers, two of whom – Nick Faldo at the British Open in 1992 and Martin Kaymer at the 2014 US Open – went on to beat the field.
“I’m going to try and stay in the moment and patient these last two days, and understand it is going to feel like a whole new tournament,” he said.
Donning a green jacket on Sunday will be Spieth’s priority, of course, but the sheer number of records at his fingertips will be nearly impossible to ignore.
Spieth’s 15 birdies are just 10 away from Phil Mickelson’s Masters mark set in 2001. More impressively, the American is touching distance from tournament’s four round mark of 270 set in 1997 by none other than Tiger Woods.
Woods happened to be 21 at the time, only six months younger than Spieth. It was his first of four Masters victories and 14 majors overall.
Woods is not faring badly either, shooting 3 under par on Friday to make the cut, though he is still 12 strokes behind Spieth. After missing the tournament last year due to back surgery, the 39-year-old shot under 70 for just the third time at a PGA event since his return.
“I was at a pretty low moment in my career,” Woods said on Friday about his rehabilitation process which forced him to rejig his swinging pattern yet again. Woods suffered through four knee operations over his career before his back began to flare up two years ago.
Previously, Woods knee surgeries required him to tweak his aggressive driving swing, though it was his short game that was impacted the most this time. Repetition appears to have paid off.
“We spent hours upon hours drilling it out,” said the American of his work with Chris Como, the fourth swing coach of his career who was hired in December.
“To change an entire pattern is not easy to do. It’s an old pattern, so my body was starting to remember certain things, and once I started to turn the corner, I (started) spinning good stuff,” he said.
Wood’s pal Mark O’Meara is having a throwback tournament as well. The 58-year-old stood in the top 10 of the leaderboard for most of the first two rounds, and made the cut for the first time in 10 years.
The imminent Golf Hall of Fame inductee shot a 4 under par 68, to post a collective 3 under par going into the third round.
Last year’s Masters champ Bubba Watson and last year’s PGA Tour Money Leader Rory McIlroy both struggled at times, but still managed to finish tied with Woods in 19th place going into the third round.
Three-time Masters winner Phil Mickelson finished strong with a 4 under par round to finish 6th.