With the wicked weather comes Saturday

Day two of the Masters was pretty much the same as day one with a five-o-clock shadow.

Everyone struggled, a couple of people had solid rounds (but nobody went low) and the top players continued to tread water, waiting for the other guys to come to them. The one thing that the hard and fast Augusta National has done is to not let anyone get to far away. Guys like Padraig Harrington and Paul Casey shot opening rounds of 77 and 79, but both shot the rounds of the week, 68, to pull themselves within five shots of leaders Tim Clark and Brett Wetterich.

It is supposed to be COLD today (it’s snowing in my hometown, Marshall, Texas), and the accompanying picture, courtesy of PGATour.com, tells all.

A couple of other points:

-Names like Ernie Els, Chris Dimarco, and Sergio Garcia miss the cut and the biggest story of the week is the struggles of Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods. You’re telling me that two guys “struggling” to a tie for 15th and 27th place are more than some of the best in the world not even making it to the weekend?

-It is amazing to me that guys are struggling so much from 150 yards in. I understand the conditions are something I can’t even fathom, but as a scratch golfer one has to believe that they are letting it control their thoughts. Just hit a shot 140 yards and let it bounce a couple of times to the hole. No way it is this hard to play a course from 150 yards in.

-The player I’m most impressed with so far is Geoff Ogilvy. The kid triple-bogeyed his second hole of the tournament and instead of tanking, has played his remaining 34 holes 2-under.

-Of the players in the top ten right now (all 13 of them), I’d say that David Howell, Ogilvy, Vijah Singh and Harrington are the only ones to worry about. I think the other names are the ones that will get lost in the shuffle come Saturday afternoon.

-Stuff like number 12 playing the second hardest hole at Augusta National makes me almost demand an invitation to play there. I just DON’T GET that it can play that a short-iron par-3 can play that hard, even with the wind swirling. I’m befuddled.