The wind is down by 10mph and is more from the SSE as opposed to the E yesterday, and as a result scoring is much lower nearly halfway through round 2 on the Blue Monster at Doral.
Bubba Watson started on 10 and went out in 31and he is at -8, Justin Rose though is -6 through 10 to lead at -9.
Rory started eagle, birdie playing off the 1st to get to -2, Martin Kaymer is -5 through 8 holes playing off 10, -4 total so far.
The drive at 18 is much easier today, only 30 pars yesterday, and the most of the guys are getting home with mid irons. Yesterday nobody made it past 270 yards with their drive, Tiger has just smoked one 310. He is -2 today playing off 10, T23 right now.
GMac is -5 through 5 today -2 total..
ROUND 2 WRAP****
What a difference a day makes. The Blue Monster played nearly 3 shots less difficult, 18 lost most of her teeth, and the scoreboard is littered with 64's 65's and at the top of the class is Bubba Watson with a -10 62 -12 total. He swapped the lead all day with Justin Rose who is second -8 64 -11, with Adam Scott 68, now at -10 in third.
The average score was 69.9, close to three strokes easier than the opening round. There were 12 scores in the 60s on Thursday, and 31 of them Friday. Watson and Rose put on an amazing show of birdies, making 17 between them.
This course obviously favours the big bombers and this week Bubba is the biggest. He leads the tournament in driving distance with a 323.5 average, which includes two drives of 373 yards, downwind, of course at No. 1 on Thursday and at No. 2 on Friday.
Tiger explains that the game has outgrown the redo that Ray Floyd gave it in 1997. "When Raymond did the redo on the bunkers, at the time, 280 was a carry," said Woods,"Now, you know, most of the golf courses we play, it's 310 to 320. If we get normal wind, or no wind at all, these bunkers really are not in play."So the longer hitters, it's just drive it down there and you've got a wedge in your hands"
Bubba playing with a pink driver (charity) is one of those guys in sport who is worth the price of admission. Barry Sanders, Mohammed Ali, Gretzky, Lemieux, George Best, Arnold Palmer, Tiger were all those kinds of guys, liable to do something jaw dropping special. Bubba with the Blue Monster in a less severe wind, with soft greens and fairways just shredded it with an array of shots that was unbelievable.
On the par 5 8th, he drove the ball dead into the wind 307 yards dead straight, nobody else in the field was within 20 yards, then he stood on a 3 iron from 225 that was never more than 20 feet off the ground, a shot he described as dead straight, over the water to 10 feet, made the putt for eagle.. special..
Lot's of guys made their moves, Kaymer 64 now at -7, Tiger who didn't get all he could have out of his round, 67 now -5, Luke was solid if unspectacular 68, now -6, Rory started eagle, birdie, said he couldn't get the speed of the greens right 69, now -2, Thomas Bjorn whom I tipped yesterday had another steady 68, still without a bogey, now -8. Mickelson 71 is at -1
All in all there are 19 guys going down to Tiger at -5 who are within 7 shots of Bubba going into the weekend, and that doesn't include Rory or Lee Westwood who recovered with a 67 of his own on Friday to stand at -1
The weather for Saturday has the wind at 20kph from the east by this afternoon, which is the tough wind, Friday it swung to the SSE which made 18 easier. It is dead calm in Miami at 6am this morning, all being said it looks like another day to go low.
Notable pairings for Saturday, Rory and GMac, Tiger and Stricker, Bubba and Rose again, Scott and Peter Hanson who shot 65 and is quietly at -9, my guy Bjorn and Bradley both at -8. It will be another fun day at Doral and please note the tee times are moved up from 11am to begin at 745am.
for live scoring click here....http://www.worldgolfchampionships.com/leaderboards/current/r473/
round 3 tee times click.. http://www.worldgolfchampionships.com/tournaments/r473/tee-times.html
Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles and at http://www.isr1050.com/
(with notes from pgatour.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment