McIlroy heads into weekend leader of Masters at -10; Woods, Day surge near top of leaderboard

By Ray Bennett
Friday April 8, 2011

Heading into Saturday's third round at The Masters, everyone will have their sights set on one 21-year-old Northern Irishman and a former four time champion.

Rory McIlroy retained his his first round lead by shooting a 69 to extend his tournament total to 10 under-par in Friday's second round of The Masters. Entering the day he was tied with two other golfers, Alvaro Quiros and Y.E Yang, who, at one point, was in the lead while shooing on the front nine.

McIlroy shot a 33 on the front nine, with birdies on holes two, five and nine. His only mishap of the day was a bogey on the twelfth hole. He quickly recovered on the next hole with a birdie and finished his round shooing for par on his remaining five holes.

Quiros was still at -7 entering the back nine. He ran into trouble on the Par 3 twelfth hole with a double bogey, sending his score down to -5. He finished the day at -6 after a birdie on the eighteenth hole.

Yang started his second round on a roll. After a bogey on the first hole, he quickly came back with three consecutive birdies on two, three and four. Yang held the tournament lead for the first time in his career after a birdie on the eight hole. However, that lead would be short lived as he bogied nine, ten and sixteen to finish the round back at -5 and tied for seventh.

The biggest mover of the day was 23-year-old Australian Jason Day. After shooting at par in the first round, Day dominated Augusta with eight birdies to lift him to just two strokes back of McIlroy. This is Day's first time competing at The Masters.

Not too far behind McIlroy and Day is Tiger Woods, who shot a 66 to a tie in third with K.J Choi at -7. Woods struggled to start his second round, with bogies on three of his first seven holes at even par. Once his group hit the eighth hole, we began to see the Tiger Woods of old, obtaining three consecutive birdies. He had another string of consecutive birdies on thirteen, fourteen and fifteen. He finished his surge with a 3 on the the Par 4 eighteen hole, ending the day with a back nine score of 31.

Friday was also the day the tournament had to cut the field down to just a handful of golfers. The cutline this year at Augusta was at +1. Only 49 golfers managed to get at or above the desired cutline. Among those who made it into the weekend was veteran South African Ernie Els. Els entered the day at three over par. After a bogey on the tenth hole, Els needed a miracle to stay alive. He got it in the form of an eagle on the Par 5 thirteenth hole. Els birdied the next two holes and finished the day with a 70.

Those who missed the cut include the world's number one ranked golfer Martin Kaymer, who only managed to shoot at +6 for his two days in the tournament. Other notable names that missed the cut include Anthony Kim (+2), Zach Johnson (+2), Lucas Glover (+2), Graeme McDowell (+3), Retief Goosen (+4), Padraig Harrington (+5), and former Masters champions Mark O' Meara (+6), Jose Maria Olazabal (+6), Tom Watson (+7), Vijay Singh (+10), and Mike Weir (+11).

The Third Round of The Masters begins at 10:45 A.M on Saturday with Ernie Els teeing off. The weather outlook at Augusta National calls for a possible thunderstorm in the afternoon and highs in the mid to upper 80s.