There is a bank right down in the south-east corner of Augusta National that is one of the prettiest little spots on the course. It is less storied than Amen Corner, for sure, and less celebrated than the hump at the back of the 2nd and the 7th, which the great Bobby Jones reckoned to be “one of the most attractive gallery centres I’ve seen on any course”. But the view there is as good as any. From it, with the slope at your back, you can see three greens. In front is the 6th, Juniper, a nasty little downhill par-three. The tee-shots fly overhead on to the green guarded by the front bunker. To the left is another par-three, the 16th, Redbud, with its long pond reaching across to the tee box, tucked around the corner and out of sight. And on to the left again beyond that is the 15th green, Firethorn, protected by its famous moat, the fairway running up and away towards the horizon.
The bank is one of those spots where the course concertinas and one can catch a glimpse of three groups at once – or four counting the fairway of the 7th. It has been popular with the patrons ever since the club opened it up and allowed them in, in 2008. Typically there are around 5,000 people or so down there. And when Bubba Watson, the two-time Masters champion and one of the most popular players in the field, arrived at the 6th at 2.30pm on Friday afternoon, pretty much every single one of them was looking the other way. They were not watching his playing partner, Justin Rose. They were not watching the fairway of the 7th, where Miguel Ángel Jiménez and Lee Westwood were getting ready to hit their drives. And they were not looking at the 16th green, where Fred Couples, another former Masters champion and crowd favourite, was lining up a putt to save par.
They were all, every last one of them, staring at the 15th, where Jordan Spieth was about to make his sixth birdie of the day and 15th of the Masters so far. Strange scenes, these: Watson, Rose, Westwood, Jiménez, Couples were all just part of the supporting cast. The only story anyone was interested in on day two was the one being written by the 21-year-old Spieth, who seemed to be playing a different game, on a simpler course, from everyone else in the field. Word of what he was doing spread fast, as news always does at Augusta, carried first by the great roars rising up from distant parts of the course and soon confirmed by the succession of red numbers rolling over on the great manual scoreboards.
Do not think for a minute that the other players did not know how Spieth was going. They could not but. And that knowledge brought its own pressures. For a start it meant that some felt they had to take risks just to try to catch hold of his coat-tails. Add to that the fact that everyone else – with the inevitable exception of Tiger Woods – was playing second fiddle, often in a surreally serene atmosphere. Watson and Rose, one of the most appealing pairings, had a small band of only 30 or so following them. It was not a role that suited Watson, who just could not seem to get his game going. He made birdies on two of the par-fives, the 2nd and the 13th, but suffered bogeys at the 4th, where he pushed his tee-shot well out to the left, far away from the flag, and the 8th.
The group arrived at the 8th just as Spieth was coming up the 18th. It was so quiet on the green that the conversation of crew working the scoreboard carried all around. “That cheering on the 18th, must be a par for Spieth.” “Yup.” “14 under. Mercy. Anyone close to him?” “Nope.” It was then that Watson’s ball plopped down in the pine needles underneath – a wicked spot to wind up in. He took two chips and two putts to get it in. He missed birdie putts, both from around nine feet, at the 12th and 15th, but picked up a shot at the 13th and another at the 17th to finish the round at one under, just as he had on day one.
Rose coped better. He made an awful start, dropping shots at the 1st, 3rd – where he three-putted – and 4th, where his tee shot landed in a bunker. After a birdie on the par-five 5th, though, he seemed to click. While Watson was suffering after his bold second shot at the 8th, Rose chose to lay up and then hit a sweet approach to three-feet or so for a simple birdie. There was another at the 10th, followed, though, by a bogey at the 11th after he mis-hit his second and had to play out of the thick of the gallery, the stewards scattering the patrons so there was room for him to swing. After the sting of that he came home strong, with birdies following fine tee-shots at two par-threes, the 12th and 16th, and another at the par-five 15th. It was the best golf he played all day.
By then he was back at the corner. And if the crowd was a little thinner than it had been last time he passed that way, they were at least all watching him. He finished two under for the round, seven under overall, making him one of the few within sniffing distance of that man Spieth.
