Masters leaderboard 2015: Jordan Spieth leads at 8-under heading into Friday's second round

Thursday afternoon was one of the best opening days at Augusta in recent years, and the leaderboard is set up for a fun second loop on Friday.

It really shouldn't be this easy for a 21-year-old playing in just his second Masters. But Jordan Spieth lit up Augusta National on Thursday afternoon to race out to a three-shot lead and nearly match a tournament scoring record.

Rory McIlroy may hold the title of world No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings, but Spieth is the hottest player on the planet right now. In his last three starts, he has a win and two second-place finishes. He's 110-under par in his last 11 events, and has really been on a tear since December of last year. It's no surprise to see him on top of the Masters leaderboard as the second round starts. But how he got there was still incredible to watch.

Spieth carved up Augusta in a number of ways. He drained putts, some even he didn't think were going in the cup.

Always nice to accidentally make a birdie on 12. https://t.co/3L1uoocpfy

— Trevor Reaske (@TrevorReaske) April 9, 2015

There were also putts you knew and he knew were going in before he even took the club back. No one is rolling it better right now.

But last year's runner-up also made several marvelous approach shots, some from the junk to recover and get back in the hole. His hybrid on the 7th was one of the best shots you'll ever see from the trees on what is one of Augusta's toughest holes. That saved par there. He caught a few fortunate bounces, like the kick he got out of the trees at the 13th when he busted his drive right through the dogleg.

It was incredible to watch, and standing on the 15th tee, you thought there was no way he wouldn't at least match the major championship scoring record of 63. He only needed another birdie to get to that 9-under number and match, and the 15th is one of the best birdie (or even eagle) chances out there. But it was at that point that Spieth said he started thinking about just how good a score he was putting together and the possibility of setting a new record and getting to 10-under. He got aggressive and airmailed the 15th green in two, and gave his first and only shot back to the course to wipe out those hopes of the record.

Spieth made eight birdies through his first 14 holes before making that bogey. But he wasn't done yet, and decided to pour in one more longish putt at the 18th to finish it off and get back to 8-under.

Sixty. Four. http://ift.tt/1yZQCM1

— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) April 9, 2015

It's an astounding number and probably won't be matched by anyone over the final three rounds. Augusta is notorious for making the course tougher for the middle two rounds. Sunday is little easier because they want the possibility of birdies and leaderboard movement, especially on the back nine. But don't expect many mid-60s rounds on Friday. The greens should be running faster and the pin placements a bit tougher.

Several players, including Tiger Woods, said Thursday's greens even seemed slow. Others called them "receptive" and the course "gettable." This isn't the U.S. Open, where even-par is some sacred number (that often produces boring golf). But the green jackets don't want a bunch of guys in double digits under par before the weekend even starts. Here's where things stand at the top of Friday's second round:

Place	Player	Score	Round 1
1	Jordan Spieth	-8	64
T2	Charley Hoffman	-5	67
T2	Justin Rose	-5	67
T2	Ernie Els	-5	67
T2	Jason Day	-5	67
T6	Russell Henley	-4	68
T6	Sergio Garcia	-4	68
T8	Bill Haas	-3	69
T8	Webb Simpson	-3	69
T8	Paul Casey	-3	69
T8	Ryan Palmer	-3	69
T12	Kevin Streelman	-2	70
T12	Patrick Reed	-2	70
T12	Dustin Johnson	-2	70
T12	Phil Mickelson	-2	70
T12	Seung-yul Noh	-2	70
T12	Billy Horschel	-2	70
T18	Danny Willett	-1	71
T18	Gary Woodland	-1	71
T18	Tom Watson	-1	71
T18	Stephen Gallacher	-1	71
T18	Keegan Bradley	-1	71
T18	Anirban Lahiri	-1	71
T18	Bubba Watson	-1	71
T18	Hideki Matsuyama	-1	71
T18	Charl Schwartzel	-1	71
T18	Rory McIlroy	-1	71
T18	Cameron Tringale	-1	71
T18	Graeme McDowell	-1	71
T18	John Senden	-1	71
T31	Camilo Villegas	E	72
T31	Jonas Blixt	E	72
T31	Adam Scott	E	72
T31	Zach Johnson	E	72
T31	Louis Oosthuizen	E	72
T31	Angel Cabrera	E	72
T31	Chris Kirk	E	72
T31	Thomas Bjorn	E	72
T31	Padraig Harrington	E	72
T31	Matt Kuchar	E	72
T41	Ian Poulter	1	73
T41	Lee Westwood	1	73
T41	Steve Stricker	1	73
T41	Matt Every	1	73
T41	Morgan Hoffmann	1	73
T41	Erik Compton	1	73
T41	Bernhard Langer	1	73
T41	Mark O'Meara	1	73
T41	James Hahn	1	73
T41	Henrik Stenson	1	73
T41	Tiger Woods	1	73
T41	Jimmy Walker	1	73
T41	Rickie Fowler	1	73
T54	Byron Meth	2	74
T54	Darren Clarke	2	74
T54	Kevin Na	2	74
T54	Jason Dufner	2	74
T54	Sang-Moon Bae	2	74
T54	Ryan Moore	2	74
T54	Brandt Snedeker	2	74
T54	Ben Martin	2	74
T54	Sandy Lyle	2	74
T54	Geoff Ogilvy	2	74
T54	Jim Furyk	2	74
T54	Mikko Ilonen	2	74
T54	Brooks Koepka	2	74
T54	Victor Dubuisson	2	74
T54	Jamie Donaldson	2	74
T69	Vijay Singh	3	75
T69	Ian Woosnam	3	75
T69	Bernd Wiesberger	3	75
T69	Shane Lowry	3	75
T69	Hunter Mahan	3	75
T69	Thongchai Jaidee	3	75
T69	Branden Grace	3	75
T69	Luke Donald	3	75
T77	Brian Harman	4	76
T77	Joost Luiten	4	76
T77	J.B. Holmes	4	76
T77	Martin Kaymer	4	76
T77	Trevor Immelman	4	76
T77	Scott Harvey	4	76
T77	Matias Dominguez	4	76
84	Kevin Stadler	5	77
T85	Larry Mize	6	78
T85	Miguel Jimenez	6	78
T85	Antonio Murdaca	6	78
T85	Bradley Neil	6	78
T89	Ben Crane	7	79
T89	Jose Maria Olazabal	7	79
T89	Fred Couples	7	79
T92	Corey Conners	8	80
T92	Brendon Todd	8	80
T92	Robert Streb	8	80
95	Mike Weir	10	82
96	Gunn Yang	13	85
97	Ben Crenshaw	19	91

Source SBNation.com - All Posts http://ift.tt/1av3DqV