Third day of the Masters
The curious thing about the 5 co-leaders after Round Two is that they possess only two Majors between them, one each for Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas.
Dustin’s only one Major (The US open) in a career in which he has won 23 titles on the USPGA and amassed just under $60m is the strangest, but by the end of today the green jacket should be his.
Jon Rahm I had tipped for his first, but a seven at the eighth makes that most unlikely.
Further down the leaderboard Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth have 27 Majors between them.
In a sporting day devoid of much else of interest the Masters was truly welcome.
A couple of ex-pros who had played the course commented on its elevation.
You simply do not play a shot on a level lie.
The wet conditions softened the greens but, as ever, it was about the second shot.
As its the only Major to be played at the same course the Masters is rich in tradition.
Butch Harman told the story of how his father Claude hit a hole in one in 1947 when he was going round with Ben Hogan who had shot a birdie.
Hogan merely noted the hole in one on his scorecard with no congratulation.
When asked about the Eisenhower tree – the location of which the former president always objected to – Harman said it had been felled and made a gorgeous table in the wine cellar.
The past lives on with Bernhard Langer, the oldest man to make the cut at 63, with Larry Mize, whose improbable chip in 1987 deprived Greg Norman, not far behind at 62.
