Author: Staff / Source: wrdw.com
AUGUSTA, GA (WRDW/WAGT) — Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka were in the final groups that took the course at Augusta National on Thursday afternoon.
By all accounts, they took full advantage of the late day with each holding a six under lead heading into round two of the Masters.
Both men dominated the back nine late Thursday with DeChambeau, who finds himself tied with Koepka on the Leader Board, grabbing six birdies to Koepka’s five.
“What a magical back nine,” DeChambeau said. Wind started to pick up, right around Amen Corner, and it was tough. It was not easy one bit. But we just stuck to what we knew we should have done, and we did, and was able to execute a beautiful 9‑iron on 12 that kind of jump started my back nine, hitting it to five feet, making that putt got me rolling.”
Koepka, meanwhile, is not paying attention to DeChambeau or Phil Mickelson — his two main competitors on the Leader Board late Thursday.
“I’m not playing with them, so I don’t really see them. I don’t know. I can only watch Paul Casey and Jordan Spieth play golf. Can’t really watch anybody else. I have a hard enough time doing that as it is,” Koepka said. “I’m focused on what I’ve got to do.”
With the Leader Board now clear for the day, let’s take a look around the course.
Phil Mickelson, now here’s a guy who’s enjoying himself
Phil Mickelson is going to be a fan-favorite whenever he plays, but he seemed to be enjoying himself on the course.
“It was a lot of fun,” Mickelson said. “And it’s fun to finish off the round. It’s fun to make a good par save on 17 and birdie the last. It’s fun to finish a good round off rather than leak one here or there coming in. So it was a good day.
Finding himself at No. 3 after shooting 67 on the day, Mickelson’s also feeling pretty good about his chances — especially after he had some trouble on No. 10 and his ball went for a drink on No. 11.
“It looked like after bogeying 10 and 11 that that’s not ‑‑ that would kill some momentum. It was the other way around, because I made two great bogeys that should have and could have been doubles. After going in the water at 11 to hit that close and have an easy bogey and then to make a 6‑footer for bogey on 10 after a terrible drive, those were almost momentum maintainers, if you will, that kept me in it,” Mickelson said.
Tiger’s happy, but focused on the magic number 70.
Just before 4:30 p.m., Tiger Woods finished up his first round at the Masters just two under par and one under sharing the lead.
The four-time champ sucked up most of…
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