The soft conditions have dramatically affected play. I said I didn't like Jason's chances this week because his inaccuracy off the tee (and he's only hit 52% of his fairways this week) would put too much strain on his short game. The rough at Sawgrass is notoriously tough, but playing from the unexpectedly short rough to soft greens have given him a sizable advantage after all. (I believe he's gotten up-and-down 8 out of 8 times so far, as of this writing.) He's well on his way to obliterating Greg Norman's scoring records.
Likewise, other long hitters have posted pretty good scores thus far while the shorter but more accurate players aren't benefiting as much from the conditions. The cut is likely to be -2, the lowest cut in years, and scoring records that have lasted for two decades are already falling. How good is the scoring? Up until this year, no one had ever shot 29 on the back 9.
We've already seen THREE 29s this week -- Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Kevin Chappell.
I picked Rickie Fowler to be the first back-to-back winner. Instead, he has missed the cut. His poor short game performance caught me completely off-guard. If I had known these conditions would exist, he would have been an even bigger favorite in my picks!
The rest of the second round picks up this morning on GC at 9am ET. Jason still has four holes left to finish his round, but he's already tied with Norman's all-time low 36-hole score. It's hard to believe he won't beat it, especially since the course will probably be soft again that early in the day.
But it's also hard to believe that the Tour won't firm up the course for this weekend, especially since the greens will be torn out on Tuesday so it won't matter if they have a near-death experience. Knowing that, I wouldn't want to face those greens on Sunday!
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