Making a Left Turn

By Thomas Bonk

April 12, 2003 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

AUGUSTA, Ga. —

Say what you will about the 67th Masters, but it’s scoring pretty high marks right away, if quirkiness means anything. If you won’t be able to tell the protesters without the scorecards today, then you also shouldn’t take on this tournament without having some professional help on standby.

So slow down for the lowdown here in Mudville, where they couldn’t start the first round Thursday, couldn’t end the second round Friday, and where nobody will know who the second-round leader is or even who has made the cut until, oh, just before lunch today.

Here at soggy Augusta National Golf Club, the day began with Tiger Woods shooting a 76 in the first round, U.S. Amateur champion Ricky Barnes beating him by seven shots and 73-year-old Arnold Palmer beating 63-year-old Jack Nicklaus by two shots.

Darkness ended play with 18 players done and 75 players still on the course. Among them are two left-handers and an Irishman fighting for the lead, Barnes in fourth place and Woods closer to the cut than the lead.

Other than that, it was a routine day.

No left-hander has won the Masters, but Mike Weir is six under and owns a two-shot lead over Darren Clarke after playing 12 holes in the second round.

Weir did the math.

“I’m going to have 24 holes to play,” he said. “It’s important that I established myself and got into a nice flow. I hope to establish a rhythm early in the round and maintain that for the rest of the day. That’s my plan anyway.”

Clarke, who steered clear of mud with a 66 in the first round, is two over after 10 holes in the second round, which means his four-under total trails Weir by two shots. Clarke was grateful.

“If somebody would have said, ‘You’re four under after 28 holes’ last night, I would have bitten their hand off.”

Next is Phil Mickelson, another lefty, who opened with a 73 but cleaned the mud off his shoes and played the first 11 holes of the second round in three under. Mickelson is only two shots behind Clarke.

The pace of play bothered Mickelson, which is what rounds lasting nearly six hours will do to you.

“I didn’t think that trying to play 36 holes in one day was going to be a negative or be difficult,” he said. “I thought that guys playing well would be able to take advantage.

“The difficulty of it was taking so long to play. I can’t remember the last time we played a six-hour round here. We used to play twosomes and we would play in under four hours every time.”

As for Woods, the clock seems to be ticking. Trying to win an unprecedented third consecutive green jacket, he fought his way back from the 76 and is two under through 10 holes of the second round. That puts Woods at two over for the tournament and eight shots behind Weir.

Woods said he was forced to hit six shots when there was mud on the ball.

“It’s just the way it goes,” Woods said. “Everybody has to deal with it.”

The strategy is simple for Woods, who talked it over with caddie Steve Williams and came up with a quick plan. Tiger thinks that if he can get his score back to even par by the end of the second round, then he’s right where he wants to be.

Of course, leading would have been better, but then so would have been making a birdie in the first 18 holes, which Woods couldn’t do either. It has been a while since that happened; Tiger last went birdieless in the third round of the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie.

The cut line at the Masters is the low 40 players plus ties and anyone within 10 shots of the lead, which is at four over right now.

On the bubble are Ernie Els and Retief Goosen at four over, with Davis Love III at three over. Neither Els nor Love helped themselves with their first rounds, not with Els turning in a 79 and Love a 77.

Els will pick up at the 12th tee.

“It is not the greatest hole to start on, but somebody has got to do it, so I’ll do it,” he said. “It has been tough dealing so far, but this is where we are at.”

It has been a long, strange journey, and only one day. It was tough getting out of the gate, for most everyone. In the first round, 15 players shot their worst score at the Masters and six others tied their worst.

Plus, through a round and a half, there have been 816 holes played over par. There were 943 holes played over par in all four rounds in the 2001 Masters.

By the time they stopped play and started adding up the scores Friday night, the results of the dawn-to-dusk endurance test were apparent. Only four players are under par -- Weir, Clarke, Mickelson and Barnes, who played in the same group as Woods.

Barnes hooked his tee shot at the first hole and Woods offered him some reassurance.

“He came up to me and said, ‘Relax, things are going to be OK, it’s going to be a long day.’ And that was kind of reassuring to get that after the first hook. Things went well after that. I hit a great recovery shot and he said, ‘See?’ ”

There is no rain in today’s forecast, which is a novelty, only the completion of the second round and the entire third round to be played.

“This golf course is such that you can’t go out there and then really push it and try to make a lot of birdies,” Woods said. “You’ve got to be very patient. That’s what I’ve tried to do.”

With 28 holes down and 44 more to go for Woods in this muddy and muddled Masters, there’s plenty of time left for his patience to be tested ... his and everyone else’s.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Leaderboard

Leaders in the second round of the Masters at Augusta National. Included are first-round scores and number of holes played in the second round. Play will resume this morning, with the cut made after completion of second round:

Leaders

*--* Player 1st 2nd Score Mike Weir 70 12 -6 Darren Clarke 66 10 -4 Phil Mickelson 73 11 -2 Ricky Barnes 69 10 -1 Brad Faxon 73 17 E Jonathan Byrd 73 15 E Paul Lawrie 72 13 E Vijay Singh 73 11 E David Toms 71 11 E

*--*

Others

Player 1st 2nd Score

Nick Price 70 75 +1

J. Maria Olazabal 73 16 +1

Nick Faldo 74 12 +1

Jim Furyk 73 11 +1

Sergio Garcia 69 10 +1

Charles Howell III 73 10 +1

Fred Couples 73 16 +2

Mark O’Meara 76 13 +2

Tiger Woods 76 10 +2