There’s a New Man in Charge

We know about all the changes for the Masters at Augusta National ... longer, tighter, tougher. After what happened in Friday’s second round, please add another: stranger.

Chad Campbell leads by three shots at six-under-par 138, which is fine as long as everyone realizes it’s Chad and not Michael Campbell, the U.S. Open champion.

There is first-day leader Vijay Singh, tied for second with Fred Couples and Rocco Mediate despite a two-over 74 that included three double bogeys.

Who would have believed that 54-year-old Ben Crenshaw, a good choice to miss the cut, and Tiger Woods, a good choice to win the tournament, would have the same one-under score after 36 holes?

And then there was 68-year-old Charles Coody rebounding from his first-round 89 with a 74 and stepping one shot ahead of 26-year-old Charles Howell of Augusta, who was dead last in the 90-player field.

In a surprise move, they moved the tee up 58 yards at the par-three fourth, shortening it to 182 yards, not that it mattered to Singh (double bogey) or Woods (bogey).

The reaction of Phil Mickelson, tied for fifth after his 72, was typical:

“Unexpected, but nice.”

Not so nice was also available in abundance. There was a 10 on the second hole, perpetrated by David Duval, who had a round that clearly needed a shrink -- 43 on the front and 32 on the back.

He wasn’t the only one. All in all, there were two 9s, three 8s and enough big numbers to send a lottery ticket into a swoon.

But Duval’s quintuple-bogey 10 was a spectacular flameout. He drove into the creek, took a drop, hit a red hazard marker with his third shot, hit a tree with his fourth, took a drop for his fifth, hit another tree with his sixth, knocked it into a greenside bunker, blasted out for his eighth and two-putted.

That’s one creek, two trees, a hazard marker, a bunker and a green. The only thing Duval didn’t hit was a fairway.

In any event, it was the kind of day when everything was fair game. Campbell’s five-under 67 was the low round, and he was fortunate to have played in the morning, when the wind wasn’t gusting and swirling.

He got to six under with birdies at the 12th, 13th and 14th. He made a bogey at the 17th after missing the green but finished with a birdie at the 465-yard 18th when he hit a nine-iron from 145 yards to 15 feet. Campbell trails only Rich Beem in greens in regulation at this point.

“It’s special to be leading after two rounds,” Campbell said. “Obviously, my goal is to be leading after four rounds, but it’s a good start.”

Campbell’s record in 16 majors isn’t good -- nine missed cuts and a second at the 2003 PGA Championship, but he’s still ahead of everybody else at the midway point and there’s nothing wrong with that.

After 36 holes, the Masters is so crowded with contenders that there are 15 players within five shots of the lead. That group includes Woods, Retief Goosen and even Crenshaw, at one under 141.

Woods had a 71 but said he would have gone lower if he had managed to coax a few more birdie putts to drop. At the 16th, he missed a seven-footer and then steered an eight-footer to the left of the hole at the 18th.

“It was real tough out there,” Woods said. “Windy, swirling, it just played real difficult.”

Couples lipped out a birdie putt at the 18th that would have put him alone in second, but he still was pleased with his two-under 70. Mediate, who had a 73, and Singh are one shot ahead of Mickelson, Ernie Els, Darren Clarke, Tim Clark and David Howell.

Singh’s hat trick of double bogeys was a first for him at the Masters -- his first round Thursday was bogey free -- but he has had consecutive doubles before here, in the fourth round in 1999.

Friday, he actually birdied the first and third before disaster struck at the fourth, where the tee was moved forward to compensate for a wind blowing into the players’ faces and a difficult pin placement on the top shelf of the green at the right.

If the tee hadn’t been moved up?

“It would have just been brutal,” Woods said.

Singh missed the green with a six-iron and the ball rolled down a slope into some bushes. From a position of seven under par after three holes, Singh was at one under when he double-bogeyed the 13th, but he pulled himself together, playing the last four holes in two under.

“I’m pretty pleased with the way I finished,” he said. “Could have been a lot worse.”

Couples, 46, made his 22nd consecutive cut at the Masters and slipped only slightly at the 15th and 16th. He came up short at the 15th and the ball rolled off the green into the water, and then made another bogey at the 16th.

But he’s close once again, and even if it’s not 1992, when he won here, Couples said he couldn’t be upset.

“I’m not going to be disappointed if I don’t play well,” he said. “I don’t play great golf a lot, and that’s being in positions like this.”

Mickelson, who felt fortunate to be within reach of the leaders, hit his approach into the pond beside the 11th green and blamed the breeze.

“I was playing left to right, but it shot right to left,” he said. “But that stuff happens here.”

And with each member of the Big Five in the top 10 halfway through the Masters -- Singh, Els, Mickelson, Goosen and Woods -- it’s shaping up to be the type of weekend to remember.