Jordan Spieth upstages Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy at the Masters

Jim Nantz was pretty much spitting into the wind when he remarked recently that Tiger Woods gets too much attention at the expense of Rory McIlroy.

“Guess how many questions I got asked about Rory in that hour?” the voice of the Masters asked Ed Sherman about a series of radio interviews he granted ahead of last year’s PGA Championship. “Zero. His name never came up. It was all about Tiger. As a journalist, how do you justify that?”

The former world No. 1, Nantz conceded, was going to get a whole lot of camera time when he returned to Augusta this week from a two month hiatus. And he made a good point when he said that the guy currently atop the world golf rankings gets short shrift, considering he was going for his third consecutive major and the career grand slam.

What Nantz failed to take into account was that 21-year-old Jordan Spieth would overshadow both superstars on his way to a near-tournament-record 8-under 64 in his second start at the Masters. But that’s exactly what happened, as the youngest 18-hole leader of the Masters channeled Tiger, circa 1997, in firing an almost flawless score that gave him a three-shot lead heading into Friday’s second round.

It wasn’t like no one saw this coming. Spieth was the hottest golfer on the planet heading into the men’s first major of the season. He came into the week on the heels of a win and two second place finishes in his last three PGA Tour events.

Spieth just picked up where he left off, with birdies on eight of the first 14 holes. When he didn’t hit laser shots to pins, he calmly drained six-footers and took advantage of good bounces. After almost holing out from behind a tree on the 14th, he was left with another short putt for birdie after the ball clanged off the flagstick.

His only blemish came on the par-5 15th when he flew the green, but he made up for it when he sank a 20-footer for birdie on the par-4 18th.

“I was excited about the way I struck the ball,” Spieth said after his sensational round. “To have a couple go my way there in the middle of the round and bring it up to a really good number, yeah, I’m excited about the start.”

Woods, who said he had “a good day” after an uneven 73, was nine shots back of the young man quickly becoming the head of the Next Generation, and vying to be The Man as Tiger makes his way down the back nine of his career.

Certainly all eyes were on the 14-time major champion who last slipped on a green jacket in 2005 and whose suspect short game was as spot-on as his longer clubs were off-target. Woods, who entered the week outside the top 100 (No. 111, to be exact) for the first time since his rookie 1996 season, complained about the speed of the putting surfaces, as is his habit.

“Our entire group really struggled with the green pace. We were talking about how slow they were today,” said Woods, who said he hit “thousands upon thousands of shots” during his break to regain his Midas touch with his wedges.

“It’s my strength again,” he said. “That’s why I busted my butt.”

McIlroy, as Nantz suggested, was the forgotten man on Thursday. He acquitted himself fairly well, grinding out a 71.

“I just kept telling myself to be patient out there today. It was a tricky day,” McIlroy said. “Anything under par, I thought, was a pretty good score ... Pretty satisfied with today’s work.”

But it was really all about Spieth, who was one shot north of tying the Augusta National tournament record.

There’s much golf left to play, but should he prevail, Spieth, who will be 22 in July, would become the second-youngest golfer to win the Masters.

The youngest? Tiger Woods, who was 21 years and three months in 1997 when he lapped the field to the tune of a 17-under for the week.