Masters leaderboard 2015: Jordan Spieth leads at 8-under heading into Friday’s second round

It really shouldn’t be this easy for a 21-year-old playing in just his second Masters. But Jordan Spieth lit up Augusta National on Thursday afternoon to race out to a three-shot lead and nearly match a tournament scoring record.

Rory McIlroy may hold the title of world No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings, but Spieth is the hottest player on the planet right now. In his last three starts, he has a win and two second-place finishes. He’s 110-under par in his last 11 events, and has really been on a tear since December of last year. It’s no surprise to see him on top of the Masters leaderboard as the second round starts. But how he got there was still incredible to watch.

Spieth carved up Augusta in a number of ways. He drained putts, some even he didn’t think were going in the cup.

There were also putts you knew and he knew were going in before he even took the club back. No one is rolling it better right now.

But last year’s runner-up also made several marvelous approach shots, some from the junk to recover and get back in the hole. His hybrid on the 7th was one of the best shots you’ll ever see from the trees on what is one of Augusta’s toughest holes. That saved par there. He caught a few fortunate bounces, like the kick he got out of the trees at the 13th when he busted his drive right through the dogleg.

It was incredible to watch, and standing on the 15th tee, you thought there was no way he wouldn’t at least match the major championship scoring record of 63. He only needed another birdie to get to that 9-under number and match, and the 15th is one of the best birdie (or even eagle) chances out there. But it was at that point that Spieth said he started thinking about just how good a score he was putting together and the possibility of setting a new record and getting to 10-under. He got aggressive and airmailed the 15th green in two, and gave his first and only shot back to the course to wipe out those hopes of the record.

Spieth made eight birdies through his first 14 holes before making that bogey. But he wasn’t done yet, and decided to pour in one more longish putt at the 18th to finish it off and get back to 8-under.

It’s an astounding number and probably won’t be matched by anyone over the final three rounds. Augusta is notorious for making the course tougher for the middle two rounds. Sunday is little easier because they want the possibility of birdies and leaderboard movement, especially on the back nine. But don’t expect many mid-60s rounds on Friday. The greens should be running faster and the pin placements a bit tougher.

Several players, including Tiger Woods, said Thursday’s greens even seemed slow. Others called them “receptive” and the course “gettable.” This isn’t the U.S. Open, where even-par is some sacred number (that often produces boring golf). But the green jackets don’t want a bunch of guys in double digits under par before the weekend even starts. Here’s where things stand at the top of Friday’s second round: