Masters tee times 2016: Featured groups, pairings for Friday’s round

The 2016 Masters started in much the same way that the 2015 Masters ended, with Jordan Spieth back on top of the leaderboard. Spieth raced out again to the 18-hole lead, using his early opening round tee time to join the co-lead by the sixth hole and then never looking back. His round was not as much a runaway as last year’s 8-under 64, but the 6-under 66 was just as impressive. A bogey-free march in windier conditions had him at the end of the round saying he would have gladly signed for a 2-under 70 and never hit a shot on Thursday.

The thinking was that Spieth caught the fortunate end of the draw on Thursday, posting a number before the winds really strengthened for the afternoon tee times. But it stayed about the same. Heading into the second round, the early prognostications are that the early-to-mid morning section of the tee sheet will get the best draw on Friday. There’s supposed to be some more rain overnight that will soften the course up yet again to present what may be some of the better scoring conditions before the winds are supposed to start whipping, especially on Saturday. Spieth is in the second half of the draw on Friday, going out just before 1 p.m. ET.

The big names in the morning draw include Bubba Watson, Jason Day, and Rory McIlroy. All three had their stumbles on the second nine on Thursday, but Rory managed to avoid to the most damage. He gave back two shots over his final three holes, but thanks to an eagle and a birdie on the two par-5s, still came out of it well enough. He’s 2-under, four shots back of Spieth, with an opportunity to perhaps go out on a softer golf course and put a charge into Augusta two hours ahead of the leader’s tee time.

Last year in Friday’s round, Rory watched as Jordan played ahead and posted another low number to set a new 36-hole scoring record at 14-under. Whether that flustered him or not, Rory went out in 40 on the his front 9 and fell on the wrong side of the cut line before catching fire on the second nine coming into the clubhouse. He can’t afford any kind of number like that 40 on this Friday.

The 89-player field means the green jackets still have all the flexibility in the world when it comes to setting their tee sheet even before the cut is made. Everyone gets to go off the first tee -- there’s none of this split tee nonsense trying to cram 156 players through 18 holes. The wind did not exactly help facilitate the pace of play on Thursday, leading to several five-hour rounds and sometimes 15-18 minutes to play each hole. The weather should not be bad enough to create any kind of delay, but the wind will again slow things down -- especially with a field now worried about the cut line and how every dropped shot might affect their positioning around it.

Here’s the full tee sheet for the second round:

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