2016 Masters leaderboard: Rory McIlroy makes early move at Jordan Spieth’s lead

Please, please let this happen, golf gods.

It’s verrrrry early on a windy-ish Augusta Friday that seems to be getting the best of the morning tee times, but one player has made his early move. Rory McIlroy has shot into second place with birdies on two of his first three holes. The par-5 second is an easy scoring hole and someone with McIlroy’s power simply has to get a red number there. Jason Day poured in an eagle putt there on Thursday, and while those are certainly gettable at No. 2, a birdie is just fine for Rory’s purposes.

The big scoring chances for McIlroy are all on the par-5s at Augusta. It’s something he’s repeated over and over in recent weeks. A big part of his early struggles and underwhelming rounds at the Masters all came back to unacceptable performance on the par-5s. And the reason he’s played better at Augusta is he’s become more familiar with how to get the most out of those par-5s. Yesterday he played the par-5s in 4-under, with an eagle and a birdie at Nos. 13 and 15 to make a late charge.

Today, he backed up his birdie on the par-5 second with another red number at another potential scoring hole, the short par-4 third. There, he bombed his drive 308 yards and hit a wedge to six feet, which he cleaned up to move to 3-under. That erases the damage he did on the final three holes Thursday, when he dropped shots at the 16th and 18th to stunt his second nine momentum.

It’s out there for McIlroy, arguably the most talented golfer in the world. He can make a major move and pass Spieth before the defending champion is barely into his round.

Aside from Rory, the only other significant mover on Friday morning is Davis Love III. The 51-year-old American Ryder Cup Captain is making his 20th start at Augusta and is 3-under through his first 10 holes, good enough to move inside the top 10. Here’s an early look at the top of the second round board: