Masters 2016 leaderboard and results: Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy lead at Augusta!

The golf gods have blessed us at the 2016 edition of the Masters. We’ve been asking for a Rory McIlroy-Jordan Spieth rivalry to start budding, and for the first time at a major championship they will play together on the weekend. Oh, also, it will be the final pairing of the day.

Spieth sits on the lead at the Masters for the sixth straight round -- a new record. But he’s not exactly going to bed feeling great about himself. The defending champion started his round on fire, making an immediate statement on the difficult 1st hole that this might be another runaway on the weekend like last year. A birdie at the 1st, then a dart to just two feet at the 3rd pushed him to 8-under for the tournament. At that point, he had a five-shot lead, extending the margin and looking flawless on a course that was beating everyone else up all day.

The back-to-back green jacket celebration on social media came to a quick end on the 5th hole, however, when Spieth four-putted for double bogey to give the rest of what seemed like a hopeless field of chasers a gift.

Spieth’s putter is his best weapon. He makes the 15-25 footers to save pars and make birdies you’re not supposed to make better than anyone else in the world. But the winds and the “crusty” greens, as he put it, made things especially difficult for him late in the day and he tumbled back toward the field and McIlroy.

Down in Amen Corner at the 11th green, he was put on the clock and it clearly pissed him off as he tried to play and be deliberate in the wind. After those two early birdies, Spieth played the final 14 holes at 4-over. The five bogeys (or worse) are the most he’s ever posted in his short but ludicrously successful Masters career. He made bogeys at the 16th and 17th and needed a lengthy par-saving putt across the 18th green just to stay ahead of McIlroy by a shot.

Rory played about two hours ahead of Spieth and was happy to get into the clubhouse with a 1-under 71 on the day. No one broke 70 on Friday, the first time that’s happened at the Masters since 2007. So Rory’s under-par 71 was a hell of a round, especially considering that he had double bogey on the card. It’s been those big numbers that keep preventing Rory from stacking up PGA Tour wins, and keeping him from that green jacket in recent years. Fortunately for him, it seemed everyone could not avoid that kind of mess in their round in these conditions.

McIlroy started the day at 2-under but was up to even by the time he hit the par-3 12th, needing to put a run together to get back on the fist page of the leaderboard. It turned there for Rory and he played the last seven holes in a clean 3-under to shoot into solo second. Two of the birdies came at the 13th and 15th, those gettable par-5s for the power-hitting McIlroy. He’s stated over and over that those holes are the difference in his success or failure at Augusta. Earlier in his career, he’d throw shots away at those massive opportunities. In recent years he’s piled up red numbers, and this year he’s 7-under on the par-5s through two rounds.

Carving up the par-5s, even at that incredible rate, is a must for Rory. But the bomb he dropped on a sidewinding putt at the par-3 16th was all gravy and the difference between an even-par round and matching the round of the day at 71.

Everything over the next 24 hours will be about Rory vs. Jordan. There may be no oxygen left to assess other topics. But, thanks in large part to Jordan coming back to the field, this is a bunched-up 36-hole leaderboard and the smallest margin the leader has had at this point in 20 years.

Here’s your leaderboard at the midpoint at Augusta: