Jordan Spieth is leading the Masters. We shouldn’t have expected anything different.

Something about the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. Perhaps I’m insane. Perhaps all of us, or at least anyone who thought Jordan Spieth wouldn’t contend at The Masters after a slow start to 2018, should be described as such.

Because here we are again.

The three-time major champion and 2015 jacket winner will take a three shot lead over Tony Finau into Friday’s second round at The Masters, damn near lapping the field on Thursday with a crazy-good 6-under-par 66 to open the first major of the year. In now 17 career rounds at The Masters, Spieth has led after nine of them. That’s absolutely absurd, it’s domination at a single venue that isn’t seen in golf. For context: that Tiger Woods guy we’re all talking about this week? He’s won the Green Jacket four times. He’s held the lead here after nine rounds, too. He’s also played 79.

The somehow-still-24-year-old Texan had the second-to-last tee time of the day on Thursday, benefiting from calm conditions at the round’s close to reel off five straight birdies down the homestretch from holes 13 to 17 to rise from a couple shots off the lead to well in control heading into Friday.

He came to the 18th three clear of Finau, before a bit of a hiccup at the last. A hard snap-hook left off the final tee found Spieth buried in the left-side treeline, and having to punch out slightly backwards toward the very leading edge of the 18th fairway. A fairway wood from 250 up the hill left him about a 40-yard pitch to the pin, which produced a beautiful up-and-in for bogey to finish at 66 — and leave him two shots clear heading to Friday.

It’s completely absurd that Spieth’s in this position once again, all the while it’s not. He’s not won since his last major conquest last summer at the Open Championship, battled mononucleosis through December, and had struggled mentally with the short and midrange putts that have been his strength all through the early season. After his Thursday round, he mentioned finding a “trigger” to fix his putting in the weeks leading up to this event, stating what he’s found since an early exit at the WGC-Match Play in Austin will be “secrets that, you know, maybe if it propels to anything special, I’ll write about someday”

But perhaps, the “trigger” doesn’t even matter all that much. Perhaps, at places like Augusta, where we see Bernhard Langers and Vijay Singhs and Fred Coupleses dipping a toe into contention year after year, history, comfortability, and knowledge clearly matter far more than anything else. Perhaps, it’s straight up simply that Spieth in major championships is something we haven’t seen since peak Tiger Woods in the mid-aughts. Call him a gamer, a guy that can turn it on when he wants, whatever. We can read into form as much as you’d like, doubt him as much as you want. Clearly, none of that matters. Here’s what I had to say on this exact subject in our full field ranking from a couple of days ago, when we all should’ve seen this performance coming from a mile away:

Jordan Spieth has not played all that much good golf to start 2018, but here we are, alas, ranking Jordan Spieth in the top five to win the dang Masters because it feels weird to not have him here. I think I have to. I think it’s law. He’s struggled with short putts all season, and his putting is what makes up for the lackluster length and ballstriking where he can give shots away to other longer players. This is, in theory, massively concerning — and cause for me considering JS outside the top ten in my rankings ahead of the Houston Open.

Then he turned in a nice high finish at Houston, all my theories are now upside down, and at this point I’m not sure what he’s done leading up to Augusta even matters anymore. Jordan at Augusta is horse-for-course idealism. I can wildly scream at you about concerning strokes-gained putting stats now, only for him to sleep on a three-shot 54 hole lead later in the week. I’m not gonna be foolish. He can win, because this is Jordan Spieth at Augusta National, and no stats or projections really matter when it comes to this guy at this place. Nothing at all matters, actually. We’re all trapped on a space rock, waiting for the sun to explode and life to immediately cease. He’s going to probably win. I’m gonna look stupid. Eat at Arby’s.

With a former champion (who should probably have three green jackets) holding a two-shot lead, we’ve now got a clear favorite to the finish here. That doesn’t mean it’ll be easy. Spieth’s yippy short putting will be put to the test under pressure over the next two days, and any nerves will be ratcheted up to 11 on Sunday. If there are flaws in your game, mentally or physically, you can be damn sure Augusta National will find them on Sunday afternoon and expose them for all to see. Jordan Spieth knows this, uh, better than anyone.

The leaderboard’s stacked up behind Jordan, too, and there’s plenty of golf left to be played. It’ll be a grind to win wire-to-wire for the second time, with bad-to-mediocre weather in play the rest of the week. Spieth knows this.

“This tournament often feels like it’s six rounds,” he told the press center after the 66.

We’ll only put the ghosts from Amen Corner 2016 to bed when the Green Jacket No. 2 hits the shoulders on a Sunday. Not one second sooner, and those memories and clips are only certain to return to circulation more and more as we edge closer to a Sunday afternoon walk for Spieth.

But this tournament’s hardly over. This leaderboard is as stacked with quality names as one could remember in recent memory. Finau and Matt Kuchar are just two behind, and a whole glut of quality players — including Rory McIlroy, Patrick Reed, and Henrik Stenson — sit at 3-under par. 1.4 billion people will be tuning in to follow Haotong Li, who’s three behind too. Phil Mickelson is four back, tied with Rickie Fowler.

Oh, and yeah — that Tiger Woods guy. A late round turn-around has him still squarely in the conversation after 1-over-par 73.

Here’s the full scores and leaderboard after the first round at Augusta.