Jason Day came into the round at even par after a first round 72 left him in the middle of the pack, seven shots behind playing partner Rory McIlroy on the Masters leaderboard. But on Friday, Day came alive, and rocketed up the leaderboard with a blistering second round 64, putting him at 8-under for the tournament and two shots behind McIlory in the clubhouse.
Day turned in about as perfect a round as one can put together at Augusta National, finishing with eight birdies to no bogeys. The clean card included a 3-under 33 on the front and an astounding 5-under 31 on the back nine as he etched his name in the history books with the best second round ever at The Masters.
After a par on No. 1, Day took advantage of the par five second, dropping in a birdie to move to one under for the tournament. He followed that up with a birdie on No. 7 and finished his front nine with a birdie on No. 9 before the fun got started.
On the back, Day started Amen Corner with a birdie on No. 11 before scraping together a par on No. 12 and a birdie on the par five 13th. He added birdies on No. 14 and the par three 16th before capping his round with a three on the par four 18th to card a 64, putting him into Saturday’s final group with McIlroy.
Tiger Woods is coming on strong late in his round and has cleaned it up after a rocky front nine that saw only two pars to go along with strings of birdies and bogeys. Woods just nestled his approach close and sunk his birdie putt on No. 14 to move to 3-under for the round and 5-under for the tournament, good for a share of sixth on the leaderboard. Woods is surging and making up ground at a break-neck pace, positioning himself well for the weekend if he can keep it up over the final four holes.
A full look at the leaderboard can be found at The Masters website. We’ll be following all the action in our 2011 Masters StoryStream throughout the day, so check back early and often for the latest updates. For more on the tournament, check out SB Nation’s full 2011 Masters coverage, or head over to SB Nation Atlanta.