Youthful stars lead Masters, but Tiger lurks

AUGUSTA -- Rory McIlroy ripped his drive up the 17th fairway, bouncing past Rickie Fowler’s long and Jason Day’s longer to become longest.

“Do it, young guns!” came a cry from the ever-growing crowd as the three confidently made their way up the fairway.

The confidence is warranted. After two rounds of the Masters, the three -- with a combined age of 66 and a combined score of 23 under -- are all in the top 10. Also in the top 10? The last man in his early 20s to win at Augusta National Golf Club, Tiger Woods, who put together a remarkable birdie spree during the final 11 holes and is tied for third.

McIlroy, 21, the first-round co-leader, shot a second-round 69 and sits at 10-under-par 134. He leads by two over Day, who turned in a stunning 64 -- including a near-perfect 31 on the second nine matched only by Woods -- to move into second place. Fowler followed his first-round 70 with a 69 and is tied for seventh.

“It was fantastic. Rickie and I both got off to pretty good starts,” McIlroy said. “Jason played great all day. We sort of fed off each other.”

Day, 23, who shot 72 on Thursday, turned in a bogey-free round. After being relegated to also-ran status in his group in the first round, his eight-birdie performance one-upped McIlroy’s first-round 65.

“I said to the boys (Friday) morning, Rory and Rickie, when we were walking up the first hole, I said, ‘I’m going to have to start paying people to yell my name out,’ because everybody was yelling their names out,” Day joked.

“It got a little bit better on the back nine, which was nice. The atmosphere was great, and all three of us played wonderful.”

Fowler, 22, said the players pushed each other to go low.

“We had fun out there, chatting it up a bit, up the fairways and when we had some downtime,” Fowler said. “Other than that, we’re trying to hit it inside and make more birdies than the other guy.”

While the 75th Masters may be shaping up as the breakout moment for a new star, the biggest star of them all is suddenly, strikingly, lurking.

Woods shot 66 on Friday to move to 7 under and a tie for third with K.J. Choi. Idling at even par after seven holes, Woods rolled off seven birdies on the final 11 holes to vault into contention.

“Well, I’m three back, so I played myself back in the championship,” Woods said. “We still have 36 more holes. We have a long way to go.”

Day specifically cited Woods’ 1997 Masters victory at the age of 21 as the moment he knew he wanted to play in the Masters. Asked about his young competition using him as inspiration -- in 1997, McIlroy was 7, Fowler 8 and Day 9 -- Woods grinned, looked down and shook his head.

“Little older now, I guess. It’s the next generation,” Woods said. “It’s good to see these guys out here playing with that much enthusiasm, that much zest for the game and that good.”

McIlroy shook off the notion that he would be concerned about having the four-time Masters champion just a few strokes back.

“I’ll just be concentrating on the golf course. If you start thinking about anyone else here, if you let you’re mind wander at all, it could cost you a couple of shots,” McIlroy said.

“I looked at everyone in this field, and at some point or another I’ve beaten them before. There’s no reason I can’t beat them again.”

This story was originally published April 9, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Youthful stars lead Masters, but Tiger lurks."