Blue Monster bares its teeth

US Tour
  • March 8, 2014

Matt Kuchar, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed and Hunter Mahan were tied for the lead after the second round of the Cadillac Championship.

On a windy day at Doral’s Blue Monster, few players managed to card a score below 76, only the leading quartet managed to break par as 113 balls ended in the water on the day.

Kuchar (74) chipped to within a yard from the cup to claim an easy birdie on the 18th to go one under, while Johnson (74) bogeyed three of his last six holes to finish on the same score.

“There’s a lot of water out here,” Kuchar admitted.

“Greens are slick and firm and conditions are really tough.

“I think that you have to kind of embrace the challenge. I think that you have to look forward to seeing what sort of shots you can come up with.

“The Blue Monster certainly showed its teeth today.”

Reed (75) only carded two birdies in his round while Mahan (74) needed an eagle on the eighth to add some respectability to his score after carding a disappointing triple bogey earlier in his round.

“I felt stressed all day, because I knew every shot had ‘big penalty’ written all over it,” Mahan admitted after his round.

“It was a really tough day. There wasn’t an easy shot out there.”

With conditions getting more difficult as the round went on, only three players – Graeme McDowell (71), Jamie Donaldson (70) Chris Kirk (71) – broke par and nobody managed a round in the sixties.

“I don’t think I’ve played in conditions this difficult in the U.S.,” McDowell who is at even par along with Rory McIlroy (74), Francesco Molinari (75) and Donaldson.

World number one Tiger Woods had to settle for a 73, but was responsible for the shot of the day when he made a birdie putt from more than 91 feet on the par three fourth hole.

Woods is in a tie for 25th place on five over par alongside Mickelson (75) and Ryan Moore (79).

After the round, Woods was asked which of the holes he found most challenging on the day, to which he replied: “One through 18 right now.”

“For me, yes. I don’t know about the other players, but I found all of them pretty hard out there today.”

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