Rory will play in the last group of the day with Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth. For me, this is the best group the Masters put together for the first two rounds. All three are under 25 and all three have shown they'll be forces on the Tour, and at the majors, for the next 25 years. McIlroy is positioned well at 1-under, and that's with a bogey on his last hole of the opening round.
Spieth is also right there at 1-under, and Reed, after finishing bogey-bogey-bogey on Thursday is still just 1-over and in fine enough shape. The cameras will be on this group all afternoon, and they head out at 1:59 to cap the tee sheet. It's not far-fetched to think we'll see one of these guys in the final pairing again before the weekend is over.
The weather is supposed to be perfect again on Friday, and continue that way through the weekend. There should be no interruption in play and because the Masters has such a unique way of qualifying, the field is much smaller (~50 players) than the last three majors of the season. There's no need to send threesomes off split tees from sun-up to sun-down. Instead, every group goes off No. 1 and plays the course as it was intended. The pace of play has been brutal in recent years, but getting rounds in on time is never an issue. The first tee time is set for 7:45 a.m. for the twosome of D.A. Points and Kevin Streelman and the McIlroy group will then anchor it all late in the day.