Phil: "There's no fire in the golf course right now"

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Phil Mickelson, coming off a strong finish to get him to -6 and eight back of Jordan Spieth, summed up the odd state of affairs at Augusta National right now: no fire.

In no way taking away from Spieth's record setting 36-hole pace, Mickelson touched upon why it'll be tough for the pack to catch Spieth: the lush golf course.

From Alex Myers' GolfDigest.com report:

"Certainly, the firm conditions make angles important, past knowledge important, but there's no fire in the golf course right now," Mickelson said.

Jim Furyk made similar comments in his round, as I explained in a Golf World item.

While you'll hear over and over how the club will just turn on the Sub-Air units beneath the greens, they won't work. Besides being overrated in their ability to dry out the greens, there's a bigger issue in getting Augusta National to play with a little more "fire." 

It's too green.

Whether because the club is in love with deep green turf or simply the perfect rye grass growing conditions, the grass is just too healthy, too well fed and growing too fast between the 7 am mowing by the time afternoon play is going strong. Throw in the longish fairway cut designed to slow down the ball and mix it with the robust second cut, and the course looks downright fuzzy by the early evening.

Expect more of the same good scoring no matter what you hear. And considering that the best player has been identified so far, that's not all bad.