AUGUSTA, Ga. — Given Jordan Spieth’s past experiences at Augusta National, there was no reason to panic.

It was the front nine. It was the second round. It was nowhere near the worst he’s been through at the Masters.

So Spieth remained calm despite losing a two-shot lead on the first two holes. He excused it as typical “punches” from a daunting golf course in difficult conditions. He responded by making two birdies over the final six holes, helping him recover from the inauspicious start.

He finished with a 2-over 74 that left him 4 under for the tournament. He trails leader Patrick Reed by five strokes heading into the third round.

“I’ve taken a lot of punches on this golf course, and in tournaments in general,” Spieth said. “I told (caddy) Michael (Greller), ‘When this course plays tough, I’m good for a double here or some bogeys there. Let’s make these the only ones.’ ”

Spieth began the day at 6 under. He squandered that before more than half the field teed off.

The 2015 Masters champion pushed his tee shot at the par-4 first way right. He failed to get his second shot back to the fairway, then left his third one short of the green. He missed an 11-footer for bogey.

He pulled his second tee shot left, then missed a 5-footer for par.

It opened the door for everyone else on the leaderboard. It also could have been a devastating start for Spieth.

But he took it in stride, chatting with his caddy and talking to himself to not get overly frustrated.

The rough start probably should have been expected given what Spieth endured at Augusta National just two years ago.

Spieth had a commanding lead at the turn in 2016 before stumbling on Nos. 10 and 11, both par 4s. He bogeyed both, and really unraveled at the par-3 12th.

Spieth’s tee shot came up short, landed on a downslope and hopped into Rae’s Creek. He then took a drop and hit a fat wedge that also splashed. Spieth settled for a quadruple-bogey 7 and lost his lead to Danny Willett.

Spieth recovered with by making two birdies over the last six holes, but it wasn’t enough. He finished second, three shots back of Willett.

Compared to that, this was nothing.

“I’m not going to downgrade my skill level, but I’m also not going to downgrade my ability to take punches and fight back on this course,” he said. “Good starts are really nice out here. Bad starts are tough to come back from. If I look at it one way, I mean, in 2016, I went bogey, bogey, quad and then was able to rebound from that.

“So what’s the first couple holes on a Friday start mean? It doesn’t really mean much to me. It means let’s figure out what was wrong and fix it. But it’s not going to affect the outcome of this tournament off of those two holes. I’m still in a great position.”

TIGER WOODS left his last putt off the left edge at No. 18 but it didn’t matter. With a closing par, he made the cut.

Woods’ 3-over 75 in the second round got him into the weekend by two strokes. The last and only time he missed the cut came in 1996, the last year he competed as an amateur.

He’s also 13 shots off the lead, which didn’t seem to matter.

“Six months ago I didn’t know if I’d be playing golf,” he said. “Forget playing at the (PGA) Tour level. I didn’t know if I’d ever play again.

“But it’s incredible to have the opportunity again, to still come out here and play this golf course. Now I know I’m on the weekend. Even though I’m a lot behind, if I play a special weekend – shoot two rounds in the mid-60s – you never know.”

THE LAST two Masters champions won’t be playing on the weekend.

Defending champion Sergio Garcia and 2016 winner Danny Willett missed the 36-hole cut.

Willett finished the second round with consecutive bogeys, missing by two strokes. He ended up at 7-over 151.

“It’s a bummer,” said Willett, who has dropped to 296th in the world rankings. “You talk about luck. Hit a pretty good one on the 18th, gets a bad bounce, goes in the bunker, you get a terrible lie. It’s one of them things that I think if things aren’t going your way, they’re not quite going your way.”

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