The Masters: day three at Augusta – live | The Masters

The result was pretty dire for Adam Hadwin. Bogeys at Nos. 6 and 9, doubles at Nos. 7 and 10, all of which were better than his lone birdie at No. 8. Further evidence, sports scientists are looking for, is that it’s better to spend time on the range before a round of a major championship than on the range. My head got stuck under the kitchen sink. He’s +10.

Tiger Woods makes a come-from-behind birdie! He made a great second shot high on the difficult No. 5 pin from 200 yards, sinking a 20-foot straight birdie putt. I’ll be back to +1 soon.

Horror starting today by Eric Cole. The 35-year-old Palm Springs native made his Masters debut this week, posting more than respectable opening-round scores of 73 and 72. But he escaped the trap today in the style of unlucky Spurs centre-back Micky van de. Ven: Bogeys on the first four holes. He fell to +5 in the rankings.

If there’s one player who hasn’t won a major championship, it’s Xander Schauffele. The 30-year-old Californian tied for second here in 2019 and tied for third in 2021. He is tied for second in Open history and has eight top-10 finishes in majors. I know he has an Olympic gold medal in his back pocket, but still. Anyway, Schauffele hasn’t had the best results, running 72 seconds in both rounds so far, but there were signs he was starting to improve towards the end of yesterday. That is also borne out by his start today. He moved up to -1 with a birdie on No. 3 and became the first player to break into the top 10 of the leaderboard today.

-6: Homa, DeChambeau, Scheffler
-4: Heugart
-3: Davis, Morikawa
-2: Aberg
-1: Schauffele (3), Pavon, Young, Fleetwood, Willett, Fox, Anne, Smith
E: Straka (2), Fitzpatrick (2), Schenk (1), Kitayama (1), Glover (1)

Tiger cannot afford many mistakes. If any. But he made one shot on the long par-3 fourth. His tee shot just missed the front of the green, and he made a hefty 45-foot putt just past 20 feet. The returning players are always lacking on the high side and slide to +2. His playing partner Tyrrell Hatton also dropped a shot there, finding the bunker to his left and knifed out. After an early positive spike, he’s back to +1.

Rickie Fowler won this year’s par 3 contest. It’s great to have on your resume, but of course it comes at a terrible price. It’s a historic guarantee that you won’t be able to win a gold medal and wear a green jacket over your shoulder. The two awards have been inconsistent so far and will continue to be so this year, but at least Fowler made it despite disappointing rounds of 76 and 74. He shot a much better 71 today, as did the other superstar in the first group. Today is 2021 champion Hideki Matsuyama. By the third day of work, both were +5.

If Tiger isn’t out of this situation yet, neither is Tyrrell Hatton. The 32-year-old from High Wycombe birdied the first and third holes to move into level par for the tournament. These two are spinning together. Woods remains at +1 with another par 3.

Tiger Woods opens the third round with a par. The living legend, a five-time champion, is now 48 years old and has had his legs rebuilt to his specifications, but at +1, just seven behind the leader at the halfway point, he will believe he can still win. Otherwise he wouldn’t bother showing up. But he needs some low on the weekend and it’s not an ideal start. Two decent birdie attempts came close, but neither were from particularly achievable distances. Meanwhile, things were going well for Rory, who delicately sunk a chip-up from a few feet from the 10th side and fought for par. He remains +4.

Rory McIlroy, the second-most popular player before the tournament, once again failed to perform at all at the Masters. Yesterday’s birdieless round of 77 took the career slam-chasing superstar completely out of contention, and this morning’s first bogey seemed to set the tone. He set the tone with a birdie on No. 2. Amazingly, it was the first par 5 of the week. He then had another bogey on the sixth and a birdie on the eighth. The par 5 finally paid off, but it was too little, too late. He remains at +4, his starting spot for the day, but he may not be there for very long as he just sent his approach on his 10th on the left bank of the green.

The low scores from the early starters didn’t have much of an impact today. However, one exception shows that you can get the score if you dial it in. Luke List, a 39-year-old journeyman from Seattle, has only played in the Masters twice before. He tied for 33rd in 2005 and missed the cut two years ago. But today he’s making some waves. He started with birdie, then sent his second shot 10 feet from 227 yards to No. 2, making an eagle putt. After a series of bogeys at Nos. 6 and 7, he made three more birdies on Nos. 8, 13 and now 14, putting him at 4 under for the round so far. This was his best performance of the morning and moved him up to +2.

weather. It will be sunny all weekend. It’s quite warm today, and tomorrow will definitely be warmer. It’s still a little windy, but not as strong as the storm we had yesterday afternoon. So the scores should be better…although the greens won’t be as responsive as Thursday, with the sun shining and the wind drying everything out, so they’ll have a lot more work to do.

Well, let’s go.

preamble