AUGUSTA, Ga. — Saturday is named transferring day on the Masters Match as a result of that’s when top-performing golfers attempt to leapfrog up the leaderboard to place themselves for a championship cost in Sunday’s last spherical.
The axiom held true for Cameron Smith of Australia, whose four-under-par 68 on Saturday moved him to inside three pictures of the third-round chief, Scottie Scheffler, who shot a decided and regular one-under-par 71.
However Saturday was additionally one thing else: a day of shifting spotlights.
Since Tiger Woods arrived on the Augusta Nationwide apply vary final weekend, he has dominated all dialog in regards to the 2022 match and attracted big galleries of spectators who adopted him from gap to gap as if no different golfer within the area mattered.
However Saturday afternoon, as Woods limped and labored by means of 18 holes and fell 16 pictures behind Scheffler, the main focus of this yr’s Masters modified.
Woods, who shot a 78 on a day when temperatures dipped into the 40s, was removed from deserted on the golf course. However a sure sense of actuality set in in addition to he fell to seven over par for the match and dropped right into a tie for forty first place.
Woods’s return to aggressive golf after a near-fatal automotive crash roughly 14 months in the past has been inspirational and heartening and a startling success by any measure. However because the third spherical got here to a detailed, it was evident that Woods’s comeback this week would have its limits. From the beginning of his third spherical, Woods’s surgically repaired again seemed stiff, and traversing Augusta Nationwide’s many hillocks and mounts appeared particularly painstaking on his rebuilt proper leg and ankle.
Most surprising, his best power — his placing stroke, which has been the envy of his friends for 1 / 4 century — abandoned him. Woods three-putted his last three holes and had a four-putt on one other gap.
After Woods had left the 18th gap on Saturday and moved away from public view, his gait worsened noticeably. He hobbled onto a foot-high platform to deal with reporters and answered a query in regards to the well being of his again, which has been operated on 5 instances.
“It’s not as limber and as free because it usually is, that’s for certain,” he stated.
However Woods, 46, is aware of that he’s being watched carefully. Whereas he has not all the time needed to dwell his life within the highlight as a job mannequin, he’s not shying away from that flip this week. Requested what he hoped to indicate sports activities followers at this yr’s Masters, he replied: “By no means hand over. At all times chase after your goals. And I battle every day. Each day is a problem. Each day presents its personal totally different challenges for all of us. I get up and begin the battle once more.”
Woods’s troubles on Saturday started after he had performed moderately nicely throughout his first 4 holes, which resulted in two pars, a bogey and a birdie. However on the fifth gap, he grimaced conspicuously after hitting a center iron shot from 192 yards. His ball settled 65 ft from the outlet, a distance Woods struggled to barter in a surprising 4 putts, together with a 3rd putt from 4 ft away that made practically a whole revolution across the gap earlier than spinning out. There was one other three-putt on the ninth gap, which was arrange by a poor method shot that left Woods’s ball 60 ft uphill from the outlet.
Woods had recovered with back-to-back birdies on the twelfth and thirteenth holes and two routine pars on the succeeding holes. However three extra off-target method pictures led to the 2 bogeys and a double bogey on his three closing holes — and 9 extra putts.
“It’s similar to I hit a thousand putts on the market on the greens as we speak,” stated Woods, who spent a part of his post-round time grinning sardonically at his misfortunes. “I used to be attempting various things, looking for it, attempting to get one thing. And nothing appeared to work.”
Scheffler performed his opening 9 holes as if he deliberate to run away with the match by sunset Saturday. He birdied the second, third, sixth and eighth holes, which allowed him to take care of the five-stroke lead he had held after Friday’s second spherical. Scheffler, the world’s top-ranked male participant, wanted these early heroics to remain nicely forward of Charl Schwartzel, who performed his first 10 holes in thee underneath par to surge into second.
However Schwartzel, the 2011 Masters champion, fizzled with 4 back-nine bogeys. Smith, nevertheless, continued the sterling play he had exhibited in profitable final month’s Gamers Championship when he closed with birdies on each back-nine par-5s.
Scheffler averted an enormous quantity on his closing gap Saturday after lacing his tee shot deep into the woods alongside the golf green. Pressured to take a drop and a one-stroke penalty, Scheffler then knocked a protracted iron shot up the steep hill of the 18th gap that landed on the inexperienced however trundled simply over it. Scheffler efficiently executed a fragile chip again down the hill and left a three-foot putt for bogey, which he sank.
Woods has been impressed with Scheffler, who has gained 3 times this yr on the PGA Tour.
“All of us want we had that two-, three-month window once we get scorching — and hopefully majors fall someplace alongside in that window,” Woods stated. “We deal with it in these home windows. Scottie appears to be in that window proper now.”
Sungjae Im was in third place at 4 underneath par for the match and 5 strokes behind Scheffler. Shane Lowry was subsequent at two underneath par after a third-round 73.
