It’s a Who’s Who Plus a Who’s He in Masters Logjam : Golf: Crenshaw and former USC walk-on Henninger tied, but everyone knows anything can happen today.

What is harder than a dogwood tree and as blooming impossible to figure out as a bunch of azalea bushes?

Why, it’s who is going to win the Masters, which is looking suspiciously like the starting gate at the Kentucky Derby.

The famous Ben Crenshaw and the unknown Brian Henninger share a one-shot lead as the final round of golf’s first major prize begins today at Augusta National, which is acting as if some golf developer got hold of it and turned it into birdie condos.

There are 10 players within three shots of Crenshaw and Henninger, so you must know what that could mean.

Yes, a sudden-death playoff.

“There’s every chance of that possibility, no question,” said Crenshaw, who hopes that if there is one, he’s in it.

Crenshaw shot a 69 Saturday for a 54-hole score of 10-under-par 206. That puts him in a tie with Henninger, 31, a former walk-on golfer at USC whose only victory on the tour was a rain-shortened 36-hole event.

But who’s counting? Who’s to say a guy playing in his first Masters can’t win it. What would you call that?

“You can call it whatever you want,” Henninger said. “I guess it would be a Cinderella story.”

Actually, the story lines are flowing as freely as Rae’s Creek. Fred Couples, the 1992 champion who didn’t play last year because of a back injury, shot 67 and is one shot back at 207, but so are Steve Elkington, Phil Mickelson, Scott Hoch and Jay Haas.

Curtis Strange, who blew a chance to win in 1985, manufactured a 65, the day’s best round, and is at 208 with David Frost and John Huston, who revived himself after beginning with a triple bogey.

Greg Norman, who has been so close here, shot 68 and is only three shots off the lead, tied with Davis Love III. So as you can see, there are several players with a chance to win this thing.

Look, it’s not exactly a secret.

“With all those people out there, you can just imagine what kind of free-for-all it’s going to be,” Crenshaw said.

After three rounds, only six players in the field of 47 are over par. Crenshaw enjoyed a bogey-free round and found himself leading the Masters on the last day for the first time in six years.

Henninger’s experience is something different. The son of a restaurant owner in Portland, Henninger cooked up a 68 that included a long birdie putt on No. 16.

How long? Very long.

“Fifty, 60 feet, I don’t know how long that thing was,” said Henninger, who played 12 feet of break into the putt and felt the spirit of Jack Nicklaus standing with him there on the green.

“I hear Nicklaus,” Henninger said. “I could just feel his presence out there with me on the hole.”

Henninger has one tournament victory, the 36-hole Deposit Guaranty Classic last year. Crenshaw and the next 10 players have won 104 tournaments and five majors.

Couples is expecting something great to happen.

“You can’t shoot 70 and win,” he said. “The play is probably going to be spectacular, probably a 66 or 67.

“I don’t know how easy it is. The rain helped. (The greens) are now getting fairly firm, and tomorrow I would imagine they will be pretty difficult.”

That the greens might be harder is not in dispute. Neither is the belief that the pressure is going to be hotter than the picante sauce they serve on the veranda of the clubhouse restaurant.

If the Masters story is going to be written anywhere, it’s going to be after making the turn, where your insides feel like a ball picking up speed on an Augusta downslope.

“Your emotions run rampant,” Strange said. “You are nervous. You are sweating blood.”

Couples said it’s all part of the game.

“The back nine is where somebody is going to pull away and win,” he said. “There is no doubt.”

Some doubt remains about Henninger, but that’s only natural. Born in Sacramento, he was a tennis player and didn’t try competitive golf until he was a high school senior in Oregon. The state amateur champion, he walked on to the USC team that included Sam Randolph and John Flannery.

He played the Golden State Tour and the Nike Tour and got into PGA Tour events where he could.

“I know I belong out here,” Henninger said. “I will be nervous and excited, but I will not be afraid to compete against anyone.”

Crenshaw won the Masters in 1984 and has finished second twice and third twice. But this is the first time he has played it without having the counsel of his longtime golf mentor, Harvey Penick, who died last Sunday at 90.

Crenshaw said he would like to win today, for Penick.

“I am trying,” he said. “I am trying awful hard. I am trying like the dickens, like everybody else is.”

Masters Notes

Two under par after three holes, Tiger Woods bogeyed five of the next seven and wound up shooting a 77. His 54-hole score of 221 is five over par, tied with Seve Ballesteros for last place of those who made the cut. Ballesteros, the 1980 and 1983 Masters champion, had a 68 Friday, but shot 78 Saturday. . . . Greg Norman’s 68 put him in position to win his first Masters. That’s not a bad position, Norman said. “I enjoy the hype,” he said. “The more you play here, the fonder you are of the situation. It all comes down to how your mistakes happen.” . . . Jack Nicklaus eagled the fifth hole Saturday, the same thing he did in Thursday’s opening round. Nicklaus hit a seven-iron from 163 yards and the ball bounced into the hole. “The ball started going at the hole and I said, ‘Carry, carry,’ and the ball carried on top and then it disappeared,” said Nicklaus, who didn’t see it go in. “I can’t see that far,” he said. Nicklaus shot 70, but hit only eight greens and wasn’t thrilled. “I just played terrible, just played awful,” he said.

Scores

LEADERS

Brian Henninger 70-68-68--206 Ben Crenshaw 70-67-69--206 Fred Couples 71-69-67--207 Steve Elkington 73-67-67--207 Phil Mickelson 66-71-70--207 Scott Hoch 69-67-71--207 Jay Haas 71-64-72--207 Curtis Strange 72-71-65--208 David Frost 66-71-71--208 John Huston 70-66-72--208 Greg Norman 73-68-68--209 Davis Love III 69-69-71--209 Corey Pavin 67-71-72--210 Duffy Waldorf 74-69-67--210

OTHERS

Raymond Floyd 71-70-70--211 Nick Faldo 70-70-71--211 Jose Maria Olazabal 66-74-72--212 Hale Irwin 69-72-71--212 Tom Watson 73-70-69--212 Lee Janzen 69-69-74--212 Jack Nicklaus 67-78-70--215 Seve Ballesteros 75-68-78--221 Tiger Woods 72-72-77--221