Tiger Cuts Right to the Chase

Just when you thought the edge at the Masters would belong to either a hockey-loving, left-handed Canadian or the world’s 117th-ranked player who has missed the cut at Augusta National four times in the last seven years, a familiar figure emerged from the shadows.

Welcome, Tiger Woods, to the show.

Woods began Saturday’s third round with 42 players in front of him and ended it trailing only four, and not by much, either.

If Woods can indeed become the first player to win three consecutive Masters titles with a victory today, he can thank his gritty round of 66 for the favor, a six-birdie, no-bogey excursion that pulled him to within four shots of Jeff Maggert, two shots of Mike Weir and one shot of Vijay Singh and David Toms.

Four shots back with 18 holes to go, what kind of problem is that?

“That’s not inconceivable, that’s for sure,” Woods said.

“I know I have that experience on the back nine,” he said. “I know how to win a major championship.”

Of those ahead of him, only Toms and Singh share that knowledge. Maggert does not. Maggert birdied five of the last six holes to match Woods’ 66, the best of his 31 rounds at the Masters. Even though Maggert’s 72-73-66 total of five-under-par 211 is the highest score to lead the third round of the Masters since 1989, it’s still good enough to lead Weir by two shots.

Even after he made a double bogey at the 11th, Maggert pulled himself together and finished in such a manner that he didn’t seem too worried about looking over his shoulder and seeing Woods.

“Tiger’s going to do so many great things in his career and if he doesn’t win a third one this week, he’s definitely going to win a few more green jackets,” said Maggert, 39, who has won only once in nine times that he has led a tournament after 54 holes.

Maggert was 11th at the Players Championship and 21st at the Bob Hope, but he hasn’t been better than 38th in any other tournament this year.

“I have struggled with my golf game and emotions, and the way I’ve handled my poor play the last couple of years has probably helped me focus on the golf course,” he said.

Weir made the turn Saturday afternoon with a four-shot lead but wobbled on his way in and wound up with a 75.

When he finished, someone asked Weir if it would ruin his day to tell him about how his beloved Red Wings did against the Mighty Ducks.

“Did they lose again?” Weir asked.

They had indeed, so Weir sought some consolation.

“Did Oatsie score?” he asked about his buddy, Adam Oates of the Ducks.

Woods was skating on thin ice for a while Saturday. It was a 26-hole journey for Woods, who had to finish eight holes left over from Friday’s second round and navigate his way around a much different course than the players had seen so far. The fairways were drier, the greens firmer, the pins tucked and the cut its highest in five years.

Woods nearly missed it. He needed to make par at his finishing hole, the par-four ninth, just to stick around. He drove into pine needles, knocked it into a greenside bunker, blasted out to three feet and rolled in the putt to save par.

Singh, winner of the 1998 PGA Championship and 2000 Masters, could have used a better putt at the last hole, but he missed a four-footer for par and his two-under 70 moved him into a tie for third with Toms. The winner of the 2001 PGA Championship birdied four of the last six holes and matched Singh’s 70.

“I know I’m in striking distance,” Toms said. “My short game hung in there. The guys that bomb it maybe didn’t play that well.”

Phil Mickelson had four birdies and four bogeys, saved par with a 15-footer from the fringe at the 18th and is tied with Woods and Jose Maria Olazabal at one-under 215.

If Mickelson hit it well enough, then Ernie Els didn’t. Els finished off a second-round 66, was making a third-round move and even reached one under when he holed a nine-iron at the seventh, then birdied the eighth. But he bogeyed the par-four 14th when he hit the green and spun the ball off, went in the water at the 15th and made another bogey, turning what could have been a scorcher into a 72.

Els, who is in a seven-way tie at one-over 217, expressed his feelings clearly.

“I’m a little disappointed right now,” he said. “I got shafted on 14. It spun off the green. That’s impossible.”

Everything seems possible for Woods. His bogey-free round was special, the third time in 33 rounds he has done it at the Masters.

After just sneaking by to make the cut, Woods began the third round at the 10th hole and gave himself a boost with an entertaining and rewarding birdie at the 11th. Woods hit his drive underneath a trash can in the mud. He got a free drop and smoked an eight-iron to the front right of the green, then rolled in a 50-foot birdie putt that broke eight feet.

Yes, routine again. Woods made another memorable birdie at the sixth hole, where he made a 35-footer. Then he hit a great approach shot on No. 7 and made the short putt to go under par for the first time this week.

“Thank goodness it hit the hole,” Woods said of the putt on No. 6. “If I didn’t have that train wreck with the hole, I think I could have been pitching out of that bunker, but it went in and I kept going.”

It is a philosophy that has served Woods well. If you don’t believe it, look at the eight major championship trophies stuffed in the closet at home. Woods believes it is to his advantage that he has been in similar situations in majors before and he accomplished his goal of putting himself in contention.

All that is left is to see if he can pull it off, with a chance to win a third consecutive Masters and add his name to the record books again.

Woods says he’s not thinking three-peat.

“Not at all,” he said. “You just go out there and play to win the tournament. It doesn’t really enter my mind. You play what the golf course has in front of you. I’m trying to win a tournament. If I win the tournament, obviously I take care of winning three in a row.”

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Leaders

Scores after the third round of the Masters at

Augusta National:

*--* Jeff Maggert -5 72 73 66 211 Mike Weir -3 70 68 75 213 Vijay Singh -2 73 71 70 214 David Toms -2 71 73 70 214 Tiger Woods -1 76 73 66 215 J. Maria Olazabal -1 73 71 71 215 Phil Mickelson -1 73 70 72 215 Jim Furyk E 73 72 71 216 Len Mattiace E 73 74 69 216 Jonathan Byrd E 74 71 71 216

*--*

Today

Final-round coverage from 11:30 a.m.-4 p.m. on Channel 2

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