DiMarco Has a Tiger on His Tail

It was a day packed full of drama at the 69th Masters, yet, given the frenetic time frame involved, was there really any other choice?

Trying to cram most of two rounds in one day at Augusta National Golf Club to play rain-delay catch-up left golfers and patrons breathless.

Saturday was as overstuffed as Friday could have been ticketed for loitering.

Saturday was a day six-time champion Jack Nicklaus said he was saying goodbye and the day the Masters tried to get back on track for a clean-break Sunday finish but fell short, meaning the third round must be tidied up this morning before the final round can start this afternoon.

Where it stands somewhere between 36 and 54 holes:

Chris DiMarco, the first-round leader at five-under 67, followed that with another 67 to claim the 36-hole lead at 10-under 134, then shot three-under 33 on the front nine of his third round.

He starts today a somewhat mind-boggling 13 under par with a four-shot lead and 27 to play.

DiMarco had made par on the ninth hole when play was stopped at 7:35 p.m. with 44 players left on the course. The third round will resume at 8 a.m. local time today with the final round scheduled to begin at 11.

DiMarco might be whistling into the clubhouse, with a lead not even Greg Norman could give back, if not for the presence of Tiger Woods, who has fought back from a first-round 74 and positioned himself to win a fourth green jacket.

Woods posted the second round’s lowest score, a six-under 66, and followed that with 31 on his third-round front nine to sit at nine under, four shots behind DiMarco.

Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn stands at eight under par, five shots behind DiMarco, through nine holes of his third round.

Vijay Singh, the world’s No. 1 player, is four under through 10 holes and Phil Mickelson, defending Masters champion, is three-under through 11.

Even the sunset was sweet for three-time champion Woods, whose drive on No. 10 picked up so much mud when it thumped into the fairway it looked from afar like a lunar eclipse.

Because play was then halted at dusk, though, Woods got to mark his ball where it was and will get to play a clean ball when he resumes play today.

“It was a great break that they blew the horn,” he said. “It was nice to know I could put the tee in the ground.”

With a four-shot lead but Tiger on the prowl, today might prove to be the biggest gut check of DiMarco’s career, although there is evidence to suggest DiMarco and Augusta National are in harmonic convergence.

This is only the 36-year-old DiMarco’s fifth Masters appearance, yet he has been a first-round leader twice (2001 and 2005), a 36-hole leader twice (2001 and 2005) and shared the 54-hole lead last year with Mickelson.

What DiMarco never has been is a fourth-round leader.

Last year, he played in the final pairing but mostly served as background to Mickelson’s CBS foreground -- shooting a 76 and ending up tied for sixth.

DiMarco did, however, provide the prelude for Mickelson’s gravity-challenged victory leap by putting first and providing Mickelson the read for his 18-foot Masters winner.

While DiMarco didn’t come close to coming through, he said he took voracious mental notes on how Mickelson finally did.

“I watched how it was to win,” said DiMarco, who has three tour victories but none since the 2002 Phoenix Open. “If anybody sat back and had the best seat in the house, it was me.”

What DiMarco noted:

“You know what he did?” DiMarco said. “He had fun. That’s what he did.... Going out and trying to hold onto a lead isn’t going to do it. Go out and step on it. That’s what Ernie [Els] did last year, that’s why he almost won and that’s why Phil won on the back nine. That’s what you have to do around here.”

Woods, an eight-time major champion, has a history of not caring much about other guys making history. He hasn’t won a major since 2002 and No. 9 would leave him halfway to Nicklaus’ major record of 18.

Woods said he didn’t know what effect his creeping up on DiMarco would have on the leader’s psyche.

“I’m not in his shoes,” Woods said.

What Woods is in: a zone.

Rallying back after an opening-round 74 -- remember, he won his first Masters in 1997 after opening with 40 on the front nine -- Woods’ second-round 66 had him thirsting for more.

Woods hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation but could have gone lower had he not three-putted on the par-four 14th for his only bogey.

He also lipped out a five-foot birdie putt on the par-three 16th.

His save of the round came at the 18th after he pulled his drive into the trees. Woods punched out short of the green, then hit a flop shot to within two feet for a tap-in par save.

Woods can only wonder what might have been had he not, on Thursday, rolled his eagle putt attempt into the water on the par-five 13th and then made another bogey on No. 1 after his second shot hit the pin and kicked into the bunker.

Woods said he wouldn’t mind the symmetry of winning his fourth Masters in what Nicklaus said was going to be his last.

“It would be kind of cool,” was the way Woods put it.

Nicklaus, who shot nine-over 153 and missed the cut by five shots, reserves the right to change his mind. Yet, he welled up as he walked up the ninth fairway, wishing it was the 18th (because of the weather delays, Nicklaus started his round on the 10th tee).

Before he struck his approach shot on No. 9 from 158 yards, Nicklaus choked up and turned to his caddie/son Jackie.

“He asked me for a towel,” Jackie later recounted.

Nicklaus knocked a six-iron close, but pushed his birdie putt. And that, he said, was the end of Jack after 45 appearances.

“I’m not a golfer anymore,” Nicklaus said.

Billy Casper might be fine with shooting 106, but not Nicklaus.

“This is not a celebrity walk-around,” Nicklaus said. “This is a golf tournament. It’s a major golf championship, and if you’re going to play in this championship, you should be competitive and you should be able to compete with who is out there.”

What’s out there today is DiMarco with a four-shot lead.

And Woods trying to cut into it.

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Leaderboard

Leaders following the suspension of the third round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, with holes played and relation to par:

*--* LEADERS Player HP To Par Chris DiMarco 45 -13 Tiger Woods 45 -9 Thomas Bjorn 45 -8 Rod Pampling 48 -4 Vijay Singh 46 -4 Mark Hensby 45 -4

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*--* MISSED CUT Padraig Harrington...72-77 -- 149 Sergio Garcia...77-72 -- 149 Jack Nicklaus...77-76 -- 153

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