At the end of day three of the Masters, Trevor Immelman finds himself atop the leader board still. Thanks to a fortuitous blade of grass on the 15th hole, reminiscent of Fred Couples in 1992, Mr. Immelman was able to avoid a double bogey or worse on the way to a 3 under par 69 and a two shot lead over Brandt Snedecker. This on a day when, during the middle of the round, he seemed as uncomfortable as anyone I’ve seen with a putter in his hands. One of the best 69’s I’ve seen in some time.
Mr. Snedecker appeared to lose things around Amen Corner with three bogeys, but gathered himself nicely with birdies at 14 and 15. I really like the way this young man plays the game; take your time seeing the shot, then step up with one waggle and hit the shot. Very cool, very quick, and something Ben Crane might want to emulate.
Steve Flesch and Phil Mickelson play from the same, or wrong, side of the ball. That’s all they had in common on the course today. Mr. Flesch is in third place only three shots behind Mr. Immelman. His 69 was unspectacular, a lot like himself, and very steady. Mr. Mickelson was moving along quite well until number 8, where his third shot to the par 5 was right on the stick, in fact it was right off the stick on a hop and finished on the front of the green. What should have been a kick in birdie turned into a three putt bogey. The air seemed to come out of Mr Mickelson at that point and he proceeded to bogey numbers 10 and 12. On 13 and 14 birdies appeared to set him back on his game, but the par 3 16th hole was another disaster thanks to a pulled tee shot and another three putt for 5. He headed to the 17th tee after with only the hope that the leaders suffer some sort of trauma which prevents them from swinging a club at all tomorrow.
Paul Casey is in fourth place, after a 68 that was a brilliant 32 on the front 9 and a lousy 37 on the back 9. Mr. Casey always amazes me, with those popeye forearms powering a swing that is quite fluid and graceful. He’s also not one of those players who gets concerned while in the process of shooting a low number. I’m sure he’s thinking a lot of "if only" tonight.
Tiger Woods shot a 68 that was, in his own words, "as high a score as I could have shot out there". He missed a lot of putts the length I’ve watched him drop routinely. He had a couple of shots within a couple of feet of being perfect, like on the 16th where his tee shot was about one foot left of staying within 10 feet of the cup, only to wind up 60 feet away down that nasty slope. That score was good enough to get him to fifth place six shots behind the leader. But there are only four players in front of him, none of whom have won a major before so he’s still not out of the picture at this juncture. He’ll be playing in front of these guys so he has to put a score up for them to see in order to pressure them into making some mistakes.
The weather tomorrow morning at Augusta is predicted to be 46* and winds at 25mph. If that comes to be look out because it would be easy to see the scoring average soar to 77 or 78 strokes. That lets a lot of players back into contention just by kicking it around in par. Whatever the weather this will be Sunday at the Masters, and I’ll be watching the next page in the history of my favorite tournament. From the comfort of my living room, while the predicted snow flies outside my window.
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