Spieth might have a hard time forgetting about what could have been when he goes into the final round of the Masters today in the same position as the previous two years – holding the 54-hole lead.
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Gusting winds created second-round havoc at Augusta National but could not blow Jordan Spieth from the top of the Masters leaderboard on Friday while helping lift Rory McIlroy’s career grand slam bid.
Jordan Spieth takes a one-shot lead into the final round of the Masters, despite dropping three shots in the last two holes on day three. But that is what he will need to focus on when he tries to become only the fourth defending champ to repeat as Masters champion.
The world’s number one player, Jason Day of Australia, finished at even par just three strokes behind.
Rory McIlroy, who began the day one shot behind Spieth, did not card a birdie en route to a 77 and his now five shots behind. Spieth also double-bogeyed the latter hole, but the American star responded with three straight birdies.
Day is paired with Dustin Johnson, who has had so many close calls in majors over the years, and is once again in the hunt, also just three shots back. “He’s giving shots back to be 3 under par”. “It’s another golf tournament I’m trying to win”.
Spieth bounced back with a birdie from 17 feet on the 12th and looked to be in command when he picked up further shots on the 14th and 15th to move four clear, only to give the chasing pack hope with a poor finish.
Imperious golf was not the initial offering from either McIlroy, the 26-year-old Northern Irishman, or Spieth, the 22-year-old Texan who won the Masters and US Open last year and came close to taking the Open and US PGA as well.
“I’ve been saying it’s going to happen sooner or later”, Langer said.
A bogey on the fifth hurt his cause and while he made birdie on the par five eighth, a sloppy bogey on the 10th left him well off the lead pace.
McIlroy found two bunkers on the second hole and settled for a par, to go with a bogey on the first hole.
So his lead is only one over his former junior golf foe Smylie Kaufman and really only a whisker over various other contenders, including 58-year-old Bernhard Langer (tied with Hideki Matsuyama for third at 1 under).
Langer won his first Masters in 1985.
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“We have a women’s tour in Japan that is very, very popular”, Matsuyama said. Just like Spieth, he let the last few holes get away from him with bogeys on the 16th and 17th for a 72. When the cheers subsided, Langer chipped in from 40 feet for birdie. “I could tell how gritty he is and how much of a competitor he is”. And there was the three-putt double bogey on 11 and a bogey, double-bogey finish. “I’m driving the ball really well right now, and if I’m going to get on the greens just as much as everybody else, I think that I’ll have a pretty good opportunity to be in contention, which it doesn’t surprise me”.
