Tiger Woods was trying to figure out how to get to the 17th green from closer to the 15th fairway when the massive gallery anticipating his shot heard a huge roar behind them that caused them to look over their shoulders. Rickie Fowler was responsible for making all that noise with an eagle on the second hole. Despite a bogey on 18th he was two shots clear of Australian Marc Leishman (67) who provided one of the highlights of the day with an eagle from four feet on Par-5 15th.
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That final pairing will not tee off until 7.30pm BST, with Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas leading a chasing pack full of major champions.
Two-time Masters victor Bubba Watson, England’s Tommy Fleetwood and Aussie Marc Leishman shared sixth on 210.
In classic Mickelson style, he managed to wow the gallery with an eagle at the par-5 eighth, where he hit driver off the deck as he swept his second shot 271 yards and made the nine-foot putt. Reed has always been a fine scrambler and if he maintains that record on the greens over the weekend, he’ll be hard to beat. He said, “Patrick is going for his first and I’m going for something else”.
23 countries represented, including 40 players from the United States, nine from England and five from South Africa.
“Hopefully I can change that this week and be remembered for this tournament”.
Mickelson won the Mexico Championship last month, and at age 47 and with three green jackets, there was talk he could become the oldest Masters champion.
He is trailing by three shots heading into the final round, rather than ahead by four as he was then. The boost in prices “not only an excitement for people to see him play in the Masters for the first time since 2015, but the expectation that he has a chance to win for the first time since 2005”, it added.
Largest comeback victory at Masters is eight shots (Jack Burke, 1956). “I’m not in control of my own destiny”.
“To win this tournament, you’re going to have to take a chance at some point, and I felt like that was one where the reward was worth the risk”, Leishman said. Instead of laying up from 210 yards, he closed the face of a 5-iron, aimed toward the right bunker and tried to hook it some 30 yards.
Woods made bogey on the opening hole with a sand wedge from the fairway. “I’ve played with markers before, but that was the best experience I’ve ever had with a marker”. A few of them rolled within feet of the hole before falling prey to a false front in the green that rolled all five balls off the front before careening down a slope and into the pond.
“Just keep doing exactly what I’m doing”, he said. But he closed out the round with a double bogey on 18, to drop 10 spots down the leaderboard.
Reed gave one shot back when he flew the green at the par-3 12th and barely missed an 11-footer for par amid a sudden downpour.
Casey shot a 3-under 69 in the third round Saturday and made a decent move up the leaderboard.
49 of Top 50 in Official World Golf Ranking (No. 10 Brooks Koepka has a wrist injury). But the great thing is that I have learned a lot this time and I am sure I am going to come back here many times.
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So, if he says he thinks the pressure is all on Reed, fine. He is 13 shots behind Reed and Tied-40th.
