Spieth got a key par at the 16th hole to sit at -6 and hold a commanding four-shot lead over his opponents.
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Spieth ultimately shot a 1-over 73 to finish the third round at 3 under, one shot ahead of Smylie Kaufman.
“I played better than I scored today”, Spieth said after ending his round with a bogey on 17 and a double at the last. “So it’s tough to swallow”.
If he wins Sunday, Spieth will become just the fourth player to repeat as Masters champion, joining Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus.
After teeing off in the afternoon in a tie for 15th place, Kaufman steadily climbed the leaderboard on the back nine to finish the day just one shot back in sole possession of second place.
Looming three shots behind – that’s nothing at Augusta National – were world No. 1 Jason Day and Dustin Johnson.
“You’re going to have to do something special”, said Willett. You should be able to hit the green in regulation, and if you play them one over you play them one over. But they are not the hard holes out here. McIlroy seemed to record bogey at just the wrong times and never gained momentum.
Moving on became easier when Spieth dropped three strokes over the final two holes.
“To be honest with you I’d be feeling a lot worse about myself if I hadn’t just seen what Jordan did the last two holes”, said McIlroy, who needs to win the Masters to complete the career grand slam. “I made seven pars coming in and had a lot of chances coming in, but I didn’t take any opportunities”. But Spieth closed with a bogey and a double bogey and McIlroy is only five shots behind. His last time in contention was previous year at the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, where he three-putted from 12 feet on No. 18 to lose.
He made a brief comeback by picking up shots on the eighth and 10th, but there was just one more birdie among five bogeys over the rest of his round.
Still, Kaufman said he has been put at ease around Augusta National by a large cheering section of friends and family that’s been as big as “20 to 30 a day”.
“I think it’s winnable from here”, insisted McIlroy.
“Probably go break something really quick”, Spieth said with a smile when asked how he was going to get over the tough finish.
Spieth was cruising at six under with two holes to play only to slice his drive on 17 into trees on the way to a bogey.
Langer, who has won 26 times on the PGA Tour Champions, said it’s only a matter of time before a player from the senior circuit wins a major championship on the PGA Tour.
The next nearest challenger is fully 34 years older than Kaufman, former two-time victor Bernhard Langer from Germany. “We have some players like Davis Love III, Vijay Singh and Fred Couples who can hit long enough off the tee to compete with the young guys in a major”. I can’t, but I make up for it in other ways.
Matsuyama was on his way to a really good round until his putting cost him two bogeys over the final three holes.
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Langer was later joined on one-under by Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, who might have taken closer order but for successive three putts to undermine his challenge.
