The defending champion is on the defensive.
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Playing alongside the world’s top-ranked player, less-than-half-his-age Jason Day, Langer showed that there are many ways to get around Augusta National. Now it is not at all unusual for McIlroy to face players younger than he is – Spieth is only 22. He then bogeyed 17 and double bogeyed 18 after drives that found the right trees.
In 1986, Nicklaus was four shots behind the third-round leader, Greg Norman, when he shot 30 on the back nine and charged to a victory that electrified the sports world, not to mention anyone who witnessed the improbable event at Augusta National. Even though he likes the occasional dessert, as he admitted after his round, Langer’s waistline looks the same as when he won the Masters in 1985 and 1993.
The Irish star finished a birdie-less game, making a Masters title win on Sunday’s final match rather elusive.
“It’s going to be different obviously”, said Kaufman. I’ve got to, and I relied on my putter on Sunday a year ago and it came through. I have to strike the ball better and put myself in better positions.
“But at this time I’m still most comfortable by just not anchoring, because I’ve done this for 18, 19 years now”. You should be able to hit the green in regulation, and if you play them one over you play them one over. Spieth’s 35-shot outward nine was the equal best of the day on the higher, more exposed side of the course, and by the turn he had extended his lead to three shots as McIlroy’s challenge fell away. Those birdies on the par 5s – a good chip from behind the 13th green, a 5-wood onto the green for a two-putt on the 15th – were just what he needed. The winds caused everyone to second-guess, but Spieth no longer looks like a sure thing. It’s tough to swallow that. “And I’m trying my best to survive right now”.
The question is, who can beat him? He then bogeyed the 16th and 17th holes to shoot an even-par 72. Kaufman is from Birmingham and competed against Spieth as a junior. “I sort of feel that Augusta owes me something, and I have come with that attitude”, McIlroy said to Irish radio network RTE.
But Kaufman grew up playing fast, undulating greens on his home course and has used that knowledge here. The scholar that I am wanted to stay in school.
At three under par Spieth was suddenly just one ahead of Langer, Matsuyama and Smylie Kaufman, with Dustin Johnson another shot back and Lee Westwood safely in the clubhouse on one over par after a 71. They are two strokes behind. His caddie kept reminding him that par was a good score in wind like this. After another dropped shot on the 10th, the Northern Irishman did himself no favours on the 11th, overhitting his tee shot straight into the pines and watched on ashen-faced as he it trickled down into the water, carding another double bogey. Instead of playing a “stock wedge shot”, he tried a punch shot into the green that left him 49 feet below the hole and led to a 3-putt.
“I’ve been saying it’s going to happen sooner or later”, said Langer, mindful that two other players over 50 – Davis Love III and Larry Mize – also made the Masters cut.
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So this is not the time, or the year, to run out the clock.
