AUGUSTA, United States —
Tiger Woods’s hopes
of a victorious return from career-threatening injuries evaporated on Augusta
National’s greens on Saturday while Scottie Scheffler seized a three-stroke
Masters lead.
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Woods, 14 months removed from a car crash that left
him with injuries so severe he feared he might lose his right leg, saw his
hopes of a stunning comeback for a sixth green jacket come undone with his
worst-ever Masters round, a six-over par 78.
The fact that the 46-year-old was even able to tee
it up — and make a 22nd consecutive Masters cut — was astonishing.
But at nine off
Scheffler’s lead to start the day, Woods knew he needed something sensational
to give himself a chance come Sunday, and instead he posted a round worse than
the third-round 77 he shot in his 1996 debut as an amateur.
“It’s just like I hit a thousand putts out there on
the greens today,” said Woods, whose prior mastery of the unforgiving,
undulating greens of Augusta helped him to five Masters titles.
“I felt like I didn’t really hit it that bad, but I
had four three-putts and a four-putt,” Woods said. “I just could not get a
feel.”
Woods’s seven-over par total of 223 put him 16
strokes behind Scheffler, who survived drama at the 18th to card a one-under
par 71 for a nine-under total of 207.
The 25-year-old Texan takes a three-shot lead over
Australian Cameron Smith into the final round.
On a cold, windy day where scores soared, Smith
carded the only round in the 60s with a four-under par 68 for 210.
Smith was two strokes in front of third-place South
Korean Im Sung-jae, who shot a one-under 71.
But, once again, it was Woods who drew the
spotlight.
A three-putt at the opening hole proved a harbinger,
a birdie at the second — where his shot out of a greenside bunker barely missed
finding the cup for eagle — proving only a short respite.
From the fairway at the fifth, Woods left himself 65
feet, and he could only watch in disbelief as his three-foot bogey effort circled
the cup and stayed up.
Bogeys at the ninth and 11th followed before he
drained a 14-foot birdie at the 12th and two-putted from 27 feet for birdie at
the par-five 13th.
The thousands following Woods’s every move tried to
will him on, cheering and shouting encouragement at every hole, but he closed
his round with bogeys at 16 and 17 and another double-bogey at the last.
While Woods acknowledged on Thursday that just
making through his first competitive round in 17 months was a victory of sorts,
he made it clear he would be looking for better things on Sunday, like getting
himself back to even par.
Woods was hardly the only one struggling in the
cold, blustery conditions, where the scoring average was 74.5 shots and only
seven players were under par for the tournament after 54 holes.
Ireland’s 2019 British Open champion
Shane Lowry and
2011 Masters winner Charl Schwartzel both carded one-over par 73s to share
fourth place on two-under 214.
Scheffler shrub drama
Scheffler was 10-under
through 17 holes when his tee shot at 18 clipped a tree branch and ended up in
dense undergrowth left of the fairway.
It took a concerted search to find his ball and
after wading into the bushes to see the situation he took an unplayable lie,
belted a shot up to the green and limited the damage to a bogey.
“We saw the guy who always finds the balls kind of
panicking. I thought, ‘Oh crap,’” Scheffler said.
“Just getting it out of the bush and trying to make
my five was key,” added Scheffler who said his heart rate “went up when they
couldn’t find the ball but it went back down when they found it.”
It was a dramatic end to a round that featured half
a dozen birdies and five bogeys, Scheffler maintaining his air of methodical
calm throughout.
“You hate bogeying the last hole, but the way I
bogeyed it, it for sure felt like a par,” Scheffler said. “Definitely a good
finish to the day.”
Smith finished tied for second behind
Dustin Johnson
in 2020, when he became the only player to shoot four rounds in the 60s at the
Masters.
The Aussie said playing within himself in the
challenging conditions was the key to his round.
“I didn’t try to smash any drivers off the tee. I
just tried to give myself opportunities,” said Smith, who added the toughest
part of the day for him was “keeping my hands warm.”
“It was brutal. I think off the tee with this west
wind there’s not many holes you get straight downwind or straight into the
wind.
“You get lots of crosswinds and can get quite tricky into
the greens and hitting different shapes and trying to judge the wind as well.”
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