Augusta, Ga. – Forget all the platitudes and dreamy waxing about the beauty and splendor of Augusta National Golf Club. This clearly isn’t the time, nor, after years of lengthening and tinkering to create a tougher course, the place for it.
By the time the sun set Saturday on a chilly, brutish third round of the Masters, even the azaleas were quaking in their beds.
“Nothing will be unscathed here,” Stewart Cink said.
Even fairy tales. In 1987, an 11-year-old Vaughn Taylor made his first trip to his hometown’s golf shrine, watching from the gallery as another local favorite, Larry Mize, chipped in a shot from 140 feet to snatch away the green jacket from Greg Norman. Twenty years later, following a birdie on the 15th hole, Taylor, who went to Augusta State and owns a house just 10 minutes from the course, led the Masters.
He then proceeded to bogey the last three holes.
“Hopefully, I call pull something special off (today),” said Taylor, who despite his miscues, still found himself in a tie for fourth, his three-round total of 4-over-par 220 just two shots behind leader Stuart Appleby.
That Appleby led the season’s first major championship with an over-par score, the first time that has happened in the tournament’s 73-year history, only spoke to the severity of the day. The scoring average of the 60 players who made the weekend cut was 77.35, the third-highest third-round figure in tournament history.
With cool temperatures and high winds creating havoc, there was only one under-par score on the day – South African Retief Goosen’s 70.
Countryman Tim Clark, an overnight co-leader at 2-under, bogeyed his first hole and finished at 6-over. And that was the best score in the day’s final pairing; his playing partner, Brett Wetterich, also began at 2-under. He finished at 9-over after shooting an 83.
Hitting shots onto the wind- whipped, baked greens, said Rich Beem, “was like trying to land a ball on your driveway, but your driveway has mounds on it, and then they put the pins near those mounds.”
Even amid the carnage, some players were nonetheless better off than others; the most fortunate/best positioned player being Tiger Woods. When Woods bogeyed the final two holes of Thursday’s opening round, he said he threw away a good day. After he did the same thing Saturday, giving him rounds of 73-74-72, it marked just the second time as a pro that he has failed to break par in three straight attempts.
Leaving the 18th green Woods expressed anger at moving from two shots off the lead and a tie for second place, to four shots and seven places off the pace. By the time the day was done, however, the world’s top-ranked player was tied for second and playing in the day’s final pairing.
The upward mobility was significant on a number of fronts, the most notable being that the eventual champion has emerged from that grouping in each of the past 16 Masters.
And while that had to be comforting to Appleby, the knowledge was certainly tempered by the fact that in order for him to continue the trend, he’d have to outplay Woods to do so.
“What would you like me to say, that I’ve cleaned him up all the time?” Appleby said when asked if there were any nontournament occasions when he has gotten the better of Woods. “That I’m great on the practice range? That I can beat him (there)? That I can hit it past him? No, no and no.”
But of course, Appleby doesn’t have to do it there. All that’s left is creating a happy ending borne of 18 holes of golf; albeit against the game’s best player, a man looking for his third straight major championship and his 13th overall. And don’t forget a nation that’s still trying to pick up the pieces from Norman’s assorted heartbreaks and celebrate its first Masters winner, the only major to thus far elude the Aussies.
A fairy tale indeed.
“To be honest, it’s way more than 18 holes,” Appleby said.
Leaderboard
Leader
Stuart Appleby 75-70-73 – 218
Notables
Tiger Woods 73-74-72 – 219
Justin Rose 69-75-75 – 219
P. Harrington 77-68-75 – 220
Zach Johnson 71-73-76 – 220
Vaughn Taylor 71-72-77 – 220
Phil Mickelson 76-73-73 – 222
Jerry Kelly 75-69-78 – 222
Craig Stadler 74-73-79 – 226
THIRD ROUND
Stuart Appleby 75-70-73-218
Tiger Woods 73-74-72-219
Justin Rose 69-75-75-219
Padraig Harrington 77-68-75-220
Zach Johnson 71-73-76-220
Vaughn Taylor 71-72-77-220
Bradley Dredge 75-70-76-221
Retief Goosen 76-76-70-222
Phil Mickelson 76-73-73-222
Rory Sabbatini 73-76-73-222
David Toms 70-78-74-222
Luke Donald 73-74-75-222
Jim Furyk 75-71-76-222
Jerry Kelly 75-69-78-222
Tim Clark 71-71-80-222
Dean Wilson 75-72-76-223
Jeev Milkha Singh 72-75-76-223
Vijay Singh 73-71-79-223
Lee Westwood 79-73-72-224
K.J. Choi 75-75-74-224
Paul Casey 79-68-77-224
Lucas Glover 74-71-79-224
Henrik Stenson 72-76-77-225
Mark Calcavecchia 76-71-78-225
Brett Wetterich 69-73-83-225
Rod Pampling 77-75-74-226
Ian Poulter 75-75-76-226
Scott Verplank 73-77-76-226
Davis Love III 72-77-77-226
J.J. Henry 71-78-77-226
Tom Pernice Jr. 75-72-79-226
Craig Stadler 74-73-79-226
Geoff Ogilvy 75-70-81-226
Charles Howell III 75-77-75-227
Rich Beem 71-81-75-227
Stewart Cink 77-75-75-227
John Rollins 77-74-76-227
Aaron Baddeley 79-72-76-227
Stephen Ames 76-74-77-227
Jose Maria Olazabal 74-75-78-227
Yong-Eun Yang 75-74-78-227
David Howell 70-75-82-227
Mike Weir 75-72-80-227
Adam Scott 74-78-76-228
M. Angel Jimenez 79-73-76-228
Niclas Fasth 77-75-77-229
Robert Karlsson 77-73-79-229
Fred Couples 76-76-78-230
Jeff Sluman 76-75-79-230
Tim Herron 72-75-83-230
Angel Cabrera 77-75-79-231
Brett Quigley 76-76-79-231
Fuzzy Zoeller 74-78-79-231
Carl Pettersson 76-76-79-231
Shingo Katayama 79-72-80-231
Sandy Lyle 79-73-80-232
Trevor Immelman 74-77-81-232
Billy Mayfair 76-75-83-234
Ben Crenshaw 76-74-84-234
Arron Oberholser 74-76-84-234
YOU CAN DO THIS: Wetterich wobbles
First you have to be a tournament co-leader – the Masters, the club championship, take your pick. Then think long and hard about that fact. Then you can approach the day Brett Wetterich, right, had Saturday. Tied at the top with Tim Clark after two rounds, Wetterich finished tied for 23rd after a third-round 83 that included six bogeys, a double bogey and a triple-bogey 7 on the 350-yard, par-4 third. As bad as it was for Wetterich, things could have been worse – Ben Crenshaw and Arron Oberholser each shot 84.
YOU CAN’T DO THIS: Goosen guts out a 2-under 70
Imagine waking up to play golf on a chilly Saturday morning. OK, perhaps you’re not a fan of that. But how about playing at Augusta National? In the third round of the Masters? And being the only player in the field to break par? That was Retief Goosen’s day, the South African shooting a 2-under-par 70, the day’s best by two shots. Tied for 46th when he hit his first shot, by the end of the round Goosen had moved up to a tie for eighth.
HOLE OF THE DAY: No. 18, par 4, 465 yards
After being buffeted and beat up all day, it probably wasn’t surprising the 18th hole was the second-toughest Saturday – the 36-man field taking an average of 4.6 strokes to navigate it. There were only two birdies made there, by David Howell and Lee Westwood, versus 28 bogeys and two double bogeys. For the week there have been 105 bogeys at No. 18, more than any other hole.
