Tiger Woods lines up a putt on a difficult Saturday when he returned a 10 over card at Augusta National for the first time. Image courtesy Augusta National.
By Rahul Banerji
World number one Scottie Scheffler survived a tough Moving Day at Augusta National to hold a slim lead headed into Title Sunday at the 88th Masters Tournament.
The 2022 winner shot a 1 under par 71 to total 7 under 209 with previous cards of 66 and 72 to head Collin Morikawa (71-70-69) by a stroke while overnight co-leader Max Homa (67-71-73) slipped to third place.
Bryson DeChambeau too had a rough ride, the day one leader now fifth with a 3 over 73 to go with earlier rounds of 65 and 73 while Swedish rookie Ludvig Aberg continued to impress in a solid fourth place on 4 under 212.
Five-time winner Tiger Woods returned his worst card at Augusta National Golf Club with a 10 over 82 a day after rewriting the record for most consecutive cuts at the tournament.
On Saturday, Tiger had two birdies and six pars and paid the most heavily on the back nine in his 99th Masters start. He still made time to meet the media after the horror show, admitting, “I was not hitting it very good or putting well.
Missed chances
“I didn’t have a very good warmup session, and I kept it going all day today. Just hit the ball in all the places that I know I shouldn’t hit it. And I missed a lot of putts. Easy, makable putts.”
The 15-time major winner dropped 30 places on the leaderboard as a result into a tie for 52nd on 11 over par 227, but still a long way from quitting. “My team will get me ready. It will be a long night and a long warmup session, but we’ll be ready,” he said on the Masters website.
Meanwhile, Indian American Akshay Bhatia dropped three shots in two holes to fall back in his bid for a strong Masters debut. The wiry left-hander shot a 2 over 74 and is now tied 28th on 5 over 221 alongside defending champion Jon Rahm (73-76-72).
Sahith Theegala shot a third straight 74 to get to 6 over and tied 36th place.
Scheffler had a roller-coaster back nine with two birdies, two bogeys, an eagle and a double in his 71 on Saturday.
Second-placed Morikawa was one of only two in the field to record a sub-70 card on Moving Day besides Chris Kirk (68) which lifted him three places on the leaderboard
Hot start
Starting at 3 under with rounds of 71 and 70, the two-time major winner opened with three birdies and put pressure on Scheffler, who birdied the first and third holes but dropped a shot on the fourth.
A bogey for birdie followed and though he was within one of the leader, a closing sequence of 10 straight pars – creditable under the circumstances – kept Morikawa tantalisingly short of Scheffler.
After his rough ride over the closing nine holes, Scheffler noted, “I think I’ll have a better understanding of what the morning is like tomorrow. But, yeah, proud of how I played today.
“It was a good fight out there. The golf course was extremely challenging. The greens were very firm, very fast, and it was extremely difficult again today. So probably looking for more of the same tomorrow.”
Added Morikawa, “If you asked me at the beginning of the week I’d be one back heading into Sunday, I would have taken that any time.
“You give yourself a chance with 18 holes left, that’s all you can really do and everything that you practice for. It all comes together tomorrow hopefully. But it’s going to be a grind, and I’m looking forward to that.”
For Bhatia, it is now about managing fatigue over the final 18 holes.
Heavy load
“This is seven weeks in a row for me playing. It’s just a lot of golf. Then when you come to a major last minute, especially with the highs of winning, it’s pretty challenging,
“So it’s something I haven’t learned to do yet. When I won, I had a week off. Coming to Augusta National is really hard, and trying to prepare but not too much, it’s just a fine balance.”
Overnight co-leader DeChambeau dropped four shots between holes 9 and 16 while Korea’s Byeong Hun An staged another valiant comeback after a difficult start to salvage a gutsy 72 and line up a best-ever finish at the year’s first major.
Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, the 2021 Masters winner, shot his week’s best of 71 to sit T28 while Koreans Si Woo Kim and Joohyung Kim were T41 and T52 respectively.
A win on Sunday would give Scheffler his ninth tour win overall and the third of the season though with his wife Meredith expecting their first child, he has also said he would leave to be with her if needed.
Also read: Three share Masters lead as Woods resets consecutive cut mark
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