Rose, Garcia lead the way entering final round at Masters

What a leaderboard heading into the final round of the Masters.

The Big Easy has not given up hope of playing in a 24th Masters, but will have to now qualify for the tournament like every other golfer. Seriously, if he didn’t lose it for a brief moment on 15 on Thursday with a bad quadruple bogey, Spieth might be the leader heading into the final pairing. “I’m certainly looking for my first Masters and my first green jacket”.

Rahm, 22, won at Torrey Pines to reach Augusta and could become the first Masters debutante victor since 1979. “But I had confidence that I would have my run”, said Englishman Rose. “I’ll be able to tell you better tomorrow night whether those missed opportunities hurt my chances”.

He believes it will be a thinking-man’s game Sunday, particularly on the back nine.

A birdie on the eighth repaired some of the damage and after a good chance went begging on the 11th, McIlroy holed from 20 feet to pick up another shot on the 12th.

“I certainly know anything can happen on Sunday”, said Spieth, referring to his collapse previous year.

References to the late Seve Ballesteros, who would have celebrated his 60th birthday on Sunday.

“It was nice”, Garcia said. “It really meant a lot”. Here’s everything you should know about the competitor!

When Tiger Woods won the 2001 Masters, the board members of Augusta National elected to make some changes to try and level the playing field.

The Masters’ biggest leaderboard logjam in 44 years could begin to get sorted out now that the four co-leaders have teed off.

“Anything can happen on a Sunday at Augusta”, said early finisher Jason Day, who had 69 but is nine shots off the lead.

For someone who does not seem to have done justice – save the Players Championships he won in 2015 – to the awesome talent that he has, this could indicate that a Major may be due.

“Disappointed to finish like that, but I’m still within five of the lead going into the weekend with better conditions on the way”, said McIlroy, who needs a win this week to complete a collection of all four of golf’s major titles. Spieth made a quadruple bogey in the opening round. Hoffman, though, rallied back after a mistake that might’ve unraveled many with two steady, closing pars to remain two off the lead. “You just have to roll with it and realize sometimes you’re going to get good breaks and sometimes you get not-so-good breaks”. In 1959, who came from a tie for 13th.

Charley Hoffman had a birdie on the ninth hole to make the turn with a two-stroke lead in Saturday’s third round at the Masters. Hoffman lost his lead when he made double bogey on No. 16. Ryan Moore and Hoffman (both 4 under) are still in the hunt, 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott (3 under) is in seventh place after shooting a bogey-free 69 on Saturday, and Charl Schwartzel (2 under), Lee Westwood and Pieters (1 under) are within striking distance.

Justin Rose of England, who has captured one major title and another that felt like it, put himself in position for his first Green Jacket on Saturday. Now I have a chance of winning the tournament I dreamed of as a kid. “Fortunate enough for me I made a good amount of birdies today, so I counteracted that”.

“Him and I could potentially go out, get off to a good start, we could really push each other”, Fowler said of Spieth. I practiced that putt in a practice round and it broke left.

And he wasted no time making his move on Saturday, using his prodigious power at the par-five second, where he smashed a fairway-metal second shot from 280 yards to set up a two-putt tap-in birdie. It’s a good place to be since the victor has come out of that group 21 of the past 26 years. His countryman Danny Willett won the Masters past year. “He’s 2 back. Let that sink in for a second” – PGA Tour website writer Sean Martin (PGATOURSMartin) notes Spieth’s remarkable record at Augusta.