2GS The Sunday Times April 10, 2022 17WHO’S
ON
TOP?
Full third-round
reports from last
night’s action
THESUNDAYTIMES.
CO.UK/SPORTSergio García is a recent winner of the
Green Jacket but he summed up the
bruising nature of this year’s Masters
when he likened two rounds at the
Augusta National to ten with Canelo
Álvarez, the bellicose world
champion boxer. It was a chastening
experience for the bulk of the world’s
elite as they tried to chase down the
runaway halfway leader Scottie
Scheffler amid falling temperatures
and plummeting hopes.
The wind flattened ambition and
the hills sapped energy but Scheffler
seemed capable of rolling with the
punches. After three holes of his third
round, he had increased his lead to
six strokes, seemingly unflappable in
the cold.
There is always a potential caveat,
though, and golf ’s major scripts often
come with hasty rewrites. Shane
Lowry knows about this having
blown a four-stroke last-day lead at
the US Open in 2016. When he finally
did get his first major at Royal
Portrush three years later, Graeme
McDowell dubbed it the exclamation
mark after the dream. This had
seemed more business-like than
dreamy, Scheffler wearing
expectation loosely, playing as a
world No 1 should.
However, when Lowry rolled in a
birdie from 16 feet at the 6th hole
yesterday, the lead was down to four.
It provided some food for thought for
the American and anyone thinking
this would be a long and lonely
procession to the Butler Cabin.
Scheffler shrugged and responded in
predictable fashion, mirroring
Lowry’s birdie on the same hole.
At the start of the third day the
question was: could anyone find
another exclamation mark before
Scheffler penned the full stop? Maybe
Cameron Smith could. A fourth birdie
on the 10th closed the chasm to five
for him. Lowry started his third
round five back and birdied the 2nd.
The trouble was Scheffler did the
same when he got to the hole in the
next and final group. Justin Thomas,
the one man who Jon Rahm says
receives an exclusive dissertation on
Augusta’s whims from Tiger Woods,
had a round of 67 on Friday and two
birdies in three holes yesterday.
Dustin Johnson, the 2020 winner in
that November Masters, has been
unusually reticent with his driver, but
he also clawed a shot back on the 2nd
to move to within five. Scheffler,
though, had the wind in his sails.
Many other just looked winded,
including Rahm who had been well-
fancied but found himself 18 off the
lead playing the last.
Woods has made his unique mark
this week with a comeback of quite
astonishing defiance after his carScheffler breezes
clear of elite pack
crash and the near-amputation of his
right leg, but there has been some
grisly stuff in the gold and grit too.
Making the cut was another indelible
memory, but he will hope people
forget the first four putt of his Masters
career on the 5th hole. In an event of
broad-screen proportions, three
from six feet can taint any
celebration.
The nature of the test was
explained by Tommy Fleetwood’s
smile after finishing early with a
round of 70. “I’m made up,” he said
despite being ten off the lead at that
point. “I played amazing today. I‘m
not saying I’m the best golfer in the
world, but I played really, really well.
I’m very happy to be done.” As for
Scheffler, who had not reached the
turn at that point, Fleetwood said: “I
can’t look at what he’s doing. He’s so
far clear.”
And what of Rory McIlroy? It was
last Tuesday afternoon in Augusta as
he sat in the lavish press centre that
would not look out of place in a
Tennessee Williams play and looked
to the future. “Time is on my side,” he
said. “I’ll keep saying that until it
isn’t.” Barring a miracle to dwarf the
return of Woods, it will soon be 27
majors played without a win.
Scheffler took a grip on matters
late on Friday, but the
disappointment for McIlroy is that he
was not even on the fringes of the
chasing pack. It was 2015 when he
made his first attempt to complete
the career grand slam at Augusta,
having won the other three majors by
the age of 25. Back then it seemed
close to inevitable that the Ulsterman
would add the Masters at some point,
but during that Tuesday press
conference he looked to a big screen
stating that his best finish here had
come in 2015 when he was fourth. He
looked almost incredulous.
His eight Masters with the career
grand slam at stake never got going.
By the start of his third round he was
all but out of it. He topped the driving
distance stats, was third in terms of
making greens in regulation. He
made a 40-feet putt on the 4th
yesterday, but missed the green on
the par-three 6th. It was staccato
progress, and while he had an under-
par round of 71 yesterday, his putting
has again let his down this week.McIlroy made staccato progressWorld No 1 tightens grip
on Masters as McIlroy
and co are left winded
by the grisly conditionsRick Broadbent
Augustaplayer in the world. He three-putted
the first green to make bogey and that
foretold the travails to come. He also
three-putted the 9th and 11th holes
and needed a shocking four putts to
get the ball in the hole on the admit-
tedly treacherous 5th green.
Those dropped shots pushed him
from 1-over par to 5-over and who
could have blamed him if all those
missed putts drained his morale.
The refusal to give up is his greatest
and most admirable quality. After
three-putting the 11th, he stood on the
12th like it was the start of his round.
The same hope, the same determina-
tion. He then hit the most precise iron
to the par-3 green and holed the putt
for birdie.
That was followed by a brilliant
5-wood approach to the par-5 13th,
safely finding the green and, though
the eagle putt didn’t drop, he tapped
in for his second consecutive birdie.
He has played more than 90 competi-
tive rounds in the Masters over the
past 25 years and there’s never a hole
at which he didn’t try his best. He calls
it grinding. To us it feels like he’s just
giving all that he’s got.
The miracle this week has been his
presence in the tournament, the
bonus is that he can still play.
“My team has done a hell of a job
getting me ready. After I go ahead and
break it out there, they go ahead and
repair it at night. You should know
this from NASCAR. Break it, fix it.
“I’m good at breaking it. They’re
good at fixing it.”
He was asked also about the
changes to his swing to allow for a
body that can only do so much. “I
can’t do much,” he said. “The ankle is
LEADERBOARD
United States unless stated
Early leaders after three rounds
217 T Fleetwood (Eng) 75 72 70; J Kokrak
70 76 71; R McIlroy (N Ire) 73 73 71.
218 C Champ 72 75 71.
219 V Hovland (Nor) 72 76 71, M Leishman
(Aus) 73 75 71; T Gooch 72 74 73, Kim
Si-woo (S Kor) 76 70 73, H Swafford 77 69
73, H Higgs 71 75 73.
220 Lee Min-woo (Aus) 73 75 72; L Glover
72 76 72, P Reed 74 73 73, T Finau 71 75 74.
222 S Power (Ire) 74 74 74, T Hoge 73 74
75, S Straka (Austria) 74 72 76.
223 R Henley 73 74 76, D Berger 71 75 77,
J Rahm (Sp) 74 72 77.
224 M Homa 74 73 77.
225 M Hughes (Can) 73 75 77, T Hatton
(Eng) 72 74 79.
226 B Horschel 74 73 79.
227 C Davis (Aus) 75 73 79.
228 A Scott (Aus) 74 74 80.
Leaders after two rounds
136 S Scheffler 69 67
141 Im Sung -jae (S Kor) 67 74, S Lowry
(Ire) 73 68, H Matsuyama (Japan) 72 69,
C Schwartzel (SA) 72 69.
142 D Johnson 69 73, K Na 71 71, C Smith
(Aus) 68 74, H Varner III 71 71.
143 C Conners (Can) 70 73, C Morikawa 73
70, J Niemann (Chi) 69 74, J Thomas 76 67,
D Willett (Eng) 69 74, W Zalatoris 71 72.
144 C Bezuidenhout (SA) 73 71,
M Fitzpatrick (Eng) 71 73, J J Spaun 74 70.
145 P Cantlay 70 75, K Kisner 75 70,
W Simpson 71 74, T Woods 71 74.
146 D Berger 71 75, T Finau 71 75, S Garcia
(Sp) 72 74, T Gooch 72 74, T Hatton (Eng)
72 74, H Higgs 71 75, Kim Si-woo (S Kor)
76 70, J Kokrak 70 76, R MacIntyre (Scot)
73 73, R McIlroy (N Ire) 73 73, J Rahm (Sp)
74 72, S Straka (Austria) 74 72, H Swafford
77 69, B Watson 73 73, L Westwood (Eng)
72 74.not going to move. I got rods and
plates and pins and screws and a
bunch of different things in there. It’s
never going to move like it used to.
The more important thing is the ankle
is always going to be an issue, but
more importantly, if I play golf ballisti-
cally, it’s going to be the back [that is
more affected]. It’s fused.”
A CBS presenter asked about his
nine-shot deficit on Scheffler and
Woods just looked silently, smilingly
and mischievously at the interviewer.
A big grin on his face, he wasn’t pre-
pared to consider something that
might have induced a negative
thought. He did say something about
being only four shots back on the four
players tied second.
It doesn’t matter that he’s unlikely
to win this tournament and that we
may be watching the handing over of
the baton to a younger generation
being brilliantly led by Scheffler.
What is important is that Woods
has come here, held together as he
says by plates and pins, screws and a
bunch of different things, and is fight-
ing the good fight. Not for two days
but for four.
Fourteen months ago, after a terri-
ble road accident in California, Dep-
uty Carlos Gonzalez of the Los Ange-
les Sheriff Department was first on the
scene. Later in the day he would
appear on news bulletins around the
world. “I would say it’s very fortunate
that Mr Woods was able to come out of
this alive.”
Winning 15 major championships
defines Woods, the golfer. What he’s
done through the past 14 months is
something else. And perhaps some-
thing greater.