1. JUST A REMINDER: Tiger Woods, who shot 4-under 68 Saturday to move into fifth place, six shots behind leader Trevor Immelman, has never won a major while trailing after 54 holes.
2. ALSO: Woods has won 64 tournaments on the PGA Tour, but never rallied from more than five shots down in the last round.
3. HOWEVER: Check tomorrow’s tee sheet: “2:05 p.m. — Tiger Woods, Stewart Cink.” Twice this year when Woods has won (Buick, Accenture Match Play), he’s played with Stewart Cink in the final round.
4. AND DON’T FORGET: “To sit here and say we are not going to be thinking about Tiger Woods tomorrow is crazy because we are, just like everybody else in this room is and just like everybody else in this world is,” said Brandt Snedeker, who after a 2-under 70 Saturday is in second place, two shots behind Immelman.
“We’re human, what can we say?”
5. ANOTHER WAY TO SAY ‘I AM ANGRY WITH MY PUTTER’: “Today was probably the highest score I could have probably shot. Sixty-eight was probably as high as I could go,” Woods said.
(Woods missed four straight putts inside 15 feet on the front nine that could have turned his fortunes, and an 8-foot birdie on the par-5 15th.)
6. ANOTHER WAY TO SAY ‘I AM ANGRY WITH MYSELF’: “Dumba--!” Woods blurted out on the 15th tee after hitting his drive toward the left edge of the fairway, leaving him without an angle to reach the par-5 in two.
“He’s just bleeding frustration,” CBS analyst David Feherty said. “It’s coming out of every pore it seems.”
Woods yelled “Woodrow!” after a drive into the right trees on No. 18 Friday.
7. BIG FAN OF THE SIXTIES: Immelman is the only player in the field with three rounds in the 60s (68-68-69). In the history of the Masters, no one has ever finished with a fourth.
8. WATER HAZARD: After two days of warm, sunny weather, the Masters turned wet Saturday. Umbrellas popped up all over the course as play began in a light drizzle. With the leaders still waiting to tee off, the horns sounded and play was halted at 1 p.m. when a line of heavy storms moved over the course and left giant puddles on several greens.
Play resumed after a 45-minute delay, the puddles on the 12th and 18th greens having been pushed aside with squeegees.
9. SWINGIN’ IN THE RAIN: What did Boo Weekley do during the rain delay?
“I sat out in the rain with an umbrella,” said Weekley, who has spent many days in the rain hunting.
“... Just sat over there on No. 6 or right behind No. 5 green there. They’ve got a bathroom there, and we sat right there and went and got some crackers and some water.”
10. NICE ASSIST: Weekley also provided one of the more entertaining moments of the day during online bonus coverage after missing a 3-foot putt for par on No. 11, where he made his only bogey of an impressive 4-under 68. Weekley grabbed his ball out of the cup, skipped over the hole and tossed the ball behind his back (a la Steve Nash) into the hazard that guards the left side of the green.
“A little donation to the pond,” said announcer Bobby Clampett.
11: AND ONE MORE THING: Weekley was clean-shaven when he showed up at Augusta National Saturday morning. He had been sporting a scraggly goatee for his first Masters appearance.
“My wife kind of told me it kind of started looking hideous,” Weekley said. “She’s like, ‘It’s time to either trim it up or take it off.’ I didn’t have no trimmers with me, so I just went ahead and took it off.”
12. HARDLY A BREEZE: Gusts up to 20 mph are expected Sunday, which isn’t exactly good news down on Amen Corner. Temperatures in the 60s are also expected.
13. THE GIFT OF GOLF: Defending champion Zach Johnson shot a third-round 4-under 68, his best round in a major in relation to par, only three shots off his wife’s earlier request for a 65.
“It’s her birthday, so I tried,” Johnson said.
14. GAS WAS MUCH CHEAPER BACK THEN: A few years ago, Brandt Snedeker nearly wore out his welcome at Augusta National.
Once invites for the Masters go out, players are allowed to play as many practice rounds as they want and Snedeker took full advantage of that privilege before his debut back in 2004.
Snedeker, who earned his invitation by winning the 2003 U.S. Amateur Public Links championship, said he’d pile into his car Thursday for the 5 1/2-hour drive from Nashville, Tenn., and get in two rounds before dark. Then he’d play another two rounds Friday. By the time the tournament rolled around, he had played 40 to 50 rounds.
“I was out of school, had not turned pro yet,” he said. “They almost changed the rule the next year because of me, because I was down here every day. I wore it out. I thought, ‘How many times can I have a membership at Augusta National for four months?’”
It paid off when he made the cut, finished tied for 41st, and turned pro the next day.
15. SHARING IS CARING: Like Snedeker, Immelman’s name is also engraved on the Publinks trophy. He won in 1998.
16. SHARING IS CARING, PART II: After Immelman won the PGA Tour’s rookie of the year award in 2006, Snedeker followed suit in 2007.
17. LET’S TRY THIS AGAIN: Paul Casey is getting a do-over.
The Englishman played so well in his first trip to the Masters that he earned a spot in the second-to-last group Sunday. Playing with two-time champion Bernhard Langer, no less. But it was hardly a memorable finish, and he was knocked out of contention with a 74.
Casey, who shot a 3-under 69 Saturday, putting him four strokes behind leader Trevor Immelman, is back in that second-to-last group Sunday, and he hopes that experience in 2004 will keep him from another blowup.
“I was very excited, probably a little bit too excited,” Casey said Saturday. “You know, it was all a bit new to me, and I think that’s going to put me in good stead for tomorrow.”
18. JUST A REMINDER: The Masters doesn’t really start until the back nine on Sunday.
– FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Posted: 4/12/2008
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