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Even without viewers in November, the Masters promised to deliver more drama with 10 players separated by a single shot for a weekend full of possibilities.
And then Dustin Johnson turned it into a one-man show.
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Dustin Johnson has a four-shot lead heading into the final round of the Masters.
The world’s number one player shone in every respect on Saturday (Sunday NZ), drifting away from a five-position portion of the lead with an explosive start, four low through four holes, and never letting go of the foot. Throttle up was seven under 65 and equaled the Masters record of 54 holes.
More importantly, Johnson had a four-shot lead.
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* Defending champion Tiger Woods got off to a strong start at the Masters delayed by Covid
Sunday (Monday New Zealand time) will be Johnson’s third time leading to the final round of a major, along with two other majors in which he was tied for the lead. His only major was the 2016 US Open when he came from behind. Most recently, he took a one-stroke lead at Harding Park in the PGA Championship this summer, closing at 68 and losing to 64 by Collin Morikawa.
This effort was a master class. Johnson used his putter from above a slope to the right of the 18 green at five feet and holed it for a pair to cap another round without bogey and hit 16 under 200. That ties the record set by Jordan Spieth in 2015, when he passed. to a four-shot victory over Justin Rose and Phil Mickelson.
Not all the players who chase Johnson are so familiar. Two of them are Masters rookies.
Sungjae Im, the supreme South Korean forward who won his first PGA Tour title two weeks before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down golf in the spring, birdied the last hole for 68. Abraham Ancer of Mexico he saved the pair at 18 for a 69. They were at 204 under 12, along with Australia’s Cameron Smith.
Smith opened with 12 pairs before making three birdies in a row and working his way home to 69.
Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm had their chances only to make inappropriate mistakes. Rahm nearly finished off his second shot at the eighth par five and hit the next from a tree and into the bushes on his way to a double bogey. Thomas navigated his second shot over the 15th green and got into the water, bogeying a par five where he hoped to make up ground.
They both bogeyed the 18th hole. Thomas shot 71, Rahm had 72.
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Tiger Woods plays his shot from the ninth tee during the third round at Augusta.
When asked to describe his day, Rahm didn’t beat around the bush.
“Seriously? How would you describe it? Pretty awful,” he said.
The final round start times have been advanced to end at 3pm (local time) so that CBS can fulfill its contract with the NFL, and will be trios on both tees. And just like all week and year round, there will be no roars to increase pressure.
Defending champion Tiger Woods will stay on Sunday to present the green jacket, and will have to leave his at Augusta National until he returns.
Woods was four under par over 10 holes to start the Masters, and he made just one more shot over the next 44 holes. He finished 71 in the second round, had 72 in the third round and was 11 shots behind.
It probably didn’t help Woods, 44, riding 26 holes on soft grass on a hilly course.
“It’s just part of the deal,” he said. “If you have long days like this, I’m going to get a little sore, which I definitely am.”
US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau was more dizzy than sore. It felt so strange Thursday night that he had another COVID-19 test to be sure, it came back negative, and this Masters betting favorite was in the middle of the pack.
The score has been low all week. Saturday morning’s 36-hole cut was par 144, the lowest in Masters history, another update to the club’s record book.
Still ahead of Johnson is a chance to set the 72-hole record. All he cares about is a green jacket, and given his past experience, he knows he shouldn’t look forward.
“I feel like I’m balancing well and I’m very confident in what I’m doing. Everything is going well, ”he said. “There are a lot of really good players around me. I’m going to play aggressive when I can and play smart when I can’t. “
He was aggressive at first. First, he drilled a five iron that he nearly drilled for an albatross on the second par five, leaving him like a tap-in eagle. He followed that with a five-foot fly birdie pitch at number 3, and a 40-foot birdie putt uphill on the fourth par-three hole as the lead began to grow.
Thomas was two shots away until he made mistakes and Johnson kept going. Johnson had two-putt birdies at par fives in the last nine and hasn’t bogeyed since the sixth hole of his second round.
