Scottie Scheffler leads Masters by 1 shot on a wild day of motion | EUROtoday

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Scottie Scheffler made one final birdie and let loose one massive exhale Saturday on a wild day of expenses and collapses on the Masters, giving him a 1-under 71 and a one-shot lead over two-time main champion Collin Morikawa.

Scheffler started by chipping in for birdie from throughout the primary inexperienced. He completed with an 8-foot birdie putt that caught simply sufficient of the best facet of the cup.

Everything in between was bonkers, proper to the very finish. Bryson DeChambeau drove into the best bushes on the 18th, pitched out to the golf green after which holed out from 77 yards for a very unlikely birdie which may have salvaged his probabilities.

Six gamers had no less than a tie for the lead at one level.

There was a five-way tie for the lead on again 9. Morikawa seemed to interrupt out of the tie when he had an extended eagle putt on the par-5 thirteenth. He three-putted for par, after which the opposite 4 gamers all made bogey.

Max Homa has gone 32 holes with out a birdie and he was solely two behind. Xander Schauffele has gone 25 holes with out a bogey, and that goes a good distance. He was 5 again.

Augusta National did not want a ferocious wind to be wildly entertaining. The course was robust as ever, with a wind that will have felt scary if not for the day earlier than.

Scheffler was at 7-under 209 as he goes for a second Masters inexperienced jacket and tries to increase a dominant stretch that features two wins on robust programs and a runner-up end in his final three tournaments.

Morikawa made two robust pars to complete off a 69, making him the one participant to interrupt par all three days at this Masters. Another shot again was Homa (73), whose final birdie was on the fourth gap of the second spherical. He has made 32 pars in his final 36 holes.

Eight gamers had been separated by 5 pictures going into the ultimate spherical, the place the greens are more likely to be even quicker, crispier and extra horrifying.

Tiger Woods was not amongst them. Neither was Rory McIlroy.

Woods, having made his Masters document twenty fourth consecutive lower on Friday, began the third spherical seven pictures out of the lead and hopeful of no less than making his huge following assume there may be extra magic left in that battered 48-year-old physique.

Instead, Woods posted his highest spherical in three a long time taking part in the majors. He shot an 82, the third time he has failed to interrupt 80 in a serious, and the primary for the reason that 2015 U.S. Open.

McIlroy got here to the Masters pondering this may be the yr he lastly acquired the final leg of the profession Grand Slam. All he might muster was a 71 that left him 10 pictures behind with 20 gamers in entrance of him.

There had been no scarcity of challengers.

Ludvig Aberg, the rising Swedish star taking part in in his first main, was amongst those that had a short share of the lead till lacking a pair of brief par putts on the again 9. He nonetheless managed a 70 and was solely three pictures behind.

Another newcomer to the Masters, Nicolai Hojgaard of Denmark, had the result in himself with three straight birdies across the flip. He celebrated that good lucky by working off 5 straight bogeys, placing the ball within the water on each par 5s.

And then there was DeChambeau, who began the third spherical tied with Scheffler and Homa.

DeChambeau saved making sufficient birdies to hold round and was just one shot behind till he determined to go for the inexperienced from the bushes on the par-5 fifteenth. He went properly proper towards the seventeenth fairway — the second time in as many days he performed a par 5 from two holes — solely this one did not work out so properly.

He chunked his wedge and watched it tumble into the pond. He took a penalty drop, pitched on and two-putted for double bogey. And then he three-putted for bogey on the sixteenth. And proper when it seemed to be falling aside, he made his shock birdie to restrict the injury to 75. He was 4 pictures behind.

Scheffler did not escape the craziness. He reached 8 below with a 30-foot birdie putt on the third gap and was nonetheless seemingly in management till his method to the tenth took a tough jump over the inexperienced and into the bushes. He seemed to flee with bogey till lacking a 30-inch putt. Then, he hit a mean chip and missed an 8-foot par putt on the eleventh.

But he saved par on the twelfth, and confirmed uncommon emotion — no less than for a Saturday — when he holed a 30-foot eagle putt on the thirteenth.

“C’mon, baby!” he yelled when the putt dropped.

“Things got a little dicey in the middle,” Scheffler stated. “On No. 10, I hit what I thought was a decent shot 8 feet from the hole and it wound up in the bushes. I did a good job of staying patient.”

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