US Masters third round report: Saturday is supposed to be moving day but today it was a case of what might have been for the Irish trio as misfortunes and lack of momentum meant Padraig Harrington, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell fell too far off the pace to contest for the Green Jacket on the final day at Augusta.
Harrington’s bid for a third successive major unraveled before he got into his stride. Just 30 minutes into his round the Dubliner ran up a disastrous quadruple bogey nine at the second which saw him plummet down the leaderboard to two-over-par.
There was no real hint of the drama to come when the Open and USPGA champion, parred the first and then slightly pulled his drive down the next. It ran down a slope into the trees, however, and in trying to get down near the green on the par five, Harrington hit a trunk and rebounded further into trouble.
He was forced to take a penalty drop away from the bushes, but his next attempt also hit a tree and went into a ditch.
In fairness the Dubliner rallied with three birdies by the time he reached the turn. From there he immediately dropped two shots at 10 and 11 before getting them back at 13 and 14. After parring in he signed for a second successive 73 to be one-under for the tournament.
McDowell was playing alongside Tiger Woods but the 29-year-old struggled to keep the bogeys off the card and eventually matched Harrington’s 73 to be on the same one-under mark as his fellow countryman.
Woods had troubles of his own as he started with a double-bogeyed the first to slip back to level par. From there he, like Harrington rallied with birdies at the third and ninth to get back to two-under at the turn.
Aside from a bogey at the 11th the world number one birdied three of the last six holes to card a third round 70. At four-under Woods was seven-off Angel Cabrera and Kenny Perry's joint overnight lead and who’s to say Woods won’t make a charge on the final day.
Having avoided disqualification late last night, Rory McIlroy set about his primary business of playing golf and today the 19-year-old shot a creditable 71 to get back to level par for the tournament.
It was a steady round for the teenager with two birdies and one bogey on the card before he made 10 straight pars to finish his round.
“I thought I played pretty well out there, tricky out there, the pins are much tougher than the first two days but I got up and down when I needed to,” said McIlroy after his round. “I only made one bogey which is pretty good out there. Overall I’m happy with the performance.
“When you get down to Amen Corner, 11, 12 13, the wind is blowing everywhere and you’re thinking what am I going to do here, but you’ve just got to stand up and go with it.
McIlroy then returned to the previous evening’s incident to clarify the situation which threatened disqualification at one point.
“I didn’t really know anything about it to be honest until maybe about tea-time last night. I hadn’t even thought about it,” he said. “The championship committee then rang me and said I might have broken a rule.
“They asked if I wanted to review the tape and we talked it over on the phone and I said ‘you know, I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong’ so I declined the invitation (to come back to the Augusta).
“They rang me back after half an hour and said ‘I think it would be in your best interest if you came up (to Augusta) and sat with us as we look through the tape.
“So I came back up about 8.30pm last night and I reviewed the tape with a few people from the rules committee and we came to the conclusion that I didn’t break any rules.
“I smoothed the sand over but I’ll know not to put myself in that position again,” added McIlroy who was wary when he found the bunker at the second in today’s round. “My first bunker shot on the second today, I played it very delicately and tried not to do anything wrong but apart from that it was fine.
Cabrera (69) and Perry (70) are the men to catch on 11-under. That left the pair two ahead of Chad Campbell (72) and three ahead of Jim Furyk (68).
