Friday, April 25, 2025
5:25 PM
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‘Moving day’ causes hope, grief in equal measure

Saturday is known as moving day at golf tournaments the world over as players move themselves in - or out - of contention to win on Sunday.
And after a windy third round at the Masters it is fair to say some players will be considering adding a green jacket to their wardrobe while others won’t have to worry about whether the committee possess their measurements.
Tour rookie Smylie Kaufman is one who should consider a Sunday shirt colour that doesn’t clash with green after a sensational 69 - the only sub-70 round since Thursday - lifted him to second place on two-under, one shy of leader Jordan Spieth.
Only 24, Kaufman is playing just his second career major and showed a maturity perhaps not expected to produce a consistent card of 13 pars, four birdies and just one bogey.
“I knew it was going to be a day of patience and I think Aaron, my caddie, did a great job of continually reminding me to stay patient,” he said. “My birdie putts were good today. I had a lot of tap in pars, easy pars.
“Most of the holes it was pretty stress free. It’s what you want on a day like today.”
German veteran Bernhard Langer fired a two-under 70 to sit tied for third at one-under alongside Hideki Matsuyama.  The Japanese golfer proved that if everyone around you is moving backwards, progress can be made by standing still. He started and finished at minus one but will rue late bogeys on 16 and 17.
“I scored well for the first 15 holes (but) I ended up bogeying two of the last three holes,” he said. “But hopefully we can turn that around tomorrow.”
World number one Jason Day appeared out of contention on Thursday and Friday but his consistency - his rounds are 72-73-71 - has kept him alive going into the final round.
“It’s always hard to have the lead at a major championship with these conditions, to keep pressing forward,” the reigning PGA Champion said. “So I just kept on saying to myself, just keep grinding out, just keep trying to get your birdies when you can, minimize mistakes, and just be patient with yourself.
“And today I was very happy with it.”
Others such as Danny Lee and Scott Piercy, who made up the second last group, fell away badly but it was the complete collapse of four-time major winner Rory McIlroy that was most surprising.
Seeking the Masters to complete a career grand slam, McIlroy cut a miserable figure in shooting a 77 to end two-over for the tournament.
There were problems all over the course for McIlroy as his driving and putting deserted him completely in a birdie-free round.
“Just one of those days,” he said. “You have to try to forget about it and move on.
“I didn’t feel like anything was off, but I was sort of just trying to play upstream, I guess you can say. I was always trying to get something going and I just couldn’t.”
McIlroy is only five behind but said he intends to go for it on Sunday. But on moving day, the Masters and the grand slam may have moved out of reach once more.

McIlroy says he is still in the game
Rory McIlroy said yesterday that his hopes of finally winning the Masters were still alive thanks to playing partner Jordan Spieth’s stumbles over the last two holes of the third round.
Standing on the 17th tee, the Northern Irishman, who needs a win at Augusta National to become just the sixth player to win all four major titles, was eight shots adrift of his playing partner, having started the day just one behind him.
But out of character, the American defending champion got sloppy to bogey 17 and double bogey the last.
The gap was down to five, a difficult but not impossible deficit to make up on Sunday, McIlroy having seen his own four-shot lead over the field vanish in double-quick time in the final round of 2011.
“Just one of those days. You have to try to forget about it and move on,” he said after his round of 77, the same as he shot in the second round last year.
“To be honest with you, I would be feeling a lot worse about myself if I hadn’t have just seen what Jordan did the last two holes.
“I sort of take a bit of heart from that, that I’m still in this golf tournament.
“But I just need to go out there tomorrow and be aggressive. I’ve got nothing to lose. Today was my bad day and hopefully I can go out there and make up for the lack of birdies today and make double the amount tomorrow.”
McIlroy started well enough despite a dropped shot at the short par-3 third, but he got a bad break at the tough seventh hole, which had been playing as the toughest on the course.
“I think the big turning point for me in the round was the seventh,” he said.
“I hit two great shots in there, just above the pin, thought I holed my putt for birdie, it goes six feet by and I miss the one coming back.
“Jordan was making bogey there anyway and to not at least pick up a shot there, it sort of killed all momentum that I maybe would have gotten.
“Then to hit it in the bunker on eight from there, I was just making life very difficult for myself.”
McIlroy said that he had once again been impressed with the resolve and control displayed by Spieth with his most impressive asset being his clutch putting.
“You got to take your hat off to him, because he is such a grinder and such a battler and he always sticks in there,” he said.
“And he’s sitting on top of the leaderboard where he has been for basically the last three years here, so he’s going out there tomorrow and it’s his to lose.
“There’s a few guys that have a chance and I feel like if I can get off to a good start, you never know.”


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