Newstalk ZB's D'Arcy Waldegrave and the NZ Herald's Bonnie Jansen get together to preview the weekend's sport. Video / NZ Herald
Scottie Scheffler made one last birdie and let out one big exhale on a wild day of charges and collapses at the Masters, giving him a one-under-par 71 and a one-shot lead over two-time major champion Collin Morikawa.
Scheffler began by chipping in for birdie from across the first green. He finished with an almost 2.5m birdie putt that caught just enough of the right side of the cup.
Everything in between was bonkers, right to the very end. Bryson DeChambeau drove into trees on the the right of the 18th hole, pitched out to the fairway and then holed out from about 70m for a most unlikely birdie that might have salvaged his chances.
Six players had at least a tie for the lead at one point.
There was a five-way tie for the lead on the back nine. Morikawa looked to break out of the tie when he had a long eagle putt on the par-five 13th. He three-putted for par, and then the other four players all made bogey.
Max Homa has gone 32 holes without a birdie and he was only two behind. Xander Schauffele has gone 25 holes without a bogey, and that goes a long way. He was five back.
Augusta National didn’t need a ferocious wind to be wildly entertaining. The course was tough as ever, with a wind that would have felt scary if not for the day before.
Scheffler was at seven-under 209 as he goes for a second Masters green jacket and tries to extend a dominant stretch that includes two wins on tough courses and a runner-up finish in his last three tournaments.
Morikawa made two tough pars to finish off a 69, making him the only player to break par all three days at this Masters. Another shot back was Homa (73), whose last birdie was on the fourth hole of the second round. He has made 32 pars in his last 36 holes.
Eight players were separated by five shots going into the final round, where the greens are likely to be even faster, crispier and more frightening.
Tiger Woods during his third round at the 2024 Masters. Photo / AP
Elsewhere, Tiger Woods shot his worst round at a major championship, finding far too many trees off the tee and making far too many three-putts on the greens for a 10-over 82.
Woods started the day one-over and seven shots off the lead. But after eight bogeys and two double bogeys, offset by just a pair of birdies, the 48-year-old five-time champion was left facing an early tee time for his 100th round in the Masters on Sunday (local time).
It was just the fifth round that Woods has shot in the 80s as a professional, and only the third in a major. He had an 80 in the first round of the 2005 US Open and Chambers Bay and an 81 in the third round of the 2002 British Open at Muirfield.
His worst round at Augusta had been back-to-back 78s in 2022, the last time he played the full weekend, while his worst round as a pro came in 2015, when he shot an 85 in the third round of the Memorial.
What had been his strength this week - off the tee and on the greens - was his third-round downfall. He hit just four of 13 fairways and had a pair of three-putts while battling his swing over the final 13 holes.
“I’ve been able to play here since I was 19 years old,” Woods said after his second round.
“It’s one of the honours I don’t take lightly, being able to compete. The years I have missed, I wish I was able to play because there’s such an aura and mystique about playing this golf course that I don’t think that - unless you have played and competed here, you probably don’t really appreciate.”
New Zealand’s Ryan Fox also had a poor Moving Day, carding a five-over 77 to plummet 18 places down the leaderboard into a tie for 26th.
