There’s not much more you can ask for than what’s coming this weekend out of professional golf today. Tiger Woods is just a shot back as we start the weekend at The Masters, and he’s chasing five major champions that sit atop the leaderboard.
Tiger Woods is firmly in the mix at The Masters. Here’s everything you need to know for Saturday.
With Tiger one shot behind a glut of major champions, we’re set up for as good of a weekend we could ask for — as long as the weather holds out. Here’s everything you need to know for Saturday.
Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
He opened with a Thursday 70 — a number that’s been a good opening round omen for Big Cat. He’s fired that number to start the event every single time he’s won this event. That early harbinger panned out on Friday, with posting a 4-under round of 68 that vaulted him firmly into the conversation. The big move came on the critical early back-nine stretch through Amen Corner and the par-fives, where Tiger posted three birdies on 11, 14, and 15 while avoiding getting Nigel de Jong’d by a falling security guard.
If that fist pump doesn’t give you some feels ahead of a weekend at Augusta, well, I don’t have much for you.
Still, there’s quite a crowd around Tiger. Brooks Koepka, Jason Day, Francesco Molinari, Adam Scott, and Louis Oosthuizen are the quintet that stand ahead of our beloved large feline — and we’re set for an absolutely bonkers Saturday at Augusta. You can justify each of those five major champions pulling away and becoming the man to chase into Saturday. Molinari’s as hot as anyone in the world and last year’s Open Championship showed his best-in-class ballstriking won’t wilt under pressure, Oostie’s in form and has had near misses here before, Scott already has a green jacket, Augusta is a golf course built for Jason Day, and so on. Oh, and yeah — Brooks Koepka’s won three of the last seven majors, so there’s that.
That doesn’t even get into those that are just behind, either. Dustin Johnson is one-behind just like Tiger, and Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, Bryson Dechambeau, Matt Kuchar are all within four shots. Even Jordan Spieth still has a puncher’s chance heading to the weekend six-behind at 1-under par for the tournament.
One thing to keep an eye on? Weather. There’s storms in rain in the forecast at Augusta through the rest of the weekend. There’s a potential to play more than 18 holes on Sunday if things go awry today and weather rolls in as was forecasted. Starts and stops today, or extra holes tomorrow isn’t an ideal weekend for a player of Tiger’s back injury history. So far, so good though — the rain’s held off thus far this morning despite the forecast.
Here’s your media schedule for Saturday at Augusta:
TV:
3-7 p.m.: Live third-round coverage — CBS
Streaming at Masters.com:
Featured Groups -- 9:55 a.m. to completion of play
- 9:55 a.m. -- Henrik Stenson, Haotong Li
- 11:05 a.m. -- Marc Leishman, Rory McIlroy
- 1:45 p.m. -- Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar
- 2:05 p.m. -- Tiger Woods, Ian Poulter
Amen Corner -- 12:30-6 p.m.
Holes 15 & 16 -- 1:30-6:30 p.m.
Simulcast live stream: 3-7 p.m. on Masters.com
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