Masters leaderboard 2017: Sergio Garcia, Justin Rose sprinting to the finish

If the Masters doesn’t start until the back nine on Sunday, as conventional wisdom has it, someone forgot to drop that well-known bit of golf knowledge on Sergio Garcia.

Because the 37-year-old Spaniard, who is looking to break an 0-fer-73 major-less drought, certainly got it going in his first nine holes. Garcia had a birdie-par-birdie start to the final round at Augusta and made the turn at 2-under 34 to get to 8-under for the week and in a tie with playing partner and 54-hole co-leader Justin Rose.

If Garcia goes on to win, he may look back at No. 7 as critical to his triumph. That’s where he hit his tee shot into the woods, his second into a green-side bunker, and eked out a huge par-saving sandy — his 16th straight bogey-free hole — while Rose made birdie. Just like that, Sergio’s two-shot cushion was down to one.

Then it was none, as Rose turned up the heat on No. 8, where he made birdie to Garcia’s par. Just like that, Sergio has lost a three-shot lead as the tourney was all square heading to No. 9. The duo matched pars and it was on to No. 10.

Elsewhere across Augusta National, Jordan Spieth put up a lackluster 2-over 38 on his front nine, and Rickie Fowler and his green jacket-clashing neon orange pants made the turn at even-par. Here’s the leaderboard, which updates automatically at Masters.com: