Adam Scott slips to 16th after three rounds

Adam Scott’s bid to become the first repeat Masters champion since Tiger Woods in 2001-02 took a major blow in Saturday’s third round.

With 4-over 76 at Augusta National, Scott slid down the leaderboard instead of making a move up it. He began the day 3-under for the tournament and tied for third place, then finished at 1-over 217 and tied for 16th.

“I’m disappointed, but a good round (Sunday) could go a long, long way,” said Scott, who quickly headed to the range after the round to work on Saturday’s shortcomings. “It’s not the end of the world. There are a lot of people between me and the leaders. If I can play a good front nine, anything can happen on the back, and it would be fun to post a number and sit in the clubhouse and watch.”

Though Scott’s chances of winning are improbable, they’re not impossible.
Jack Burke (1956) and Gary Player (1978) overcame eight-stroke deficits in the final round to capture the green jacket. And in 1996, Nick Faldo famously rallied from six shots back of Greg Norman to win.

For Scott to make the same charge, he will need the kind of start he had Thursday, when he played the front nine in 3-under 33, and not his starts to the past two rounds, where he is a total of 7-over on the front.

Scott bogeyed No. 1 for the second day in a row and ran into trouble on the par-3 fourth, missing the green, then lipping out a bogey putt to finish with double bogey. A bogey on No. 5 put him over par for the first time all tournament.

After getting back to par with a birdie on No. 8, Scott capped a rough front nine with bogey on No. 9, making the turn in 40.

“I just compounded my mistakes early with a couple three-putts and got off on the wrong foot today,” said Scott, who had two three-putts on the opening nine. “I put myself in bad locations and wasn’t able to recover.”

Unlike in Friday’s round, Scott couldn’t offset his front-nine woes with a stellar finish. He dropped to 2-over with bogey on No. 14 when he missed the green. He recorded his only birdie on the back when he stuck his approach on No. 17 to 6 feet and finally got a putt to fall.

“This is a very hard course to pull shots in, even with opportunities at 13 and 15,” Scott said. “I didn’t manage to do it. I just fought really hard, but I couldn’t get any of those early shots back.”