Greens grew more unforgiving throughout third round

The early birds got the scores during Saturday’s third round of the Masters Tour­nament since Augusta Na­tional Golf Club got faster, firmer and more unforgiving as the day unfolded.

With some generous hole placements and almost calm wind, there were chances to make up ground – for twosomes who started before noon.

“It was a difficult round,” co-leader Bubba Watson said. “The greens have really firmed up a lot. They’re faster and harder than the day before. They’re the firmest I’ve seen them in years.”

Two players in particular took advantage of morning tee times. Miguel Angel Jimenez, 50, matched his career-low round at Augusta with 66, which bumped him up 35 positions at the time he was done. Rickie Fowler shot his best round, 67, which sent him past 23 other players.

The two were briefly tied for second at 3-under-par 213, and by the end of the day they were tied for fifth. But their scores held up as the two best of the day.

“Very nice conditions, the golf course is fair and just a very light breeze,” Jimenez said. “But this is a golf course where you cannot be too aggressive.”

Fowler, who birdied all four par-5 holes, said the main benefit he had from playing early was softer greens.

“It gave us the opportunity to get close to a few pins and hold the greens on the par-5s,” he said.

Gary Woodland seemed to be headed for much more, playing his first 10 holes at 7-under par. But he slipped at Amen Corner and settled for 69, still tying his best Masters round.

After that, only two players who teed off after noon shot in the 60s: Matt Kuchar (68) and Justin Rose (69).

Ten twosomes began the day at par or better, and Kuchar, Lee Westwood (70), Jordan Spieth (70) and Jonas Blixt (71) were the only players in those groups to break par.

Those 20 players had a stroke average of 74.1. The biggest casualties were Ste­phen Gallacher (81), Brandt Snedeker (80) and Lucas Glover (77).

The final twosome of Watson and John Senden made only five birdies and one eagle and also had 10 bogeys and one double bogey. After a 6-foot eagle putt at No. 2, Watson made only one other birdie, at No. 10, and was shut out on the rest of the par-5s.

A prophetic offering on Twitter came from Watson’s caddie, Ted Scott, who showed up early to walk the course. About 1 p.m., Scott tweeted: “Just finished my first walk around ANGC today. Course seems firmer which equals tougher, looking forward to it.”

The third-round scoring average of 73.824 was the lowest of the week. The first-round average was 74.474, and the second round was 74.082.

Of course, the first two rounds came before the cut and included high scores shot by amateurs and older past champions, which might have skewed the average.

One would be hard-pressed to find a player in the field who would say the course was easier than it was the first two days.

“It’s kind of on the knife edges of the greens,” West­wood said. “It’s getting firmer and faster.”

Jim Furyk (72) said the greens were so firm that pitch marks were hard to find.

“I found maybe six ball marks at most today,” he said. “I maybe found one out of three of the ones I hit. They’re firm. If they firm up even more, and with some of the tough pin placements left, 3-, 4- and 5-under par could make a huge leap (Sunday).”