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A day after setting a tournament record in the Masters, Tiger Woods has suffered an unwanted milestone at Augusta National.
Woods insisted he could challenge for a 16th major title after playing 23 holes on Friday to make a record 24th consecutive cut, but slumped to a third round of 10-over-par 82 instead. That left the 15-time major winner 11 over in total.
The 48-year-old’s previous worst Masters scores both came in 2022, when he shot 78 in the third and fourth rounds.
Woods followed a bogey on the fourth with a superb birdie on the difficult par-4 fifth, but then bogeyed the sixth and ran up a double bogey on the seventh.
The 15-time major winner also made a double bogey on the par-five eighth and dropped another shot on the ninth in a front nine of 42.
Woods made five more bogeys, and a birdie on the 13th, in a back nine of 40 in what was his 99th round in the Masters.
“I wasn’t hitting it very good or putting well,” a disappointed Woods said.
“I didn’t have a very good warm-up session and I kept it going all day today. Just hit the ball in all the places that I know I shouldn’t hit it.
“And I missed a lot of putts. Easy, makeable putts. I missed a lot of them.”
Woods, who had played just 24 holes of competitive golf in 2024 before this week, added: “It’s just that I haven’t competed and played much.
“When I had chances to get it flipped around, and when I made that putt at five, I promptly three-putted six and flub a chip at seven and just got it going the wrong way.”
Woods acknowledged he had been worn out by Friday’s marathon day, but insisted he would be back for the fourth round.
“My team will get me ready. It will be a long night and a long warm-up session, but we’ll be ready,” he said.
It was just the fifth round 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 2015 US Open at Chambers Bay, and an 81 in the third round of the 2002 British Open at Muirfield.
While Tiger won’t be competed for the top dollars, just how much is on offer for the winners has been revealed.
In a further sign that golf’s prize-money war is spiralling out of control, this year’s Masters winner will pocket an eye-watering $US3.6 million ($A5.5 million).
And that is still not even as much as last week’s LIV Golf Miami winner Dean Burmester received. Burmester, who didn’t qualify for the year’s first major championship at Augusta National, took home $6.1 million.
Tournament officials on Saturday said players who made the weekend cut would share a purse of $US20 million ($A30.8 million) – the same as the US PGA Tour’s eight “Signature” events introduced this season in response to the insane prize money being offered to the LIV Golf defectors.
The Masters runner-up on Sunday will collect $US2.16 million ($A3.3 million) and 50th placegetter will bank $US50,400 ($A78,000).
To put the inflationary prize pools in perspective, this year’s victor will receive more than the entire purse that was offered when Tiger Woods won his first green jacket in 1997.
1. $US3.6 million ($A5.5 million)
2. $US2.16 million ($A3.3 million)
3. $US1.36 million ($A2.1 million)
4. $US960,000 ($A1.5 million)
5. $US800,000 ($A1.2 million)
6. $US720,000 ($A1.1 million)
7. $US670,000 ($1 million)
8. $US620,000 ($US955,000)
9. $US580,000 ($A890,000)
10. $US540,000 ($A832,000)
Cameron Smith hopes his putter runs hot as he plots a St Andrews-style last-day charge to steal the Masters green jacket.
Two years after storming home from four shots back to run down Rory McIlroy and win the British Open’s Claret Jug with a final-round 64, Smith faces a similarly tall order to reel in world No.1 Scottie Scheffler at Augusta National.
Australia’s one-time world No.2 will start the final round six strokes behind Scheffler after enduring a frustrating even-par 72 on Saturday when he couldn’t buy a putt.
Smith had to settle for 14 consecutive pars between his solitary birdie on the third and lone bogey at the last, despite having great looks at further birdies on the second, eighth, ninth, 10th, 13th, 15th and 17th holes.
“I don’t think I hit a bad putt, I just couldn’t get the ball in the hole. It’s just one of those days,” Smith said.
“There were so many times out there where five or 10 foot is as close as you can hit it and it’s breaking a foot or two down the hill. I couldn’t quite match up the speed and the line.
“It could have been probably a lot better today.”
Smith struck the ball beautifully, finding 11 of 14 fairways and hitting 12 of 18 greens in regulation.
But his unco-operative putter left the 30-year-old needing to conjure something special on Sunday (Monday AEST).
And he knows losing his head and trying to recklessly attack Augusta’s outrageously fast and firm greens isn’t the answer.
“If you start playing the golf course that way, I have seen where that heads. I’ve been down that road before,” he said.
“I’d like to think I’m a pretty smart golfer. I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing, hitting it to 15, 20 feet, and hopefully they go in tomorrow.
“I’m still in the golf tournament. The way that the golf course is playing, I feel really confident with my ball striking; probably the best I’ve felt in a while.
“It only takes one or two (dropped shots) the leaders’ way and one or two (birdies) my way and it’s really close.”
Smith is bidding to join golfing royalty as the seventh man to win the Open at St Andrews and a Masters title.
Only Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo, Jack Nicklaus, Sam Snead, Seve Ballesteros and Zach Johnson have accomplished the golden double.
© AAP