Tiger Woods endures frustrating third round at the Masters

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It was a frustrating day for world number 7 Tiger Woods. Starting three shots off the lead, he had one of those days when he just couldn’t get into a rhythm, and his bogey from the trees at the 1st, sort of set the tone for his day.

For Tiger, the secret to a good round at Augusta is all about the par-5’s; and in the end he only birdied one of the four, the 13th. At the 8th, he found himself over the green and faced a wickedly fast chip down to the pin.

And at the 15th, his drive went left, behind the trees. He then played a terrific hook with a 3-iron, which pitched on the front edge of the green and fed left towards the flag. But, from there, he three-putted for a par, missing a short one from four feet.

At the par-3 16th, he just failed to find the top shelf where the flag was, and so had a good two-putt for his par. At the 17th, his drive hit the Eisenhower tree on the left, and he had to play his second from under a tree, knees very bent.

From there, he did very well to find the front bunker, came out to six feet and holed a good par putt. But, at the 18th, his second shot flew miles over the green, and he was very lucky to rebound off a television tripod.

From there, his chip looked a bit clumsy, and he then missed a 5-footer, to finish with a very disappointing bogey. “I made nothing today,” he said afterwards. “I hit a lot of putts which looked as though they would go in, but they just didn’t. And I had a couple of three putts. Tomorrow, I’m just going to have to go out there and put together a good front nine and see what happens.”

Tiger will start the final round seven shots behind the 21-year-old McIlroy; and although he won’t have ruled himself out of the race, but he will have to produce something pretty special even by his pretty special standards if he is going to win.

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