Masters Day 3 Wrap Up

RORY McILROY suffered a third-round meltdown at Augusta and with it went any hope he harboured of winning The Masters and completing the career Grand Slam. His performance was a painful reminder of his final-round collapse in 2011 when he went into the final round leading by four shots. That could be blamed on inexperience - there can be no such excuse for this performance.

The 26-year-old had a wretched day. He began the third round just one shot behind Jordan Spieth but dropped shots on the third and seventh, saw another one go at the 10th and walked off the 11th with a double-dogey six after hitting his approach into the water. Every part of his game misfired - he missed fairways from the tee, he missed greens with irons in his hands and he putted as badly as he has ever done. Augusta, which he said owed him a title, made him looked like a beginner. In the end he signed for a 77 and trails Spieth by five shots.

And while all this was going on, a 58-year-old German was challenging for a third Masters title while the 22-year-old defending champion moved closer to his third major title in 12 months. 

It was no surprise that Jordan Spieth continued his serene progress towards a third major in 12 months. There are times when he looks as though he owns Augusta. He reached the turn in 35 and promptly dropped two shots at the 11th hole, but he showed what he is made of with birdies at the 12th, 14th and 15th to move to six under. At that point he led by four and seemingly had the tournament at his mercy. But then he dropped a stroke at the 17th and followed it by carving his drive wildly to the right and into the trees on final hole. It cost him a six and he signed for 73 that left him one shot ahead of Smylie Kaufman and two in front of Bernhard Langer and Hideki Matsuyama.

The lines run deep on the face of Langer, the price paid for spending 40 years chasing a little white ball around the fairways of the world. Langer is 58 years old, younger than Tom Watson was when he so nearly won The Open at Turnberry. Watson took his leave of The Masters on Friday. Langer has no intention of doing so just yet. He is utterly inscrutable, and still the most dogged of competitors. When things go wrong for the likes of Spieth or McIlroy their faces tell the whole story. With Langer you never know whether the putt he has just holed was for an eagle or a triple bogey, Patience, above all else, is the characteristic that is required to do well at Augusta, and the German has it in spades. He has won The Masters twice, in 1985 and 1993, and believes he can still add a third title to his résumé.

He has won 42 times on the European Tour and three times on the PGA Tour — those are impressive enough statistics, but they are as nothing when you take a look at what this remarkable man has achieved since turning 50.

Langer has thrived on the Champions Tour, making it his mission to hoover up as much of the prize money on offer as he possibly can. For the record, he has collected 26 Champions Tour titles, including five senior majors. As recently as 2014, he picked up five titles, including two majors, and he has already won in 2016.

Langer is as fit now as he was when making his way on the regular tour. His swing, which could never be described as a thing of beauty, has not changed. He still tends to lurch to the left after making contact with the ball — in any other golfer that would be a sure sign of a wild slice, but Langer has the hands of a magician and is able to control the ball in a manner that the likes of McIlroy and Spieth can only stand back and admire.

And here he is at Augusta trying to become the oldest man to win a major. With Langer, you are never going to see drives ripped 300 yards down the middle, or par fives reached with a drive and a short iron. He plays golf in a manner that most mortals can identify with. Nobody should have been surprised when he made the cut with something to spare after rounds of 72 and 73, better by far than the likes of Bubba Watson, Martin Kaymer, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and Paul Casey. While all around him were losing their heads and pulling their hair out at the capricious nature of the winds at Augusta and despairing of the speed of the greens, Langer plodded on in the third round.

He has suffered untold anguish with his putting over the years until finally hitting upon the broomhandle putter, which saved his career. The anchored method he used with the implement was banned on January 1 and while everybody else chose to return to the short putter, Langer simply adapted his method with the long club. It was a typically German solution.

He began the day one over par, five behind Spieth. Birdies at the second and fifth moved him into the red and although he dropped a shot at the sixth, he bounced straight back with another birdie at the eighth. Like many other players in the field, Langer dropped a shot at the ninth, but he had reached the turn in 35 shots, was level par for the tournament and tied for fifth. The leaders were within sight and Langer had no doubt that he could haul them i

With McIlroy in freefall, nobody should be surprised that the British challenge going into the final round will be led by Danny Willett. He played in The Masters for the first time 12 months ago and finished in a tie for 38th. Playing all four rounds in your debut at Augusta is an achievement that is not to be underestimated.

As has been well documented, it takes patience and dogged determination to play this course well, and those are the characteristics that Willett demonstrates every time he steps onto a golf course.

After a long apprenticeship during which he has improved every year, Willett took his place at golf’s top table when he won the Nedbank Challenge at Sun City in 2014. Afterwards, there was a bounce in his step, as if he finally believed he belonged. All of a sudden, he contended almost every time he played, and it was no surprise that he won the European Masters in July after finishing tied sixth in The Open at St Andrews.

He sealed his place in Darren Clarke’s European Ryder Cup team with victory at the Dubai Desert Classic, when he holed a 12-foot putt on the 18th green to pip Andy Sullivan by a shot. He has been offered a PGA Tour card but has decided he wants to continue to play most of his golf in Europe. The 28-year-old is the epitome of Sheffield steel, the city where he was born, and he needed that at Augusta as all around him were falling to pieces.

He began the third round on level par and started poorly, dropping shots at the first and fourth holes, but he birdied the sixth and seventh holes and reached the turn in level par. Another birdie came at the treacherous par-three 12th. The 13th and 15th are par fives where most players are looking to pick up shots, but Willett took six on each — sandwiched in between them was another birdie. And so he headed into the final three holes on level par for the tournament, right in the mix. Just behind him and safely in the clubhouse was Lee Westwood. The veteran Englishman has had several chances to win The Masters and must have thought that his last chance of claiming the Green Jacket had gone, especially after he followed an opening 71 with a 75.

He birdied the second hole but bogeys at the first, fourth, fifth and ninth took him to the turn in 39 and seemingly on the way to a round he would rather forget. Instead, the 42-year-old remembered how good he used to be. He birdied the 12th, 13th and 14th holes and, just for good measure, picked up another shot at the 18th to race home in 32 for a round of 71 that left him believing he might yet be able to win the major that has so far eluded his grasp. Justin Rose, who began the week with such high hopes, had a 73 and is three over par.