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Immelman holds Masters lead

• Trevor Immelman holds a Two-stroke lead against Brandt Snedeker in the Masters While Tiger Woods trails By six.

Scott Chancey

AUGUSTA –Masters leader Trevor Immelman has never topped the leaderboard going into the final round of a major. Nor have Brandt Snedeker, Steve Flesch or Paul Casey.

Their task today, amid likely windy and sometimes rainy conditions at Augusta National Golf Club, is to keep four-time Masters champion Tiger Woods at bay and proclaim their first green jacket. Immelman scored a 3-under-par 69 for an 11-under 205 overall and leads Snedeker by two strokes. Flesch is third after scoring a 69 (208), and Casey is fourth with a 69 (209). Woods is fifth after scoring a 68 (211) – six shots back.

“All I can ask myself is to go out there and you know, play as hard as I can and believe in myself,” Immelman said. “I’ve got to believe in myself (today) and hope for the best.”

Snedeker, who won his first PGA Tour event last year in Greensboro, N.C., quickly differentiated that tournament from this one.

“Well, I wasn’t in the final group at Greensboro,” Snedeker said. “But you know, this is just playing golf (today). At the end of the day, I’m going out there trying to win a golf tournament; doesn’t matter that it’s a major. I’m going out there to win a golf tournament (today). I’m going out

there to play good golf and see what I’ve got.”

If Woods fails to win today at Augusta, the single-year Grand Slam won’t be, as he said, “Easily within reason.”

He’ll just have to wait until next year. If he does win, it would be monumental for many reasons. For one thing, Woods would become only the fourth golfer to rally from six shots in the final round to win the Masters.

Nick Faldo (1996), Fuzzy Zoeller (1979) and Art Wall (1959) are the other three.

Winning in this fashion would also be a first for Tiger because he has never won a major when trailing going into the final day.

After Woods’ 68 Saturday, he is not counting himself out.

“I put myself right back into the tournament,” Woods said. “As I said, this was as high a score as I could have shot (Saturday), and if I have a few more putts go in, I’m right there, but I’m still right there anyways.”

After birdieing the second hole, Woods missed four consecutive relatively short birdie tries. Along the back nine, a birdie on the par-4 10th led to his move up the field. He birdied the 13th and 17th and saved par on the par-4 18th after having to hit out from the trees like he did Friday. Unlike the second round, when he made an approach shot from the 10th fairway, Woods kept the ball on path and parred again.

“Well the second shot I just had to fit it,” Woods said. “I had 180 to the hole and I had to hit the right (trajection) as well as the right line, and I said, ‘You know what, either you’re making 6 or you’re making 4, one of the two. Let’s go ahead and make 4 here.’ ”

Two-time champion Phil Mickelson struggled, finishing 3 over and dropping from a third-place tie to a tie for seventh (214). He had trouble recovering from the par-5 eighth after an approach shot hit the flagstick on what likely would have otherwise resulted in an easy birdie attempt.

He went on to bogey the back nine’s first two of three holes, and after seeming to make a rally with consecutive birdies on the 13th and 14th, double-bogeyed the 16th.

“It was a disappointing day, obviously,” Mickelson said. “I didn’t play very well, and it was a day where there were some low scores out there. The greens were soft, the rain softened the course, and I thought there were some low scores. I just didn’t shoot one of them.”

For Immelman, a win today at Augusta National would also carry significant meaning for his country of South Africa. No South African player has won this event since 1978 when Gary Player won his third and final green jacket. A win would also be sentimental. Immelman had a non-cancerous tumor removed from his diaphragm late last year, and even missed part of the 2007 season because of a stomach parasite. Now fully recovered, he has become the only player in this year’s tournament to score all three rounds in the 60s (he scored rounds of 68 before Saturday).

However, he did not go through the round without a little luck. He used a wedge at No. 15 and the ball stopped just short of rolling toward the water.

“Obviously I was not in control of where it was going to stop, but I was begging for it to stop as soon as it could,” Immelman said. “You know, once it came back, I knew there was a chance it was going into the water. I must say, I couldn’t quite believe it when it stayed up.”

After scoring par there, another approach shot at 18 appeared doomed but it stopped 30 inches from the pin for him to birdie and go 11 under par for the tournament.

Snedeker bogeyed all three holes (13-15) along Amen Corner but birdied three of next five holes after that, including the 18th.

“It meant a huge amount,” Snedeker said. “I mean, any time you’ve got a six-footer around here, I don’t care what day it is or what’s going on, if you’re going to win a golf tournament, you need to make them.”

With that in mind, Snedeker thinks he’ll handle the pressure today just fine.

“I’m going to sleep fine,” Snedeker said. “I got 10 hours of sleep (Friday night) and I’m sure I’ll get about the same (Saturday). It’s like going back to my college days; I’ll be able to sleep in until about 10 or 11 in the morning.”

It remains to be seen, however, if those four golfers in front of Woods continue to think of the year’s first major as just another tournament.

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