Virtual Masters Round 3: He’s some Player
By Bill Felber
Gary Player rides a 68 to a two-stroke lead entering the final round of play
For the third consecutive day, a new leader emerged in the Virtual Masters Championship Saturday. Three-time champion Gary Player shot 68 to assume a two-stroke lead with just 18 holes remaining to be played.
But Player’s path to the ultimate Masters title is hardly a clear one. When he approaches the first tee Sunday, he’ll have no fewer than 10 of the game’s greatest starting within a doable six shots of him.
The Virtual Masters pits all 52 former Masters champions against one another in a conditions-neutral tournament with each player’s performance based on the standard deviation of his best stretch of 10 consecutive years at Augusta National.
Player’s third round was constructed on six birdies offset by a double bogey, that coming on the day’s opening hole. Following Thursday and Friday rounds of 69 and 65, it gave him a 54-hole total of 14-under 202.
That’s two better than a pair of multiple champions, three-time winner Jimmy Demaret and two-time champion Horton Smith. Demaret shot 70 Saturday and Smith turned in a 68. Both finished at 12-under 204.
Ben Hogan, Phil Mickelson and Ralph Guldahl stood one additional shot behind at -11, 205. Jack Nicklaus was at -10, 206, while a foursome at -8, 208, included Tiger Woods, Byron Nelson, Henry Picard and second-round leader Bob Goalby.
Among pre-tournament favorites, four appeared to be too far back to contend. Jordan Spieth turned in his best round of the tournament, a 68, but it still left him nine shots behind Player at five-under 211. Tom Watson managed nothing better than an even-par 72 and also stood at five-under.
Arnold Palmer, the crowd-favorite and pre-tournament favorite, took a major stumble down the stretch Saturday. Palmer played the final four holes at Augusta National in four-over par, suffering through a triple-bogey seven at the 18th, to record a 75. He is at 212, four-under and 10 strokes behind Player.
And Sam Snead, hoping to capitalize on his five-under standing at the tournament’s halfway point, instead went the other way. Snead took double bogeys at the 4th and 9th holes and never got anything going after that, finishing with a 77 that left him at even par 216.
Player’s round was uneventful and — following that opening double bogey – efficient. He birdied the 3rd, 4th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 15th and 18th holes to go with 10 pars.
Demaret lost his shot at the lead with a double bogey six at the par four 11th. But he closed sensationally with birdies on each of his round’s final four holes to reduce his four-shot deficit to just two.
Smith, winner of both the inaugural 1934 and 1936 Masters, matched Player’s 68 to hold his place two strokes behind the South African. Smith had six birdies and two bogeys.
For several putative contenders, Saturday was a day that brought disaster on a single hole. Palmer’s misadventure at 18 was the most extreme example. Even par for the round and six behind Player at the 18th tee, his drive caught the lip of the first fairway bunker and lodged in it, permitting nothing more than a hack of about three feet into the rough. His third shot approach failed to carry the front bunker, and he followed his explosion out with a damning three-putt.
Watson joined Palmer in late-round agony. The two-time Masters champion stood seven-under for the day through 13 holes and – thanks to a front nine 32 –just two behind Player through 13 holes. But he played the 14th through 16th in 6-6-7, giving back seven strokes to par. Both his tee shot and his subsequent drop at 16 found the pond left of the green.
That saddled Watson with a back nine 40 for perhaps the strangest even par 72 you’ll see.
Second round leader Goalby’s hope to pull off a major upset foundered on a pair of holes. He double bogeyed both the par five 2nd and the 18th to finish the day at 75.
Miguel Angel Cabrera registered the day’s best round, a 65. But Cabrera started play at six-over 150, so that score only brought him up to one-under 215. At the other end of the scale, Tommy Aaron saw his fleeting chances destroyed Saturday. Three-under when the day started, Aaron made six bogeys and just a single birdie for a 78 that left him three-over and 17 strokes off Player’s pace.
For the third consecutive day there was a hole-in-one. Seve Ballesteros made it at the par three 4th. It helped the 1980 and 1983 Masters champion to a round of 71, leaving him at even par 216 through three rounds.
The field’s 71.67 stroke average was the highest yet for the virtual tournament.
Here are the leaders’ cards
Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Par 4 5 4 3 4 3 4 5 4 4 4 3 5 4 5 3 4 4 — 72
Player 6 5 3 2 4 3 4 4 4 3 3 3 5 5 4 3 4 3 – 68
Demaret 4 4 4 3 4 2 4 6 5 4 6 3 5 4 4 2 3 3 –70
Smith 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 5 4 4 5 3 5 3 4 3 5 3 – 68
Guldahl 5 5 3 3 3 3 3 5 4 4 4 3 5 4 4 4 4 3 — 69
Hogan 4 5 4 5 4 2 4 5 4 3 4 2 4 5 6 3 4 3 — 71
Mickelson 4 5 4 4 3 2 3 5 4 4 3 2 5 4 5 3 5 4 — 69
The scores through 54 holes.
Gary Player 69-65-68-202 -14
Jimmy Demaret 67-67-70-204 -12
Horton Smith 65-71-68-204 -12
Ralph Guldahl 66-70-69-205 -11
Ben Hogan 64-70-71-205 -11
Phil Mickelson 66-70-69-205 -11
Jack Nicklaus 69-69-68-206 -10
Bob Goalby 66-67-75-208 -8
Tiger Woods 70-68-70-208 -8
Byron Nelson 67-72-69-208 -8
Henry Picard 67-72-69-208 -8
Vijay Singh 69-70-70-209 -7
Fred Couples 69-70-71-210 -6
Jordan Spieth 72-71-68-211 -5
Ray Floyd 71-68-69-208 -5
Nick Faldo 73-68-70-211 -5
Tom Watson 71-68-72-211 -5
Herman Keiser 74-67-71-212 -4
Arnold Palmer 67-70-75-212 -4
Cary Middlecoff 66-72-74-212 -4
Ben Crenshaw 72-70-70-212 -4
Charl Schwartzel 72-70-72-214 -4
Ian Woosnam 72-67-74-213 -3
Adam Scott 69-68-75-212 -3
Fuzzy Zoeller 71-75-67-213 -3
Doug Ford 72-74-68-214 -2
Claude Harmon 74-67-74-215 -1
Larry Mize 72-69-74-215 -1
Sergio Garcia 74-70-71-215 -1
Bernhard Langer 79-66-70-215 -1
Miguel Angel Cabrera 76-74-65-215 -1
Mark O’Meara 70-75-71-216 E
Sam Snead 65-74-77-216 E
Seve Ballesteros 71-74-71-216 E
Jose Maria Olazabal 78-69-70-217 +1
Zach Johnson 72-73-73-218 +2
George Archer 70-74-74-218 +2
Gene Sarazen 74-74-71-219 +3
Tommy Aaron 68-73-78-219 +3
Billy Casper 73-76-70-219 +3
Gay Brewer 69-75-75-219 +3
Craig Stadler 74-71-75-220 +4
Craig Wood 79-71-70-220 +4
Jack Burke Jr. 73-75-73-221 +5
Charles Coody 71-78-72-221 +5
Mike Weir 75-69-78-222 +6
Danny Willett 72-79-71-222 +6
Art Wall Jr. 75-74-75-224 +8
Sandy Lyle 71-76-77-224 +8
Trevor Immelman 80-74-72-226 +10
Patrick Reed 75-79-72-226 +10
Bubba Watson 79-77-77-233 +17