Billy Horschel made a heck of a par on No. 13 on Saturday – from the water and the seat of his pants.
Horschel’s approach to the par-5, from the pine straw, ended up in Rae’s Creek guarding the green. After taking off his shoes and socks and rolling up his pants, he went up to the green to study the pending water-logged chip. On his way back down the hill, he slipped and fell on his backside. Up quickly, Horschel went about his business.
Horschel’s shot from the water landed 29 feet from the cup. Two putts later, he left with a par and some of his dignity.
Following the slip, the white-panted Horschel had a question for playing partner Phil Mickelson, who was standing nearby.
“I said, How bad is it?” Horschel said. “I said, How bad is that grass stain going to be, and he said, There may not be one there, and he looked and said, Yeah, there’s one there. Sorry, buddy. Obviously, that’s going to be a highlight that’s played on social media or maybe Augusta or the Masters will take it off. But I was hoping to make the putt so at least it would be something funny from it.”
Water woes
If they ever retrieve golf balls from the pond in front of the 15th green, Bubba Watson could get a whole sleeve of his back.
Watson put three balls in the pond through three rounds of the Masters. He found a different way Saturday. For the first two days of the tournament, he cleared the pond only to have his ball catch the slope and roll into the water. He made bogey each time. On Saturday, Watson cleared the pond but missed the green to the right, and his ball stayed dry just off the edge by the bunker. However, he mis-hit his chip, and again his ball caught the slope and rolled into the water. He took double-bogey.
Watson is 1 over through three rounds, giving him a total of four strokes to the hole. He kept his humor following the round.
“Bogey, bogey, double,” Watson said. “Yeah, that’s not good.”
Weather delay
The third round was delayed for an hour and 18 minutes because of inclement weather in the area. There was a steady rain at Augusta National for a short time. Play resumed at 5:15 p.m.
Aces
Corey Conners recorded the sixth hole-in-one on No. 6 in Masters history in the third round. The ace moved Conners to 5 under par at the time and put him two strokes off the lead.
Tommy Fleetwood aced No. 16 in the first round Thursday.
The two holes-in-one brought the total in Masters history to 33.
Putting woes
Dustin Johnson was serious.
His putting cost him a chance to defend his Masters title.
Johnson failed to make the cut after bogeys at the final two holes on the second round Friday. Instead of making the cut on the number, Johnson finished at 5 over par. He’ll be around Sunday, but only to put the green jacket on the winner.
Johnson had six three-putts over the first two rounds. The next closest player to that staggering number was four by Sungjae Im, who tied for second at last year’s Masters, but also missed the cut at 13 over par. Several others had three.
Overall, Johnson was tied for 79th in putting with 64 over 36 holes. He needed 53 putts on the 29 greens he hit in regulation.
“Six three-putts in two rounds, you just can’t do that,” Johnson said Friday. “Obviously didn’t drive it great but drove it good enough, and I felt like I even left myself -- never was really too bad out of position, just the three-putts killed me. You take all the three-putts away, I’m 1 under. That was kind of the difference. But yeah, I just didn’t putt very well.”
Masters to Masters
Jose Maria Olazabal played in the Masters in November. He is here again in April. In between, he did not play a single competitive round.
Not bad for the 55-year old who made the cut this year. Olazabal finished one shot inside the cut line with his 2-over-par total after the second round Friday. He ended his third round with a 3-over 75 and stands at 5 over for the tournament. He finished his third round before weather delayed play.
“I played practice rounds at home, but I mean nothing competitive, and I didn’t play all that much either.,” Olazabal said. “I started to play a little bit of golf on the golf course maybe, what was it, two, three weeks prior to coming here, and not every day. I played like three days a week. But as I said, I never played any competitive round since November here at Augusta.”
Olazabal missed the cut last year, the ninth time in the previous years. However, the two-time Masters champion joined a group of elder statesmen, including the likes of Bernhard Langer, who continue to make good showings with a made cut. Langer missed the cut this year to end a streak of three consecutive weekends.
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