live scoring click...http://www.majorschampionships.com/masters/2012/scoring/index.cfm
Sunday tee times click http://www.majorschampionships.com/masters/2012/scoring/tee_times.cfm
Sunday pins click http://ow.ly/i/yq4T
The weather for Augusta today calls for hot and sunny with a light breeze... Question is which of these leaders will have their hot,sunny games with them.
Peter Hanson leads at -9 and he reminds me of Mike Weir's situation in 2003 when Weirsy became the first Canadian to win a major and you know the effect that had on his lore in this country. Similarly Big Peter is trying to become the first Swede. He has been playing well this year, 2nd at Qatar, 5th at World MatchPlay and 4th at Doral, he is as aggressive as I have ever seen and played with Phil for the first 2 rounds and enjoyed it... It is tough to follow up a round like yesterday's 65, can he do enough to keep his nose in front ??
Mickelson with his back nine of 30, 4 birdies and an eagle at 13 will be the favourite at -8, he has followed up that opening 74 with 68, 66 and most importantly for me is putting like the Phil who has won here 3 times on greens as fast as they are going to be today.
Louis Oosthuizen -7, has shown a lot of moxie this week, especially Friday when he was +3 through 5 holes, steadied his ship with a string of pars, added 3 birdies on the back nine to get in at E 72. He is swinging effortlessly, driving it great just as he did when he put on a clinic at the Open Championship in 2010. He is at -7 and could easily make this back to back wins for South Africa. Remember he won the Africa Open early in the year and was T3 last week at the Shell...
Bubba is next at -6 and if he can just stay from getting too excited, he could well be the man. He has played the back nine with 6 birdies including 13 and 15 both Friday and Saturday, and even if he doesn't have the bottle to win this, he along with Phil are the most fun to watch out of the contenders...
Smiling Matt Kuchar, the Smiling Assassin I call him is at -5. He really set himself up to take the lead with an outward 33 yesterday, but a bad bogey 6 at 13 slowed him, then another at 16, back in 37 spoiled the great start. He has a great disposition, is patient, and totally capable, but will need to take advantage of those par 5's today.
Then my final group that I think have a chance at -4. Lee Westwood has been rock solid, apart from that pulled approach at 18 Friday and the 3 putt that followed, and a missed 1 footer yesterday. Par golf won't be enough today, and if he isn't going to be the bridesmaid again he will have to capitalize on his stellar approach play with some timely putts today.
Paddy Harrington hasn't had a bogey on his card after the 11th all week, and his run of 4 birdies in a row from 13, plus another at 18, 32 stokes on the back nine got him right in contention with a 68. He is a grinder, I don't see him shooting 65 or 66 and that is what he'll need to do to win. He was T71 last week in Houston.
Henrik Stenson, the other Swede, has 7 birdies and 7 bogey's on the back nine this week, oh but yes he had that 8, a snowman at 18 on Thursday, which really he has fought back from to his credit, but he should be at -8 not -4 and that will ultimately cost him this year.
Finally Sean Foley's star pupil Hunter Mahan, twice a winner already including last week, PING is getting their money's worth from this guy. He started quietly, a pair of 72's with 8 bogey's, but yesterday he cut out his mistakes, only 1 bogey at the tough 7th, back in 33 for a -4 68. He is red hot right now obviously and of the pack at -4 has the best chance in my opinion.
920am is the opening tee time, with the final pair, Mickelson and Hanson off at 2.40pm
Rory and GMac as would have it are paired and off at noon and since they will feel the pressure is off, will probably score well. All kinds of big names are dotted throughout the morning and early afternoon because of their high scores yesterday, click on the tee times I have posted above.
I will be back here at 12pm for an update of the morning's play.
1200 (noon)
It is a beautiful Easter Sunday here in Toronto, 70*f in Augusta with very light wind and the early tee times are well underway.
* the best of the bunch so far are Luke Donald -3 at the turn then amateur champion Patrick Cantley at -2 through 8 and Martin Kaymer -2 through 9, along with Stewart Cink, Rickie Fowler and Bo Van Pelt. Tiger is -1 through 2.
*The leading amateur is Hideki Matsuyama at +1, who beat Cantley in the US Amateur final, he is yet to tee off
* Rory and GMac paired together both made bogey at the first, an improvement for Rory who has made double twice !!
I will be back at 4pm live until conclusion.. Should be a blast..
Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummbles and at www.isr1050.com
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