The U.S. Open at Augusta National

Written by: Tony Korologos | Saturday, April 7th, 2007
Categories: PGA Tour • Tiger Woods

Saturday at The Masters

Masters Identity Crisis – Augusta National thinks it’s hosting the U.S. Open

Augusta National released even more fury on the field today, bringing all players to their knees except the one lone player under par: Retief Goosen. Average score today: 77.35. In the history of The Masters there has never been as high of a leading score after Saturday as in 2007, two over par.

Since 1991 the winner of The Masters has come from the final pairing on Sunday. Somehow, some way Tiger Woods ended up in the final group despite another bogey-bogey finish and a round of 72. Tiger is in the final group at The Masters, where he’s never lost.

A blonde Aussie leads The Masters going into Sunday

A blonde haired Australian leads going into Sunday at The Masters and Nick Faldo is suiting up! No I’m not talking about Greg Norman. Stuart Appleby somehow managed jump up 7 spots to the lead by shooting two over for the day. When is the last time a two over round shot someone up the leaderboard, let alone into first place? What is this the U.S. Open?

Had Appleby not experienced a total meltdown on 17 with a triple bogey he’d be way ahead of the field.

I have my doubts about Appleby managing to win. Watching his “yippie” putter falter last week on three footers in the Houston Open makes me think the pressure might be too much Sunday. This is not the Houston Open, this is not Redstone. This is The Masters. This is Augusta National!

Brett Who?

Remember Brett Wetterich? You know, the guy who led yesterday? He managed to shot +11 for the day and drop to 22nd place at +9. Adios.

In the hunt

Players like Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen who were in the clubhouse at +6 may have thought they were out of the hunt, but they’re not. Even players at +7 like David Toms and Vijay Singh could win. Oh wait, Tiger is in the last group… Perhaps not.

Dark horses

Vaughn Taylor and Zach Johnson are in great position at +4 to have a chance.

Comments on Saturday

As I’m trying to figure out how to end this commentary on Saturday’s Masters I just can’t help thinking how brutal it was today. Vijay in the water on 12…Ogilvy going in the water multiple times on 15 etc. This is a Masters like I haven’t seen and I look forward to tomorrow.

Leaderboard

Place	Start	Player	Today	Total	R1	R2	R3	218
1	7	Stuart Appleby	+2	+1	75	70	73	218
T2	2	Justin Rose	+3	+3	69	75	75	219
T2	13	Tiger Woods	E	+3	73	74	72	219
T4	1	Vaughn Taylor	+4	+5	71	72	77	220
T4	—	Zach Johnson	+4	+4	71	73	76	220
T4	4	Padraig Harrington	+4	+3	77	68	75	220
7	1	Bradley Dredge	+5	+4	75	70	76	221
T8	7	Tim Clark	+6	+8	71	71	80	222
T8	4	Jerry Kelly	+6	+6	75	69	78	222
T8	6	Jim Furyk	+6	+4	75	71	76	222
T8	7	Luke Donald	+6	+3	73	74	75	222
T8	17	David Toms	+6	+2	70	78	74	222
T8	19	Rory Sabbatini	+6	+1	73	76	73	222
T8	19	Phil Mickelson	+6	+1	76	73	73	222
T8	38	Retief Goosen	+6	-2	76	76	70	222
T16	12	Vijay Singh	+7	+7	73	71	79	223
T16	1	Jeev Milkha Singh	+7	+4	72	75	76	223
T16	1	Dean Wilson	+7	+4	75	72	76	223
T19	11	Lucas Glover	+8	+7	74	71	79	224
T19	4	Paul Casey	+8	+5	79	68	77	224
T19	14	K. J. Choi	+8	+2	75	75	74	224
T19	27	Lee Westwood	+8	E	79	73	72	224
T23	22	Brett Wetterich	+9	+11	69	73	83	225
T23	8	Mark Calcavecchia	+9	+6	76	71	78	225
T23	2	Henrik Stenson	+9	+5	72	76	77	225
T26	18	Geoff Ogilvy	+10	+9	75	70	81	226
T26	11	Craig Stadler	+10	+7	74	73	79	226
T26	11	Tom Pernice Jr.	+10	+7	75	72	79	226
T26	1	J.J. Henry	+10	+5	71	78	77	226
T26	1	Davis Love III	+10	+5	72	77	77	226
T26	7	Ian Poulter	+10	+4	75	75	76	226
T26	7	Scott Verplank	+10	+4	73	77	76	226
T26	20	Rod Pampling	+10	+2	77	75	74	226
T34	26	David Howell	+11	+10	70	75	82	227
T34	19	Mike Weir	+11	+8	75	72	80	227
T34	7	Yong-Eun Yang	+11	+6	75	74	78	227
T34	7	Jose Maria Olazabal	+11	+6	74	75	78	227
T34	1	Stephen Ames	+11	+5	76	74	77	227
T34	6	Aaron Baddeley	+11	+4	79	72	76	227
T34	6	John Rollins	+11	+4	77	74	76	227
T34	12	Stewart Cink	+11	+3	77	75	75	227
T34	12	Rich Beem	+11	+3	71	81	75	227
T34	12	Charles Howell III	+11	+3	75	77	75	227
T44	2	Miguel Angel Jimenez	+12	+4	79	73	76	228
T44	2	Adam Scott	+12	+4	74	78	76	228
T46	13	Robert Karlsson	+13	+7	77	73	79	229
T46	—	Niclas Fasth	+13	+5	77	75	77	229
T48	33	Tim Herron	+14	+11	72	75	83	230
T48	8	Jeff Sluman	+14	+7	76	75	79	230
T48	2	Fred Couples	+14	+6	76	76	78	230
T51	11	Shingo Katayama	+15	+8	79	72	80	231
T51	5	Carl Pettersson	+15	+7	76	76	79	231
T51	5	Fuzzy Zoeller	+15	+7	74	78	79	231
T51	5	Brett Quigley	+15	+7	76	76	79	231
T51	5	Angel Cabrera	+15	+7	77	75	79	231
T56	16	Trevor Immelman	+16	+9	74	77	81	232
T56	10	Sandy Lyle	+16	+8	79	73	80	232
T58	25	Ben Crenshaw	+18	+12	76	74	84	234
T58	25	Arron Oberholser	+18	+12	74	76	84	234
T58	18	Billy Mayfair	+18	+11	76	75	83	234

2 responses to “The U.S. Open at Augusta National”

Nick Momrik says:

April 8, 2007 at 6:40 am

I think you’re scores are a little messed up. Wetterich show +11 to go from -2 to +9 total, Tiger shot even to stay at +3, etc.
Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru says:

April 8, 2007 at 7:28 am

A bout of dyslexia last night…