After all of the hoopla surrounding the rulings and penalty strokes that dominated the news coming from Augusta National Saturday morning, it was good to finally get down to the golf.
Brandt Snedeker and Angel Cabrera are tied for the lead and will be in the last group off tomorrow in the final round of the Masters.
Snedeker carded a clean round with no bogeys and fired a three-under par 69 to get to seven-under par for the tournament.
This is just his third event since returning after a five week hiatus due to a rib injury.
He was the hottest player on the tour in California with consecutive runners-up finishes to Tiger Woods at Torrey Pines and Phil Mickelson at the Humana in Palm Springs. The following week he won outright at the AT&T National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach.
Snedeker moved up to No. 5 in the world and was leading the FedEx Cup standings, before he was forced to take some time off.
He missed the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Shell Houston Open his last two events prior to the Masters. He seems to have found the magic and looked very comfortable on the firm fast greens at Augusta National.
Angel Cabrera’s last win on either the PGA or European Tours came at the 2009 Masters. He won a three-way playoff with Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell.
Cabrera also won the 2007 U.S. Open, but since 2009 only has a win in a minor tournament the Euromayer Cabrera Classic.
He played in 20 PGA Tour events in 2012, but only had four top-25 finishes and earned $283,000. Thus far in 2013, he has missed two cuts, had one top-25 finish and won $191,000 in seven starts.
Cabrera is a big game hunter and when he gets near the top is hard to shake.
Two Australians Adam Scott at six-under par and 2009 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, Marc Leishman at five-under will be in the next to last group tomorrow.
Another Australian, Jason Day, was tied at seven-under with Cabrera and Snedeker until he made bogeys at both No. 17 and 18 to fall back to five-under and T-4. He will be paired with Matt Kuchar who is at four-under.
Tiger Woods managed a two-under par 70 for his round and will be paired with Tim Clark who is three-under.
Woods is seeking major title No. 15 and was issued a two-stroke penalty overnight for taking an illegal drop at No. 15 on Friday. Woods’ third shot at the par-5 hit the flagstick and ricocheted into Rae’s Creek. He took a drop near his previous shot, but evidently not near enough according to the Masters rules.
Officials had originally ruled the drop legal and after fans called in to the tournament reevaluated and changed their minds.
If not for the additional two strokes Woods would be just one shot back of the leaders.
It promises to be another exciting finish to the best golf tournament in the world, the Masters.