Key for Campbell will be avoiding DiMarco-esque slip

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AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The most intriguing place to be on Day 3 at the 2006 Masters might have been the inside of Hootie Johnson's head. On this soggy Saturday his mental checklist of things to look into for next year's toon-a-mint might have included: finding a way to exercise dominion over the weather; moving the tournament to May (maybe we'll take that new Players Championship date -- Timmy won't mind!); or, at very least, purchasing about 300 acres worth of tarp.

Darn that Mother Nature. Before Saturday, this looked to be the first Masters since 2001 to dodge a deluge. When the rains came, they washed away one of the Chairman's key responses to criticism of Augusta's new length -- that dry conditions would make negligible the effects of its newest 155 yards.

The wet weather didn't just put a damper on the hitherto hard-and-fast conditions. It also prevented most of the remaining 47 players from completing their rounds. The last group, Chad Campbell and Rocco Mediate, only managed to complete four holes. (Play restarts on Sunday at 7:45 a.m. ET)

The four-hour rain delay set up a near-replay of last year's Masters Sunday. One year ago, second-round leader Chris DiMarco began his final day on the tenth tee. Tomorrow, Campbell will begin on the fifth.

The two-and-a-half hours of Saturday evening golf, however, produced an early glimpse of the kind of excitement that the renovations were supposed to have made obsolete. The rain turned Augusta's greens into veritable dartboards. Suddenly receptive, they yielded plenty of birdies. Cumulatively, the top 11 players on the leaderboard birdied 18 of their 65 Saturday holes. At Augusta, it's evidently possible for rain to set off a fireworks display.

But the course didn't lose its teeth. Bogeys were also plentiful, and a handful of second-round leaders went backward. Of players who started tied for 10th or better, six men -- Fred Couples (1 over for the day after 5), Vijay Singh (1 over/4), Darren Clarke (1 over/5), David Howell (4 over/6), Ben Crenshaw (5 over/8) and Olin Browne (2 over/8) -- lost ground. All in all, two hours of Saturday evening play saw a significant reshuffle of the leaderboard.

The conditions greeting players on Sunday morning depend largely on Augusta's sub-air system. It will doubtless move the golf course some distance back toward Thursday and Friday's dry conditions. But odds are that it won't undo all of today's rain-induced vulnerability.

One thing's for sure: Sunday will be a long day for the leaders. Playing 30 or so holes will be bad news for some, and good news for others.

Gym-rats like Singh (2 under) and Tiger Woods (2 under) will have a clear advantage. At the other end of the spectrum are the ailment-addled. Couples and Mediate, a two-man cranky-back brigade, figure to have a rough time. Ernie Els is admittedly still on the rebound from July 2005 knee surgery, and Augusta National, wet or dry, is a tough walk.

For Campbell, whose lead has now been trimmed to one, the trick will be avoiding a DiMarco-esque final day meltdown. Last year's Saturday night leader, who had completed 45 holes, came out on Sunday morning and played his first seven holes in 5-over, eventually losing to you-know-who.

Campbell, of course, is the psychic opposite of the exciteable DiMarco. He's usually as oblivious to pressure as a sleepwalker. Masters Sunday, however, will be his biggest-ever stage, far more intimidating than his final group appearance at the 2003 PGA Championship.

It always is, no matter who the leader is. That's one thing Hootie never had to fix, and never will.