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Sunday's Six-pack
A rundown of the top contenders
Posted: Saturday April 13, 2002 9:41 PM
By DAVID BARRETT
Senior Editor, GOLF MAGAZINE
The names on the leaderboard couldn't be any better after 54 holes of The Masters, with the top six players all ranked among the top seven in the world. I'd like to say that means the final round shapes up as a wild shootout among the game's elite, but Tiger Woods's decisive move into the lead on the back nine Saturday changed that.
Now three of the six -- Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, and Ernie Els -- are four strokes back and need an extraordinary final round to have a chance. The other two, Retief Goosen (tied with Woods for the lead) and Vijay Singh (two strokes behind), must find a way to overcome the best final-round closer in the history of the game. Here's a rundown of the super six (world ranking in parentheses):
Tiger Woods (1): The statistics on Woods can't be encouraging to the other contenders. He has held or shared the third-round lead in six majors and won all six (accounting for all of his major victories). He has shot in the 60s in five of those six final rounds, with a scoring average of 68.75. On the PGA Tour, he is 22 for 24 when leading or tied for the lead entering the final round, with a streak of nine straight rounds in the 60s in those situations. Another telling stat: He has six wins and no runner-up finishes in the majors; 30 wins and eight runner-ups on Tour.
Retief Goosen (4): Since last June, the South African has more international wins than any other player, with six. That includes two in the U.S. (the 2001 U.S. Open and last week's BellSouth Classic), three on the European Tour, and one in South Africa. This is only Goosen's third Masters; he missed the cut twice and tied for 40th in his prior appearances. He leads the field with 19 birdies through three rounds, but also has six bogeys and a double bogey.
Vijay Singh (7): Singh went 36 holes without a bogey, from the seventh hole of the first round through the sixth hole of the third round. He then made three in the last 12 holes on Saturday, including two of the last four, to drop two behind the lead.
Ernie Els (3): Els has three wins in his last six starts, two on the European Tour and the Genuity Championship in the U.S. In his 10 PGA Tour victories, he has never come from more than two strokes behind.
Phil Mickelson (2): Since 1995, Mickelson has been in the top five heading into the final round in six Masters, including this year. He has never bettered his position in those previous five final rounds, while shooting 73, 72, 74, 71, and 70. In eight final rounds at Augusta, he has never broken 70.
Sergio Garcia (5): He just turned 22 three months ago, but this is the fourth time Garcia has entered the final round of a major within four strokes of the lead. He's done it at each of the four majors, ultimately finishing second in the 1999 PGA Championship from two back, 12th in the 2001 U.S. Open from one back, and ninth in the 2001 British Open from two back.
You can email your comments to David Barrett at: david.barrett@time4.com.
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