Posted 4/14/03 9:57 am ET

Tiger Time

Woods charges, ties Goosen for Masters lead with 66

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) -- Augusta National hardly resembled golf's immaculate garden with all that muck and mud, but there was no mistaking the names on the leaderboard -- especially the one at the top: Tiger Woods.

Woods pointed at the cup as his birdie putt dropped on the final hole of a long day at the Masters, giving him a 6-under 66 and a share of the lead with U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen.

"I feel very comfortable because I've been here before," Woods said Saturday.

He's not the only one with that kind of experience.

Goosen might be the hottest player in golf since winning the U.S. Open in a playoff last summer at Southern Hills. He had a 69 and will be in the final pairing Sunday with Woods.

"I know I can play under this kind of pressure," Goosen said.

He and Woods were at 205 and had a two-stroke advantage over Vijay Singh, the former Masters and PGA champion who dropped two shots over the final four holes.

Another two strokes down the list was two-time U.S. Open champion Ernie Els, along with Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson, the best player never to win a major. He just might get another chance.

When the rain ended, and Arnold Palmer finally said goodbye to 48 years of playing in the Masters, the stars emerged.

The top six players after three rounds at tough new Augusta are among the top seven in the world ranking. Four of them have won majors.

"It's going to be a dogfight," Garcia said.

It already was a long day for Woods, who arrived at Augusta six strokes behind Singh and had to play 26 holes -- eight of them in the morning to finish a rain-delayed second round. Two birdies and four par-saving putts inched him closer, and then Woods had a vintage round to make him a favorite to win his third green jacket.

"My goal starting out this afternoon was to get into double digits," Woods said of his 11-under par total. "I got there. I really wanted to get into that final group."

He got there, too, which was important because Woods is 22-2 when he has at least a share of the 54-hole lead. He has won all six of his majors from out front.

But Woods needed some help.

Goosen birdied the first hole to tie Singh for the lead, and never gave it back the rest of the day. The 33-year-old South African twice led by as many as two strokes, but he let it slip away at the end with a bogey when he drove into the trees on No. 18.

"It's going to be tough," Goosen said. "Any final round in a major is difficult. It's going to be difficult for Tiger, as well. He also has to go out there and do his thing. A few other players have also got a chance.

"It's going to be an exciting day."

Mickelson had a bogey-free 68, not as low as he wanted but enough to give himself a chance to win that elusive first major. Sunday will be the ninth time Mickelson has entered the final round of a major within five strokes of the lead.

Working against him is the fact he has never broken 70 on Sunday at Augusta. And the guys in front of him are all major championship winners.

"If I do get that low round tomorrow, it very well may be good enough," Mickelson said. "With the quality of the leaderboard, with Tiger being up there ... those guys are not going to come back. I'm going to have to go catch them."

Mickelson will be playing with Singh, the 36-hole leader who was tied with Goosen through 14 holes. That's when the trouble started for the 2000 Masters champion.

His approach into the par-5 15th green went long and left, bounced hard off the hump behind the green and rolled into the pond. He made bogey, then dropped another shot on No. 17 when his birdie putt ran about 15 feet past the cup and he missed coming back.

Singh attributed his mistake on the 15th to mud being on his ball, which makes it difficult to control. In fact, he said mud balls might have cost him three shots in his round of 72.

"The weather situation is unfortunate, but it's out of our control," he said. "Are you going to practice hitting mud balls? No."

Els also looked back on wasted shots.

The Big Easy had a sensational start to his day by going birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie in the morning to complete a 67, then picking up two more birdies early in the third round to get within one shot of the lead.

But he made back-to-back bogeys starting on No. 10, failed to make birdie on the par 5s and dropped another shot on the final hole by driving into the trees. He had a 72.

"I'm disappointed, but I'm not out of it," Els said.

The possibilities don't stop there.

Two-time Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal rallied for a 71 and was at 210, but that's as far back for anyone who has a decent chance -- not with Woods leading at Augusta.

 

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