The Masters 2020: day three – live!

Tiger’s been quiet this morning. No longer! He sends a tramliner into the cup for birdie on 15. He’s suddenly -5 and has that look in his eye again. Up on 18, Rahm sends his second over the flag and he’ll have a look at birdie from 15 feet. It’d give him a 65. DeChambeau however takes one club too many and sends his approach over the green and down the swale at the back. He’s facing a hellish up and down for his par. If he slips to level par, there’s a fair chance he won’t be here this weekend.

Nah. Out comes the driver, and he absolutely stripes it. What nerve. What moxie. He’s in prime real estate on the fairway. Rahm and Oosthuizen are in good nick too. Not so Paul Casey, who has hoicked his drive into the pines down the left of 17. Not many options from there.

Patrick Reed is on the move. His third birdie in four holes, after creaming his tee shot at 16 to four feet. He’s now just one off the lead at -8. Up ahead, DeChambeau can’t get up and down from the back of 17, and he slips to -1. Right on the cut line. Par up 18 will suffice. Time for a nice easy 3-wood down the middle. What do you say, Bryson? Eh?

DeChambeau lashes his ball out of the forest and over the back of 17. That’s as good as he could have done from there. He nearly sent a couple of the trees up the hole with that ball, branches snagging around his club on the follow-through. What power. Breaking news: Bryson DeChambeau is strong. Meanwhile a pleasant end to rookie of the year Scottie Scheffler’s round. He chips in from the side of 18 to finish birdie-birdie. Back in 33 for a 68 that puts him firmly in the mix at -5.

Reed is over the back at 15 in two. A careful chip up and a putt, and he’s -7. He’s alongside his partner Casey, who was on in two but overcooked his long eagle effort and had to settle for a three-putt par. Meanwhile here’s one of the shots of the week from the reigning Open champion Shane Lowry! He was below the cut line, but may have saved himself with an outrageous wedge from the front of 14. This is where Oosthuizen took a putter only for his effort to come back to his feet off the false front. Lowry lands his ball just before the top of the ridge, sending it rolling over, checking, then curling on a gorgeous left-to-right arc into the cup. He celebrates his birdie in style. He’s -1 and here for the weekend as things stand.

DeChambeau makes it four birdies in five holes. He draws his tee shot at 16 to eight feet, and makes no mistake with the gentle left-to-right slider. He’s -2, and that ludicrously unfortunate lost ball on 3 yesterday evening is beginning to look even more costly, albeit in a different way. Where once he was worrying about surviving the cut, now he’s counting the price of a noggin-gone triple. In an alternate universe, he’d found his first tee shot, ground out a par, and is currently sitting four off the lead. But here we are … and here he goes again, sending a tee shot whistling into the lap of the golfing gods / the trees down the right of 17. Pars for Rahm and Oosthuizen, incidentally.

A nerveless up and down from the back of 18 by Hideki Matsuyama. Par, and he’s signing for his second 68 of the week. He’s placed almost perfectly at -8. Louis Oosthuizen makes his bounceback birdie at 15, though Bryson DeChambeau is forced to settle for par, his run of consecutive birdies ending on three. And near misses for Reed and Woods at 14 and 13 respectively. No birdies for the former champions, and they stay at -6 and -4.

Old-school comic cuts from Xander Schauffele on 6. He tugs his tee shot miles left, and though it’s still on the green, he’s left with a 70-foot monster putt up and over a ridge. His first attempt gets to the top of the ridge, teeters awhile, then comes all the way back to his feet. Augusta National baring its teeth again in the traditional manner. He has another go, and rolls his second attempt to kick-in distance. A bogey – his second of the morning, after a dropped shot at 4 – but it could have been a whole lot worse. He’s -4. Speaking of which, Lee Westwood had been busy clattering down the leader board, dropping strokes at 3 and 5, but he’s just raked in a 50-footer on 7 to stem the bleeding. He’s -2.

Rahm bounces his ball halfway up the bank, where it stubbornly stops. Suddenly bogey looks a good score. He’s still faced with a tricky chip and putt if he wants to make it. But nobody panic! In the stereotypical Spanish genius style, he bumps a crisp second chip up onto the green and it’s always heading into the centre of the cup. Quite delicious. Seve would be proud. He remains in a share at -9.

DeChambeau is snookered behind a tree and forced to lay up. Rahm is in the middle of the fairway but opts to do that too. Oosthuizen makes it three. He’s first to fire in a chip, and nearly spins his ball into the cup. He’ll get back one of the shots he dropped at the last to return to -6. DeChambeau’s wedge isn’t all that. Finally Rahm has a go. Up and down and he’ll be the sole leader. But he gets “an absolute flyer” and sends his ball bouncing through the green and down the big bank at the back. He’ll have a hell of a chip coming back up, with not much green to work with. Ah well, at least he didn’t get wet.

DeChambeau has now made three birdies in a row. This is a really impressive battle back from the brink. But he’s put too much into his drive at 15, and whistles it into the pines down the right. He’ll be forced to lay up from there. Meanwhile it’s two putts for birdie for Reed on 13, and he moves up to -6. Marc Leishman is going along nicely, too: he’d left an eagle putt on 15 a good ten feet short in the gloaming last night, so opted to come back and sort it this morning. Wise decision, as he made his birdie putt; he’s -5.

DeChambeau makes no mistake with his birdie putt on 14. In it goes, and the US Open champion is fighting the good fight. He’s -1, which is also the gently oscillating projected cut line once again. A costly double-bogey for Oosthuizen, though, who screws his approach back off the green, then sees his putt up the false front come back to his feet. He’s -5. A birdie for Paul Casey on 13, snatching back the shot he carelessly shed at 10 last night: he’s -7 again. And on 9, CT Pan makes his par to sign for a superb round of 66. He’s -8 and this is one hell of a leader board.

-9: Ancer (F), Smith (F), Thomas (F), D Johnson (F), Rahm (14)
-8: Cantlay (F), Im (F), Pan (F), Matsuyama (16)

Webb Simpson hands one of his shots back in double-quick time. He pulls his tee shot at 16 into the bunker front right, and can’t get up and down. The 2012 US Open champ slips back to -4. Back on 13, the 2018 Masters winner Patrick Reed swishes a glorious 7-wood into the heart of the green. He’ll be taking a shot at eagle from 15 feet.

A big moment for DeChambeau! First off, the cut moves out to level par. Second, his drive clatters into trees down the right of 14 but bounces out into the first cut. Third, he takes advantage of his fortune by sending his second from 150 yards onto the top tier of the green, using the camber to gather his ball right and down towards the cup! He’ll have a look at birdie from five feet! For all the yammer about his power game, it’s easy to forget this young guy is one hell of a talent. That was quite sensational.

CT Pan was going along very nicely indeed last night. The Taiwanese turned 29 on Thursday, and this could be a very special birthday week if he keeps going like this. Birdie at 8, and he’s one off the lead. Meanwhile Tiger, who started out with a very tricky second into 11 from the first cut on the left, eases his second to the front of the green. A chip and a putt and he makes off with par that keeps him in good nick at -4.

This is not a bad way to start your day. On 15, Webb Simpson picks up where he left off last night, stroking in an eagle putt to move to -5. But this is even better! Jon Rahm rolls in his birdie putt on 13 and joins the leading pack at -9! As for his playing partners? Bryson DeChambeau misses a 12-foot eagle attempt and has to make do with birdie. He’s back to level par, but still outside the cut line, which is now projected at -1. Meanwhile par for Louis Oosthuizen, who misses a nine-footer for birdie and stays at -7.

It’s an extra-special Masters, so how about an extra-special Moving Day? We don’t yet know where half the field will be moving from, you see. The second round is yet to be completed, a legacy of that three-hour rain delay on Thursday morning. So from 7.30am local time (12.30pm GMT) the second wave of the second round will resume play. Once they’re done, the cut will be made, third-round tee times will be allocated, and Moving Day will start in earnest (at about 10.30am local, 3.30pm GMT). It’ll be a long one, but if the first two days are anything to go by, well worth sticking around for. Here’s where we stand:

-9: Ancer (F), Smith (F), Thomas (F), D Johnson (F)
-8: Cantlay (F), Im (F), Matsuyama (15), Rahm (12)
-7: Willett (F), Fleetwood (F), Rose (F), Pan (16*), Oosthuizen (12)
-6: Munoz (F), Frittelli (F), Schauffele (12*) Reed (11), Casey (11)
-5: Mickelson (F), Koepka (F), Howell III (15*)
-4: Fowler (F), Horschel (F), Janewattananond (15*), Leishman (14), Woods (10)
-3: Augenstien -a- (F), Langer (F), McIlroy (F), Conners (16*), Simpson (14), Scheffler (13)

So let’s get straight out there. It’s on!