For a short time yesterday afternoon, the 2022 Masters threatened to turn into a procession, with the outrageously talented world number one, Scottie Scheffler, perambulating calmly at its head. But the realisation of where he was and what he was doing inevitably kicked in, and he wobbled a little on the way back home. Meanwhile the 2020 runners-up, the equally well-equipped Cameron Smith and Im Sung-jae, took the opportunity to close the gap.
Scheffler is still strong favourite, three clear of Smith, five shots better off than Im. But bigger leads have been shipped on the back nine on Sunday alone. So nothing’s in the can. Most of the names near the top of the leader board will need help from Scheffler if they’re to pull off an outrageous comeback victory, but right now they’ll all retain hope in the knowledge that anything is possible on Masters Sunday. Anything. Here’s the top of the leader board after 54 holes …
-9: Scheffler
-6: Smith
-4: Im
-2: Lowry, Schwartzel
-1: Thomas, Conners
E: Willett
+1: Fleetwood, Kokrak, McIlroy, Morikawa, D Johnson
+2: Champ, Simpson, Zalatoris, Matsuyama
… and here’s when everybody’s teeing off today. (USA unless stated, all times BST). We’ll get going here at 6pm BST. It’s on!
15.10 Cameron Davis (Aus), Adam Scott (Aus)
15.20 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Billy Horschel
15.30 Patrick Cantlay, Mackenzie Hughes (Can)
15.40 Bubba Watson, Max Homa
15.50 Tiger Woods, Jon Rahm (Spa)
16.00 Russell Henley, Daniel Berger
16.10 Harold Varner III, Robert MacIntyre (Sco)
16.20 Sepp Straka (Aut), Tom Hoge
16.30 Seamus Power (Irl), Kevin Na
16.50 Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa)
17.00 Kevin Kisner, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng)
17.10 Sergio Garcia (Spa), Tony Finau
17.20 Patrick Reed, Lucas Glover
17.30 JJ Spaun, Min-Woo Lee (Aus)
17.40 Lee Westwood (Eng), Harry Higgs
17.50 Hudson Swafford, Si Woo Kim (Kor)
18.00 Marc Leishman (Aus), Talor Gooch
18.10 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Viktor Hovland (Nor)
18.30 Will Zalatoris, Webb Simpson
18.40 Dustin Johnson, Cameron Champ
18.50 Collin Morikawa, Rory McIlroy (NIrl)
19.00 Jason Kokrak, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng)
19.10 Danny Willett (Eng), Corey Conners (Can)
19.20 Justin Thomas, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa)
19.30 Shane Lowry (Irl), Im Sung-jae (Kor)
19.40 Cameron Smith (Aus), Scottie Scheffler
