THE MASTERS: Tiger's Right There in Spite of Himself

Apr 08, 06:59 AM

Current Headlines: By Mark Herrmann, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Apr. 8--AUGUSTA, Ga. -- There was a bright side for Tiger Woods amid the disappointment of what he thought was a stumbling finish. "It's not like I'm 100 back," he said.

Not by a long shot. When he said that, right after making the bogeys on 17 and 18 that got him broiling at himself, he was four shots out of the lead. But by the time the sun went down, so did just about all of his competition.

He will return to Augusta National today, ready to play in the final group of the last round of the Masters and only one stroke out of the lead. The only thing that kept him out of first place, it seems, was that everyone else ran out of holes to butcher.

Woods' round of par 72 looked better and better as the cold, windy day grew later, as did his standing at 3 over par. He is tied for second with Justin Rose, one behind Stuart Appleby. The latter led most of the day, but others had and blew their chances.

"This was one of the hardest rounds we've ever played here," Woods said. "If you make 18 pars, you're going to move up on that board."

And if he makes 18 pars today, he's probably going to walk away with his fifth green jacket.

If there is another day like yesterday, and that is what the forecast is calling for, any kind of jacket will come in handy. "We don't know. If it blows like this, you don't know," Woods said. "Putts from 2 and 3 feet, you've got to play a little bit of wind. And that's trouble out here."

He thought he was in big trouble when he pulled his tee shot into the trees on the par-4 17th and loudly berated himself. He put his second shot in a bunker, blasted out 25 feet past and missed his par putt. Then he bogeyed No. 18 despite having placed his drive smartly in the fairway.

At the time, he believed he had spoiled a solid round that had featured three birdies and only one bogey until the finish. When he was asked if he had thrown much of it away, he said, "Yeah, and then some."

Before he left the club, about an hour before Appleby, Rose, Vaughn Taylor and a few other guys finished, Woods added, "I've got a shot."

A better one than he realized.

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