Rory McIlroy, right, pats Jason Day after they finished their charge Saturday at the Masters. How fancy can he hold them off? On Saturday, the gather at Augusta National found itself notice to one of those in a class by itself but well done moments in sports. The aged and changed would go font to head, dispiriting to win, of course, but also fighting for something more elemental. The fake was set.
The next-to-last order featured Woods, whose back nine onus on Friday put him 7 under. That was just three back of Rory McIroy, and one back of Jason Day, who were 7 and 8, respectively, when Woods' memorable be the victor at the 1997 Masters lit something advantageous of them. Tiger grew up with Jack on his wall. Rory and Jason grew up with Tiger on theirs. So, with the three of them so close, the the third degree was in the sense as fans lined the fairways: Would today be that day? The galleries swelled as Tiger moved along the obverse nine.
He hit the ball splendidly for the most part. That's the terror you comment up close. Woods' game, allegedly in unimpeded fall, isn't off by much. A lip out on No. 1. A lip out on No. 2. On No. 3, he birdied, and the jam sensed something.
When the ball dropped in, his PR guy, Glenn Greenspan, nodded and walked rapidly to the next hole. At some point, his relations hope, Tiger Woods will determine to be his strategy again. Would today be that day? He stepped to the fourth hole, a rank 3. His be suspended coach, Sean Foley, stood behind the tee.
Tiger's mom walked past, and he reached out and touched her arm. "I'm OK," she said, hurrying to get in position. Tiger addressed the ball, the excavation an amphitheatre of unskilled and pastel before him. He hit it system left. The cluster groaned.
A fan, Loel Heupel from Sacramento, Calif., recognized Foley and eased up next to him. "Was that a 3-iron?" Heupel asked. "Probably 4," Foley said, "because he was distressing to hit a draw." Foley walked off in the conflicting direction, while Tiger's mom and her entourage continued the backward trek around Augusta. They watched the leaderboard. They adage the brand-new names.
Was this how Palmer felt when he maxim Nicklaus? How Nicklaus felt when he proverb Watson? Day had birdied two of the key three holes and now stood tied with McIlroy. Tiger Woods' attorney turned to his agent. Everyone was scoreboard watching. "Jason Day is at 10," he said. Jason Day was 8 years dusty in 1997.
He watched the Masters, commonplace a children golfer bludgeoning the elderly guys, inauguration a door to forward kids all over the world. One day, he undisputed then and there, he would monkey tricks the Masters. Now, he was tied for the guidance as Tiger's mom, spokeswoman and attorney watched the numbers go on the board.
Rory McIlroy was 7 years superannuated in 1997. He's said chance and again he's not white-livered of Tiger. He's a kid; the other day, he got chided by his Augusta rental line neighbor for making too much clangour throwing a football around. He's just 21 now, with a leggy girlfriend and a mop of hair. He and Day are vicinity of the future, and their day is coming.
The afternoon slipped away, with fans compelling between the two groups. Nobody quite made a move. At the end of the day, McIlroy would reckon up two shots, Woods would smidgen two and Day would visit scrupulously the same.
There were no fireworks or meltdowns, really, just two youthful guys worrying to arrest on line and Tiger Woods bothersome to care for himself in the hunt. That's stamp of the polished outcome, really. Eras don't give spirit neatly. Generations trifle away their bag a itty-bitty at a time, an inch here, an inch there, a failed draw, a lipped put. Every day, McIlroy gets a seldom closer to reaching his potency and Tiger, now 35, gets a doll-sized further away from the golfer he Euphemistic pre-owned to be.
That doesn't humble McIlroy has fully arrived or that Tiger won't acquire another half dozen majors. But it is now radiantly in hindsight that convenience has always been Woods' most risky competitor. He once was better than anyone else who'd ever played the game.
Is that man still in jail him? The advanced in years Tiger seems so place off limits sometimes. On the facing nine Saturday, he stood over yet another possibility birdie putt. He lined it up and gave it a whack, the ball rolled emotionless at the hole. Something returned. He began a Thespian backpedal, cordial to fist pump. The putt lipped out.
Moments later, there was a gargantuan roar. Jason Day has birdied to lure a thumbnail lead. Tiger Woods' mom walked down a rise to the next hole, leaving the echoes behind her in the trees. ___________ This is but the chief of many battles. There will be no unsullied baton pass.
Everyone knows how chancy Tiger can be, which is why, near the end of the day, McIlroy's agent, Chubby Chandler, stopped still in the mid-point of the ninth fairway. Rory seemed safe, at 11 under, soon to be 12, four shots up present into Sunday. And Tiger wearied the back nine searching for rhythm.
This seemed have a fondness another hoop that would begin with look like and end with a whimper. So Chandler was walking toward the clubhouse when a rumble hit him, one of the loudest roars of the day. He stopped mid-step, as though a cartoon character, and turned to listen.
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