AUGUSTA, Ga. — Upon further review, Dewey still didn't defeat Truman. The most infamous headline in newspaper history was wrong.
If the hometown Augusta Chronicle ends up having a Dewey Defeats Truman moment, it'll be because of Saturday's third round at the Masters. It was the day that Tiger Woods finally made a move, and a day when most of the front-runners stopped moving forward.
A story on the Chronicle's Web site Friday wrote off Tiger with the following lead: "So much for Tiger Woods' grand slam. It's done. Finished before it started." The headline that accompanied the same story on the Savannah Morning News site blared, "Forget about Slam for Woods."
Woods began the third round tied for 13th place, seven strokes back. He posted a 68 that easily could've been lower — a lot lower, in fact — and ended the day in fifth place, still six shots back but trailing a pack of players with little or no experience playing in the final-round glare of major championships.
Trevor Immelman, who began the day with the lead at eight under, birdied the 18th hole to finish off a 69, his third straight round in the 60s. He is 11 under, two shots ahead of Brandt Snedeker. Steve Flesch, a lefty, is three back; Paul Casey trails by four. Then there's Tiger, coming off a remarkable ball-striking round, six strokes off the lead. Woods has never come from behind on Sunday to win a major, but does that mean he can't? He has won 13 of the things, you know.
The rise of Woods was the story of the day. He played beautifully and had putts rolling over the edges of cups all day. It was an easy 68, if there is such a thing at Augusta National. This was the kind of golf we were expecting from Woods the first two days.
"This is the highest score I could have shot today," Woods said. "I hit the ball so well and I hit so many good putts that just skirted the hole. But, hey, I put myself right back in the tournament.
"I only made one putt, really. The putt I made at 10. Otherwise I really didn't make any putts today for birdie, because they were two putt birdies or tap ins."
Once again, Woods probably accounted for the tournament's loudest roar. He was creeping up the leaderboard when he got to the 17th hole, where he landed a sand wedge shot from 117 yards just behind the hole and made it spin back, just missing the edge of the cup. That was a tap-in birdie that moved him up to fifth and got his name on the scoreboards where the leaders could see it.
And once again, Woods had to pull off some heroics at the 18th to avoid messing up a flawless bogey-free round. On Friday, he drove it into the trees on the right, pitched out, played an amazing pitch shot that spun back down a slope and holed the putt to save par. On Saturday, he drove it into the trees on the right again, then hit a 7-iron from 180 yards through a gap in the pines and got it onto the front of the green. The pin was in back, and his long first putt came up seven feet short, but he curled in the crucial par putt.
Woods rarely admits to the difficulty of any shot, but he did describe his shot at 18 as a precision play. Asked how big the gap was, he answered, "Not very big. Probably four feet across, something like that. I had to either make a four or a six. Might as well go ahead and make four."
Those two par saves may be considered historic shots if Woods should happen to make up enough ground Sunday to win. Six strokes is a considerable deficit. The wild cards in the final-round chase are the weather and the players in front of him. It's expected to be cool, blustery and possibly very windy.
"If we get the weather we're suppposed to get tomorrow, you've just got to hang in there and hang around," said Woods. "Anything can happen, especially around that (Amen) corner ... if the wind's blowing all over the place."
The chances for a Phil Mickelson vs. Tiger duel went south with Mickelson's game. He birdied the second hole but bogeyed the sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th, and then, after birdies at 13 and 14, he doubled the par-3 16th. The pin was on the back right ledge, and Mickelson pulled his tee shot into the right bunker, the one place you can't hit it with that pin location. His bunker shot ran down the slope to the far side of the green and he three-putted. He finished with a 75 and is at two under par, nine strokes back.
