They call Saturday moving day in the world of golf and Saturday at The Masters is no different. There was plenty of movement at Augusta as player after player all took a shot at trying to catch the record setting Jordan Spieth.
Rory McIlroy got the party started early with an eagle at number two. He then birdied eight and nine to go out in 32. It was a continuation of his stellar play that started on Friday’s second nine where he bounced back from an opening 40 with a 31.
Tiger Woods joined the birdie fest early with three straight from two through four. He added another at the eighth to finish his front side in 32 and there were roars filtering through the hills of Augusta.
Phil Mickelson did his best to add to those roars when he opened with the same trio of birds as Tiger. Another birdie at the ninth and Phil the Thrill had his opening 32 and the race was on.
But as the biggest names in the game made the turn the man they were chasing was going about his business, roars or no roars. Jordan Spieth birdied his second hole but gave it back on the fourth. Another birdie at six but then his second bogey on the seventh showed that he may be human after all and not a twenty one year old terminator sent here to destroy the Augusta National record books. 
Spieth closed out his front nine with a birdie for a 35 and looked to have righted his ship with birdies at twelve and thirteen.
Spieth’s playing partner Charley Hoffman was playing solid, but unspectacular golf leaving his putts just a bit short on the tricky Augusta greens.
Rory and Tiger then cooled off a bit on their back nines and only managed even par 36’s and their charges had ended.
Mickelson kept up his charge on the back nine with birdies at thirteen, fifteen and a bomb for birdie at sixteen. A bogey at seventeen tempered his attack and he finished with a 67.
A late party crasher came in the form of Justin Rose who was lucky to get through his front side at even par but made the most amazing charge down the stretch. He carded birdies at thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen and he then holed it from the bunker at sixteen for another bird. His clutch putt at eighteen gave him another bird and secured his place in the final pairing. Rose’s 67 got him to -12 and in sole second place.
But when all was said and done and Jordan showed he was human and Tiger and Rory showed they still know how to score and Phil thrilled the crowd and Rosey sank his last bird Spieth was still in first place, by four shots.
After Spieth set the 36 hole record at Augusta with an opening 64 and a 66 and he had his “bad round” today shooting a 70 he still set the 54 hole record at Augusta of -16.
Spieth made mistakes today that he hadn’t all week but he showed he can bounce back from the misses and still make the shots he needs to. A missed short putt at at seventeen gave him his first double bogey of the week but he gathered himself when he needed to at the final hole.
With his approach to eighteen off to the right with a bunker and sprinkler heads between him and a very close pin he hit the flop of flops just past the hole and makes the putt.
It kept the lead at a comfortable four instead of three and gave him a healthy cushion heading into tomorrow.
Rose and company will need to go very low and they’ll need help from Spieth who shows little sign of cracking.
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