Men's Golf

While stuck in the clubhouse at Augusta National Golf Club, Tony Finau apparently chatted with somebody who knows a thing or two about making a comeback on the biggest stage.

Inclement weather forced the third round of the Masters to be suspended Saturday. During the delay, Jim Nantz said on the CBS broadcast that Finau had a FaceTime call with Tampa Bay Buccaneers star Tom Brady.

Through eight holes in the third round, Finau is four shots back of tournament leader Justin Rose. He's also one over for the round after having birdied No. 3 but bogeyed Nos. 1 and 5.

That isn't quite the same as trailing 28-3 in the third quarter of the Super Bowl, but Brady could certainly provide a helpful perspective.

Unfortunately for Finau, Kyle Shanahan isn't serving as Rose's caddy for the Masters.

Ten years after posting the lowest score of any amateur at Augusta National, Hideki Matsuyama will begin Sunday at The Masters with a four-stroke lead and a chance to become the first Masters champion from Japan in tournament history. 

Moving day at Augusta simply belonged to Matsuyama. 

Now a tour veteran, Matsuyama dominated the back nine at Augusta and produced the first bogey-free round the course has seen this year. That was more than enough to power past the likes of Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth and Will Zalatoris to lock up a spot in the final grouping on Sunday.

Here's a look at where things stand with 18 holes to play at Augusta. 

2021 Masters Saturday Leaderboard

1. Hideki Matsuyama (-11)

T2. Xander Schauffele (-7)

T2. Marc Leishman (-7)

T2. Justin Rose (-7)

T2. Will Zalatoris (-7)

6. Corey Conners (-6)

7. Jordan Spieth (-5)

8. Brian Harman (-4)

9. Tony Finau (-3)

T10. Robert MacIntyre (-2)

T10. Si Woo Kim (-2)

T10. Bernd Wiesberger (-2)

Notables: T13. Patrick Reed (-1), T13. Henrik Stenson (-1), T13. Viktor Hovland (-1), T13. Justin Thomas (-1), T21. Phil Mickelson (E), T21. Jon Rahm (E), T29. Bubba Watson (+1), T38. Bryson DeChambeau (+2) 

Full leaderboard available via PGA Tour

Recap

Rose began the day exactly where he left off on Thursday—seven-under par and looking to build on his lead. 

Matsuyama made that incredibly difficult.

Playing a few holes ahead of Rose, Matsuyama looked automatic with a round of 65 on Saturday. The back nine, in particular, allowed Matsuyama to jump up the leaderboard as he birdied Nos. 11 and 12 before posting an eagle on No. 15. He would go onto birdie each of the next two holes before ending with a par on No. 18.

That he did it all after an hour-long rain delay that began while Matsuyama was on No. 11 made it all that more impressive. 

The 29-year-old went back to the clubhouse with a three-stroke lead over Rose, who was still on No. 14 at the time Matsuyama finished his day. 

Rose played his second consecutive round of even par after posting back-to-back birdies to start the day. After struggling to find his rhythm on the front nine to begin the week, it was the back nine where the Englishman kept missing opportunities.  

Aside from a birdie on No. 12 and a bogey on No. 16, Rose played the back nine even par, though a long putt to save par on No. 18 might've been the most important shot he hit all day.

Jordan Spieth dug well into his bag of tricks on Saturday, pulling off circus shot after circus shot to remain in contention for his first green jacket since 2015. Aside from a missed birdie on No. 18, Spieth had little to be upset with during hi third round.

Last weekend's Texas Open champion dazzled with a birdie on No. 2, pulled off a miraculous shot from the pine straws for another birdie on No. 8, then began the back nine with a birdie on No. 10 with a perfect chip shot off the side of the green. 

Still, it was tough for any golfer to find a better shot than what Corey Conners pulled off at the par-three No. 6 on Saturday, dropping in an Ace for the sixth hole-in-one at No. 6 in tournament history and the first since Jamie Donaldson in 2013. 

Zalatoris, Leishman, Schauffele and Conners are all still very much in contention on Sunday—as are Speith, Tony Finau, and Brian Harman. 

As long as Matsuyama is taking advantage of the course like he did on Saturday, it might not matter what anyone else is doing at Augusta over the final 18 holes. 

A group of roughly two dozen protesters gathered outside Augusta National ahead of Saturday's third round of the 2021 Masters in opposition to Georgia enacting legislation to restrict voting rights, according to Paul Newberry of the Associated Press. 

Among the more notable changes written into the bill are a reduction in ballot drop boxes, the ability for the state legislature to take control of the ballot disqualification process and criminalization of serving food and beverages to those waiting in line to vote. 

The group of protesters were reportedly met by both cheers and jeers as patrons made their way down Washington Road, which goes past the famed course. 

Major League Baseball recently pulled its All-Star Game from the Atlanta area in opposition to the election law.

November saw Georgia elect two Democrat senators and go for Joseph Biden in the presidential contest—the first time a Democrat has won the state since 1992.

“The last election had a record turnout,” protester Marla Cureton told Newberry. “We should be celebrating this. It's a great thing. This bill is death by a thousand cuts. Anytime you put new restrictions on how you can vote, that's voter suppression. We should be making it easier to vote. It's the patriotic thing to do.”

A week before The Masters began, the National Black Justice Coalition called for the PGA Tour to move The Masters out of Georgia because of the bill. 

"Professional golf should not reward Georgia’s attacks on democracy and voting rights with the millions of dollars in revenue that the tournament generates and the prestige it brings to the State," NBJC executive director David J. Johns told Golfweek. "We all must act to protect our democracy and the right to vote.”

The tournament started as planned at Augusta National on Thursday and will conclude Sunday.

Tiger Woods was unaware of where he was following his single-car crash in February, according to USA Today's Brent Schrotenboer.

Schrotenboer obtained the 22-page collision report detailing the crash.

In the report, Deputy Kyle Sullivan said he spoke with Woods at the hospital as he was being tended to by medical personnel. Woods apparently said "he did not remember being involved in a traffic collision" and "thought he was currently in the state of Florida."

The golf legend crashed on a stretch of roadway in Ranchos Palos Verdes, California.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Woods had been going 84 to 87 mph downhill in a 45 mph zone.

"The primary causal factor for this traffic collision was driving at a speed unsafe for the road conditions and the inability to negotiate the curve of the roadway," Villanueva told reporters.

Officer Justin Smith said in the collision report he didn't believe Woods to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs. His pupils were "slightly sluggish," which a paramedic said may have been a result of the accident.

During Wednesday's news conference, Sheriff's Capt. James Powers said Woods told police he hadn't taken medication and didn't drink any alcohol prior to the crash.

"Those questions were asked and answered," Powers said.

The collision report listed "an empty pharmaceutical bottle" with no label among the pieces of evidence at the scene.

Schrotenboer reported the data in the black-box recorder of Woods' 2021 Genesis GV80 SUV showed he was "going in a straight line with no steering input detected until some slight steering movement registered late in the recorded crash sequence."

In February, Schrotenboer spoke to a former police detective, Jonathan Cherney, who speculated the 15-time major champion might have fallen asleep behind the wheel. The accident occurred at around 7 a.m. PT.

Upon reading the report, Cherney said it "supports that he was not conscious."

Villanueva indicated one day after the crash that police weren't considering any charges against Woods. Woods issued a statement Wednesday saying the L.A. County Sheriff's Department reached out to say "their investigation regarding my traffic accident ... has been completed and closed."

The 45-year-old suffered comminuted open fractures to his tibia and fibula, and he was released from the hospital in March to continue his recovery at home.

Even Justin Rose was surprised by his 65 in Round 1 of the Masters Thursday.

The first-round leader jokingly described his effort as "decent" when discussing the performance afterwards:

"I didn't know where my game was coming into this week, to be honest with you," Rose said. "I had a month off, haven't played competitive golf for a good four weeks."

The English golfer sits seven strokes under par for the tournament, four strokes ahead of Brian Harman and Hideki Matsuyama in second place.

While major tournament success is not too shocking for Rose, the start is impressive considering his recent back injury.

Rose was forced to withdraw from the Arnold Palmer Invitational in early March due to back spasms, leaving in the middle of the third round. A week later, he dropped out of The Players Championship.

He said he could have played in the last two tournaments but instead focused on the Masters.

This strategy appears to have paid off so far as he seeks the first green jacket of his career.

With one shot, Tommy Fleetwood almost single-handedly atoned for a sluggish start to the 2021 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.

Fleetwood approached No. 16 at four over for the round. He halved that after finding the bottom of the cup straight off the tee.

This was the 32nd hole-in-one in Masters history. Fleetwood also continued a historical trend since the par-three 16th hole has now seen 23 aces, with Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau most recently pulling it off in 2019.

Fleetwood hasn't finished higher than 17th in his previous four tries at the Masters. One shot doesn't make a tournament, but perhaps Thursday's stroke of good fortune will portend good things to come in the days ahead.

Tiger Woods has issued a statement thanking the firefighters and police officers who helped him after the Feb. 23 car crash that left him hospitalized with multiple leg injuries. 

In a post on Twitter, Woods said he is "so grateful" to the people who first discovered his vehicle and called the authorities, as well as the "LASD Deputies and LA Firefighter/Paramedics, especially LA Sheriff's Deputy Carlos Gonzalez and LAFD Engine Co. #106 Fire Paramedics Smith and Gimenez" for their efforts at the scene of the accident:

Dr. Anish Mahajan of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center said in a statement released on Feb. 24 that Woods needed surgery to repair "open fractures" in his lower right leg that were stabilized with a "combination of screws and pins" in his foot and ankle. 

L.A. County sheriff Alex Villanueva told reporters that Woods' vehicle was going 84-87 mph on a stretch of road with a 45 mph speed limit outside of Los Angeles before hitting a tree at 75 mph. 

Woods noted on Wednesday that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has completed its investigation into the accident and the case has been closed. 

"The primary causal factor for this traffic collision was driving at a speed unsafe for the road conditions and the inability to negotiate the curve of the roadway,'' Villanueva said. 

Woods announced on March 16 that he was released from the hospital and returned home to continue his rehab. 

Jordan Spieth told reporters that it's a "good feeling" to go into the Masters in good form off his win at the Valero Texas Open on Sunday.

"When you're coming in form, it's a good feeling when you arrive here, and I've had that a few times," Spieth said.

"I love being here. I love being on the grounds. It's my favorite tournament in the world. I've expressed that many times here.

"Yesterday [at the Texas Open] was a great day. That was a lot of fun being in contention, having the putts kind of go in. As I've mentioned over the last six weeks or so, you put yourself in that position enough times, the bounces will go your way."

Spieth shot 18 under for the tournament, holding off second-place finisher Charley Hoffman by two strokes. The victory marked Spieth's first professional win since the 2017 Open Championship.

The three-time major winner and 12-time PGA Tour title victor struggled with his form from 2018 to 2020, but he's rounding into great shape at the right time in 2021.

He's finished fourth or better in four of his last six stroke-play competitions. The 27-year-old also made the round of 16 in the WGC-Dell Match Play tournament.

Spieth now heads to Augusta National Golf Club looking for his second green jacket. He won in 2015 by shooting 18 under, which tied the 72-hole tournament record with Tiger Woods at the time.

That mark has since been broken by Dustin Johnson, who shot 20 under at the Masters last November.

Welcome back, Jordan Spieth.

The former No. 1 golfer in the world clinched a two-shot victory at the 2021 Valero Texas Open on Sunday, which marked his first win on the PGA Tour since 2017.

"There's peaks and valleys in this sport, but I never expected to go this long," Spieth told reporters while calling it a "monumental win." "Back then, in between wins, maybe I took things more for granted than I should have. It's very difficult to win out here and I'll certainly enjoy this one as much as I have any other."

While it has been a while since Spieth actually won a tournament, it seemed like just a matter of time until he finally did.

After all, he tied for fourth at the Waste Management Open, tied for third at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, tied for fourth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and tied for ninth at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play all within the last two months.

Charley Hoffman made him work for the win with a six-under 66 to move to 16 under for the tournament, but Spieth also shot six under to notch the two-stroke victory.

Spieth didn't have a single bogey to go with three birdies on the back nine to hold off Hoffman and the rest of the field.

Next up for the 27-year-old is the Masters, where he will look to continue his momentum at the iconic Augusta National Golf Club.

He has enjoyed plenty of success at the venue with a victory in 2015, a tie for second place in 2014 and 2016, and a third-place finish in 2018.

If he plays like he did at the Valero Open, Spieth will likely be in contention Sunday.