After an excellent finish on the second round Henrik Stenson continued to climb up the leaderboard on Saturday. Just as we got used to earlier this week, it was a sharp wedge game and not least an accurate putt that laid the foundation for birdies.
Stenson rolled in birdies on holes two, six and eight. In between, he saved two brilliant pairs of five and seven. After putting two putts for par at nine, from just over 20 meters, the Swede had used the putter only twelve times.
– It was again really strong putting and close play that kept the round together. I feel that I have had a good view of the speed this week. It is probably several years of experience that makes you start to find the lines a little better on some putts. Had some really tricky longer putts that I have hit well and put a lot of good putts between two and three meters for both par and birdie, says Stenson after the round.
When Stenson rolled in the parput on the seventh, he also offered a lovely fist and from the TV couch you could feel how he had something good going on.
A slight rash on the tian, which got stuck in the trees on the left side and left just over 230 meters to the hole, however, led to a bogey. Another bogey followed on the eleven, after a three-putt from across the green.
On the twelfth, the iconic par 3 hole over Rae’s Creek, it looked all the way to the final ball roll that Stenson delivered another red birdie number in the scorecard, but the ball bounced over the cup edge and stayed above ground.
A really nice bunker shot from the right green bunker on the 15th hole, where Stenson was on two, and a lowered putt from just under three meters meant the round’s fourth birdie.
It took Stenson to a under par for the day and at the time a shared 15th place in the competition.
When he was about to hit a chip just to the left of the 17th green, the weather horns sounded over Augusta National, announcing that the game needed to be stopped due to a dangerous weather situation with thunder in the air.
Back on the course an hour later, Stenson cleaned up the round with a chip and a putt of 17 followed by a pair even on the last hole.
– (The break) was not so dangerous for me, I only had a little scramble job left to do, and managed to get it done.
71 strokes (-1) for the second day in a row, a total of one under par for the competition and at the time of writing a shared 13th place.
– Maybe a few more flashes of light today with some better shots but still some cheap misses from good positions. If you shoot under par on Augusta, you always do a good job and must be happy with it. Even if we do not have the game at the top, we are fighting and did a good round again.
But just because Stenson is in a good position before the final round to pinch at least his second best place in The Masters of all time (he finished shared fifth in 2018 and the second best result is a shared 14th place from 2014) does not screw the new 45- the yearling raised expectations particularly high ahead of Sunday.
– Already felt at the beginning of the week and now also that I do not have a 65-lap in me. I hope I can go out and play a reasonably sensible round tomorrow too of course. The game has been pretty bad for a long time so we are fighting. It’s a bit of a struggle but we are doing what we can and hope to get a score tomorrow as well.
A bonus that would come with finishing top-12 when all 72 holes have been completed would be that in that case Stenson guarantees a place in next year’s Masters Tournament, which he with his current world ranking (117) is otherwise not qualified for.
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