Tiger Woods is a factor in this Masters. Here’s how he did it

RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico – Badds was good Saturday in Puerto Rico. Aaron Baddeley shot a bogey free 6-under-par 66 and, at 12-under, leads by one heading into Sunday’s final round at the Puerto Rico Open. Baddeley (70-68-66) has won four times on the PGA TOUR – his last win came in 2016 at another opposite-field event, the Barbasol Championship – and said he’s excited for the opportunity Sunday will bring. “Super excited,â€� he said. “I’m right in everything, so it’s a good opportunity tomorrow, but will try not to put any pressure on (myself). I just know if I can go out there and play my game, keep swinging the way I’m swinging, putting the way I’m putting, I should have a good chance coming down the last.â€� Baddeley is looking to join countryman Marc Leishman (CIMB Classic) as Australian winners in the 2018-19 PGA TOUR season. His best result this year was a T-4 at the Safeway Open. He said the key to his round Saturday was hitting greens, which made for a low-stress Saturday. “I hit the ball close a few times. I had some short birdie putts. I’ve just doing a few things like that (that) made it pretty comfortable,â€� he said. The only thing out-of-routine for Baddeley on Saturday came when a young fan ran under the ropes to get a photo with him. The Australian smiled when the young fan’s father asked, and he kindly obliged. It didn’t distract him, he said, and he enjoyed the moment. “It was all fun and games,â€� he said. Baddeley will be paired with Nate Lashley for Sunday’s final round. Lashley (68-68-69) made birdie on the 72nd hole to earn a spot in the final group for the first time on the PGA TOUR. It was odd start to the day for Lashley going bogey-eagle-bogey on the first three holes. He righted the ship, he said, and finishing with a birdie means momentum for Sunday’s finale. Lashley is no stranger to winning in the Caribbean. His lone Web.com Tour victory came at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship – which is now a PGA TOUR event – and said that experience was going to help on Sunday, although he acknowledged the magnitude of being in the final group on the PGA TOUR. “This is a lot bigger deal,â€� he admitted. “Any time you get a chance to win on any tour, it’s great. Going into tomorrow, I’m just going to try to go out and keep calm and play some good golf and see what happens at the end of the day.â€� Martin Trainer finished a shot further back at 10-under. He won twice on the Web.com Tour in 2018 to earn his PGA TOUR card via The 25. A group of five golfers sits at 9-under, including Wyndham Clark, Johnson Wagner, D.J. Trahan, Martin Piller, and Joey Garber. Garber and Boo Weekley tied for the low round of the day – 7-under-par 65, also the round of the tournament so far – and Garber, who is in the penultimate Sunday pairing, said he was excited for a chance to earn his first PGA TOUR victory. “There’s nothing better than playing late on Sunday on the PGA TOUR,â€� he said. “I’m very fortunate to be in the position I’m in and look forward to getting that competitive juice going tomorrow.â€�

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AUGUSTA, Ga. –  Staring his opponent face-to-face, especially in front of a hostile crowd, brings out Patrick Reed’s best. He’ll meet a foe from one of his most memorable performances on Masters Sunday. Reed will start the final round with a three-shot lead over Ryder Cup nemesis Rory McIlroy. Sunday’s setting will be much different than the context of international Cup competition in which Reed has excelled. The patrons of Augusta National are too polite to be partisan, of course, and Reed has ties to the home of the Masters after leading nearby Augusta State to consecutive NCAA titles. He may not have a rowdy crowd to fuel his fire on Sunday, but he’s facing an opponent much larger than a screaming mass of humanity. He’s playing against history. Reed stands between McIlroy and the Career Grand Slam. Two impressive rounds in Saturday’s soft conditions set up this final-round showdown. Reed shot 67, including two eagles on Augusta National’s famed par-5s, while McIlroy was two shots better after a bogey-free round. Reed insists that his focus will be on the golf course. Alister Mackenzie’s masterpiece is challenging enough, after all, but there’s no way to ignore the stakes when he steps to the first tee Sunday. “We’ll obviously still be feeling it,â€� McIlroy said. “It’s the last round of a major championship. Patrick is going for his first and I’m going for something else.â€� That “something elseâ€� may be the biggest achievement in professional golf. Using McIlroy’s quest for history as motivation could work to Reed’s advantage. He said Saturday evening that he’s trying to tap in to the energy and emotion that he exhibits in match play. This is the man who shushed the Scottish crowd at Gleneagles. He hurt Jordan Spieth’s hand with a violent high-five after holing out for eagle at Hazeltine. His singles match against McIlroy in 2016 may have been the peak of his match-play heroics. They played a four-hole stretch on Hazeltine’s front nine in 9 under par. McIlroy held his hand to his ear after making a long birdie putt on the par-3 eighth, imploring the American fans to increase the intensity of their cheers against him. Reed wagged his finger at McIlroy after making a birdie of his own on the same hole. He closed out the 1-up victory by hitting his approach shot to 6 feet on the final hole, setting off a celebration that whipped the crowd into a college-football frenzy. On Saturday, Reed and McIlroy combined for nine birdies and three eagles. McIlroy nailed a bump-and-run into the hole for eagle on the par-5 eighth, punching downward in excitement as he tied the lead. Playing in the group behind, Reed responded with three consecutive birdies on Nos. 8-10. “I was able to get into that (Ryder Cup) mode,â€� he said. That run set the stage for his dramatics on the second nine. Reed’s lead was down to two shots after his bogey at the 12th hole, but he responded with eagles on both 13 and 15. He pumped his fist furiously, showing the fire we’ve grown accustomed to in Cup competition, after chipping in on the par-5 15th. He was five shots ahead at the time, but his bogey at the par-3 16th and McIlroy’s birdie at 18 cut the advantage to three shots. “Patrick has a three-shot lead,â€� McIlroy said. “All the pressure is on him. He has that to sleep on that tonight.â€� A major is the next step in Reed’s progression. He already owns a World Golf Championship and a FedExCup Playoffs event among his five PGA TOUR victories. McIlroy knows how to win majors – he owns four of them – but now he has the extra weight of a historic accomplishment on his shoulders. Only five men have won all four of golf’s major championships. How important is the accomplishment? Tiger Woods called it “the ultimateâ€� after completing the Career Grand Slam at St. Andrews in 2000. Few know better than McIlroy that anything can happen on Masters Sunday. He may have finished in the top 10 in each of his past four trips to Augusta National, but this is the first time since 2011 that he’s had a realistic opportunity to win the Green Jacket. He started the final round with a four-shot lead, only to go down in flames with a final-round 80. The tee shot that he hooked near the cabins left of the 10th fairway was the start of a second-nine 43. It was McIlroy’s first chance to win a major, and the only 54-hole lead he’s lost in one of golf’s Grand Slam event. It’s easy to say that McIlroy would already own all four major championships if he’d closed it out here seven years ago, but he isn’t so sure. He called that loss “a turning point in my career.â€� “I feel like it made me a better player,â€� he said earlier this week. “I feel like it made me a better person.â€� Reed and McIlroy can’t ignore the rest of the leaderboard on Sunday, though. Rickie Fowler is in third place, two shots behind McIlroy and five behind Reed. Jon Rahm is another shot back. Both shot 65 on Saturday. But by the time they reach Amen Corner, it could be a mano-a-mano duel. That’s where Reed thrives. It’s a theme that dates back to his college days at Augusta State. He led the small school, which only competed at the Division I level in golf, to back-to-back NCAA titles. He went 6-0 in match play at those two NCAA Championships. His finest performance came against a hostile crowd. He beat Peter Uihlein, then the No. 1 amateur in the world, 8 and 7 in front of Uihlein’s home fans in Stillwater, Oklahoma.   “They are going to have a good time going at it,â€� Fowler said of the two men in the Masters’ final group. And we’ll enjoy watching it. This could be the classic Masters that we all anticipated.

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