Shane Lowry finally finished his third round at the 87th Masters at 11am local time and found himself inside the top-10 heading to the final round, although when he finished Lowry was 9 shots off the pace being set by Koepka, which subsequently reduced to 8 when Koepka bogeyed 17.
“Yeah, lying around 10th going into the final round here is pretty good. Obviously Brooks and Rahm and Viktor are doing something. But look at the run Viktor just did down the back nine. So it’s out there.”
Hovland of course went on a birdie-fest of five in a row from the 11th to get himself to 8-under par and into solo third position, just one behind Jon Rahm and two ahead of his nearest challenger Patrick Cantlay on 6-under.
For Lowry though, he knows, in terms of winning it’s a long shot but you simply cannot predict what happens around Augusta National and he has his eyes on putting in a strong finish.
“I played good when I came out this morning. I wanted to get back to level par for the day. I felt like if I did that, it would be a pretty successful morning. 1-under for the last nine holes is pretty good. I’m obviously a long way back, but I’m in a decent position into this afternoon.
“Especially I feel, hopefully we get a few Sunday pins here that will give us some chances. I felt like the pins were quite difficult this morning actually and hard to get at. But, yeah, we’ll give it a go.”
Lowry put on a masterclass in driving for his third round, missing only one fairway, even through the worst of the weather on Saturday and he just needs some putts to drop to give him a little momentum.
“(I) Missed the fairway on the second. Last year I decided to lay up in two. But this year I feel I’m driving the ball well enough to go for the tee shot.
“Just going with how I feel. Needed to change my approach a little bit out there. Hit driver on the 3rd hole yesterday just because it’s so windy that wedge shot from the top of the hill is so difficult.
“I felt like I putted nicely this morning. It’s there. It’s there in practice. I just need to let it happen. It’s obviously quite frustrating. I feel like I probably should be doing better in this tournament considering how I struck the ball the last few days.
“There’s still a lot of positives there. I’m still very hopeful for this afternoon.”
A lot was made of Rory McIlroy this week and the pressure he’s under to win The Masters and Lowry was asked if he felt for his close friend having seen him miss the cut?
“Yeah, I do. To be honest, I felt like he was going to have a good week this week. I spent a lot of time with him over the last couple of weeks.
“But that’s golf. A lot of times you don’t get what you deserve. It’s obviously been very tough for him. Look, I’ll catch up with him next week. I’m sure he’ll get over it. I’m sure he’s fine.”
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