What happened in the third round of the Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. — It was the kind of day at Augusta National when even the once-invincible needed a little inspiration.

At least that’s what Taura Hatney thought as she watched a laboring Tiger Woods leave the 18th tee box on the way to finishing off his worst round ever at the Masters, a 6-over 78 that leaves him 7 over for the tournament and 16 shots off Scottie Scheffler’s Masters Tournament lead.

“Hang in there, Tiger,” Hatney implored the 46-year-old, who is making his return to competitive golf 14 months after a car crash that resulted in multiple broken bones and major damage to the foot and ankle of his right leg.

Below are some notable tee times for Sunday's final round at the Masters:

10:50 a.m. ET: Tiger Woods/Jon Rahm

2:10 p.m. ET: Corey Conners/Danny Willett

2:20 p.m. ET: Charl Schwartzel/Justin Thomas

2:30 p.m. ET: Sungjae Im/Shane Lowry

2:40 p.m. ET: Scottie Scheffler/Cameron Smith

Read all the Sunday tee times here.

Scottie Scheffler will go into Sunday's final round of the Masters with a three-stroke lead over Cameron Smith, as the Texan angles for his first major win.

But that he remains at 9-under and kept the gap as far out as he did is only a testament to his guts after near-disaster on No. 18. Scheffler's tee shot went into the trees and was lost, with Scheffler, a rules official and several volunteers spending several minutes finding the ball and then figuring out how to proceed from there. At one point Scheffler was asking if he could move pine straw. It was a lot.

Scheffler had to take a drop and the penalty, but it gave him 240 yards up to the green with the ability to take a full shot. He pulled out 3-iron, and struck it incredibly well, onto the green and rolling off the back of it. Scheffler used putter to get it off the first cut and hit it close enough to make bogey.

It's a 71 for the day, but Scheffler shot a 38 on the back nine with bogeys on three of his final five holes. Getting into the clubhouse took a lot, and it'll be fascinating to see Smith and Scheffler duel on Sunday for the green jacket.

A 291-yard drive up the center of the fairway gave Scheffler the ability to go for the green in two. He did that, tapping the left fringe and getting a very good roll down to five feet from the flag. A short putt later, he's back to 10-under, four strokes ahead of Cam Smith.

Tiger Woods indicated his putting gave him a lot more trouble than his healing right leg Saturday. Woods four-putted the fifth green and three other three putts.

"I just could not get a feel for getting comfortable with the ball, posture, feel, my right hand, my release, I just couldn't find it," he said. "Trying different things, trying to find it, trying to get something, taking practice strokes and just trying to feel the swing and the putter head, trying to get anything, and nothing seemed to work. As many putts as I had, you'd think I'd have figured it out somewhere along the line, but it just didn't happen."

Kevin Kisner and Tiger Woods had never played in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event together until Saturday. “We may have never played in an actual round. It's great,” Kisner said. “That's the guy you want to be playing with on Saturday at Augusta.”

It didn’t work out great for either of them, though. Kisner shot a 3-over 75 that puts him 4-over for the tournament, and Woods shot a 6-over 78 that leaves him 7-over overall.

“I didn't ask him much about his leg,” Kisner said. “We were trying to keep it pretty light out there. I'm sure his leg is hurting. I mean, I'm hurting and I'm healthy, so I hope he can get back out here and play a couple more events with us here soon.”

Scheffler has just birdied No. 13, getting back the stroke he lost with a bogey on No. 12. That's more important than it would have been 30 minutes ago, because the guy on top of the leaderboard is being chased by Cameron Smith. Smith, who you might recall was the first round leader, had three birdies in the first six holes on the back nine to get to 7-under, three strokes behind Scheffler.

But two minutes after Scheffler's fifth birdie of the day, Smith bogeyed No. 16 to drop to 6-under.

That's a two-stroke swing, and a three-stroke gap is now up to five.

Look, it's a victory for Woods to be playing at all, let alone on the weekend at The Masters. But today was one of his worst performances with the putter in his major championship career. Woods had five greens with three putts or more, his most in any round in his major championship career. Tiger is currently ranked last in the field for today in strokes gained putting, losing about 4.5 shots to the field on Augusta's greens. Woods will play his 23rd career final round at Augusta National on Sunday.

He's at 11-under.

This may be a wrap.

Rory McIlroy will not win a green jacket this week at Augusta National, this much seems clear. But a third-round 71 is his best of the week, and he's currently T16 at +1.

Looking at McIlroy's shot-gained metrics, nothing is negative. But it's a lot like you would expect from a guy who, 54 holes in, is shooting one-over-par. He's simply doing everything OK, nothing great, and it takes more than to contend at a major. See Scheffler, Scottie. But a top 20 seems very gettable, and that would be a nice accomplishment after missing the cut here a year ago.

Woods heads into the final three holes in the third round at +3, thanks to back-to-back pars at 14 and 15. The par-3 16th will give him a chance at birdie and maybe another classic Verne call?

He's now T2 at 5-under.

A very solid drive into the fairway, and a terrific approach shot that cleared the creek and gave him 27 feet for eagle. That's certainly not an easy putt to make, and Tiger didn't hit it quite hard enough. But he walked up and hit it in without even taking a look at the line, giving himself a second-straight birdie.

Tiger stepped up to the famous par-3 12th at Augusta National and fired 8-iron onto the green, earning a roar from the crowd for that and an even larger one for the made birdie putt. He waved to the crowd, and had a look of relief on his face as he made his way to No. 13.

It gets back the stroke he lost with a bogey on No. 11.