Tiger Woods was tonight creeping ominously up the Masters leaderboard after keeping his dreams of a third straight title alive by the narrowest of margins.
Woods picked up four birdies in the first 11 holes of his third round this afternoon at Augusta National to move into a share for 10th place.
At one over par the world number one was seven shots off the lead held by Canada's Mike Weir, with US Amateur champion Ricky Barnes continuing his amazing Masters debut in second place on two under.
Earlier in the day, Woods was forced to produce a typical moment of brilliance to simply survive the halfway cut.
The defending champion needed to par the ninth, his final hole, to qualify for the last two rounds, but pushed his drive into the trees and could only punch out a low shot into a greenside bunker some 15 yards from the flag.
But not for the first time when under huge pressure, Woods delivered the goods with a superb bunker shot to three feet and holed the putt to card a 73 and five over par total of 149.
That was still 11 shots behind halfway leader Weir, but having once come from eight behind Ernie Els in the final round to win an event, Woods could not yet be ruled out.
And typically it did not take long for Woods to signal his intentions, and after starting with a par on the 10th, his opening hole, the 27-year-old American holed from 50 feet for birdie on the 11th.
Woods made the most of a piece of good luck on the 13th when his second shot to the par five stuck in the bank of Rae's Creek instead of rolling back into the water - only possible because of the extremely wet conditions.
The defending champion chipped and putted for a birdie four and also made a birdie on the 15th after hitting the green in two, improving to two over par.
Out in 33, Woods now began the front nine at Augusta, which he played in three over par 39 in both the first two rounds.
This time however he was on the front edge of the par five second in two and easily two-putted for a birdie, climbing into a share of 10th place.
Weir held a six-shot lead over the field after his second birdie of the day on the seventh, but three-putted the ninth for bogey while Barnes birdied the same hole and then saved par from 30 feet after finding sand on the 10th.
Scotland's Paul Lawrie had been alone in second place after recovering from a bogey on the first hole of the third round with birdies at the second, sixth and seventh to move to two under par.
But the former Open champion then found the famous Rae's Creek in front of the 12th green and ran up a double bogey five to drop back to level par.
One shot further back was world number two Ernie Els, who had fared even worse than Woods in the first round, a seven over 79 seemingly ruining his chances of adding the Masters title to his Open triumph at Muirfield last year and two US Open victories.
But the South African hit back superbly with a second round 66, completing his last seven holes this morning in 25 shots despite failing to birdie either of the par fives.
In fact Els had seen his second shot to the 13th stop on the bank of Rae's Creek instead of rolling back into the water, and then saved par on the 15th despite finding water in front of the green.
A bogey on the first hole of his third round dropped him back to two over par, but birdies at the second and eighth, and an eagle two on the seventh more than cancelled out another dropped shot on the fourth.
Els almost holed his second shot to the 14th and was unlucky to see it spin back off the green and lead to a bogey five, but for the second time today found the water on the 15th to drop another shot.
Darren Clarke had been lying second at halfway four shots behind Weir, and after dropping three shots in his first six holes, birdied the eighth to get back to level par.
PA