Augusta grows tense in logjam

GOLF: James Joyce, not an avid golfer, although a short film Pitch 'n' Putt had his character playing a miniature version, may not have had the sport in mind when he remarked, "sentimentality is an unearned emotion".

Yesterday, as the US Masters unravelled at Augusta National, Darren Clarke - on whom the golfing gods should have bestowed some favours, but didn't - discovered the harsh reality of the author's wisdom.

On a beautiful day, in stark contrast to the thunderstorms that engulfed the course on Saturday, when the third round was left incomplete after a four hour-plus weather delay, the sentimentalists among us wondered if Clarke's time had arrived in that quest for a major title.

With his wife, Heather, battling cancer, and his tournament schedule plotted week-by-week, Clarke - adopting a holiday mentality, rather than allowing the pressure of a major to upset his equilibrium - somehow contrived to get into the thick of the hunt, starting the final round just two shots adrift of 54-hole leader Phil Mickelson, and he got to within a stroke straight away by holing a 25-footer for birdie on the opening hole of his final round.

It wasn't to be, however. On a course with greens so slick that at times it was a challenge simply to keep the ball on the putting surface, as evidenced by Padraig Harrington's plight on the ninth when the Dubliner's putt from 30 feet above the hole refused to stop until it found the bottom of the hill some 25 yards in front of the green, back-to-back bogeys for Clarke on the fifth and sixth holes halted his momentum.

Prior to heading out for the final round, Clarke had said: "I'll just keep doing when at I am doing and see where I end up."

But with a quality leader board that featured four Masters champions in the last four pairings, and each of the world's top-five ranked players all in touch heading into final 18 holes, once the putts dried up for Clarke he found himself in vain pursuit.

Indeed, the sheer quality of the players in contention probably left Hootie Johnson, the chairman of Augusta National, with the last laugh on his critics concerning the course changes. Mickelson, who completed his third round with a 72 for 213, three-under, held a one-stroke lead over Fred Couples and long-time leader Chad Campbell, with Rocco Mediate - whose previous best performance in a major was fourth in the 2001 US Open - a further shot adrift alongside Vijay Singh, Tiger Woods and Tim Clark going into the final round.

If the leaderboard became a logjam as heavy as the traffic on Washington Drive that runs alongside the course, others with some justification to claim the great prize of the season's first major became embroiled in as tense a final round as the Masters has experienced in a long time.

After opening with six straight pars, Mickelson's second successive birdie putt on the eighth moved him to six-under and one clear of playing partner Couples, with Campbell, Clark, Mediate and Singh all a shot further adrift at that juncture.

But Mediate's quest for glory came to a watery end when twice finding water on the 11th, plummeting out of contention.

The biggest move of the final round, though, came from Spain's Jose Maria Olazabal. The Masters champion of 1994 and 1999 eagled the 15th hole to move to five-under. Olazabal, two-over at the start of the final round, covered the front nine in 32 and, after dropping a shot at the 11th, the toughest hole of the tournament, he came back with birdies at the 13th and 14th before eagling the 15th, to be eight-under for his round at that stage.

In some contrast to Olazabal's charge that put him in serious contention for a third green jacket, Harrington - who, like the Spaniard, had started the final round at two-over - failed to make any inroads. That episode on the ninth, when he putted off the green, encapsulated the Irishman's problems. Having started the morning with a six-footer for birdie on the seventh to go within a stroke of the lead, Harrington three-putted - one of three three-putts in his third round - on the way to a 75.

He finished with a final round 74, hitting only seven greens in regulation, for 292.