Appleby overcomes triple bogey to hold lead overnight

Stuart Appleby could have fallen apart after he interrupted a solid third round with a shocking 7 on the par-4 17th. But he regained his composure, parred No. 18 and is eager to see how he'll handle his final-round pairing with Tiger Woods.  

By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Stuart Appleby is nothing if not brutally honest.

The last putt in the third round of the 71st Masters Tournament had yet to find the bottom of the cup Saturday, but as "Survivor: Augusta" played out on those emerald green fairways, Tiger Woods already had climbed 13 spots on the leaderboard.

Appleby was sitting in the media center with sole possession of the lead at 2 over after a 73 that included a triple bogey on the 17th hole. And turns out Woods, who had been the first to get into that big, white antebellum clubhouse at 3 over, would be his partner in the final group on Sunday.

"He won't even know I'm there," the Aussie said with a wry smile, before adding, "I'm sure I'll know he's there."

The winner of the Masters has played in the final group every year since 1991. Woods has never won a major when coming from behind, though. Appleby has never won one, period -- and an Australian has never put his arms into the sleeves of a Green Jacket.

"Look, Tiger has always got an advantage," Appleby said. "It's obscene that he has an advantage. It's quite obvious. ... He has more experience than what's left of this field put together.

"So the weather, does it equalize it? Yeah, sometimes. Shot supremacy is certainly there. Emotionally, mentally, he's a tough competitor, but he knows he beat the golf course and he always has. Whenever he's been in the lead, he's nearly always won. He knows how to tackle the golf course. He's not worried about what everybody else is doing."

Appleby, though, certainly played like he knew how to beat Augusta National on Saturday -- at least for 17 of its 18 brutally hard and breathtakingly beautiful holes.

The eight-time PGA TOUR champion started the unseasonably cold afternoon at 1 over but promptly got into red numbers with birdies at Nos. 2, 3 and 4. All three putts came from inside 10 feet.

Appleby gave one stroke back at the seventh hole but a series of par saves -- "where do you want to start?," he said, chuckling, when asked for one of the best -- kept him in control. That is, until he arrived at the 17th hole, a 440-yard par 5 called Nandina.

Appleby hit his tee shot well left, into a bunker beside the seventh green. He nicked the face of the bunker with his second shot, found a greenside bunker -- this time on the 17th hole -- with his third, blasted out and three-putted.

"The whole day was a bit like that," said Appleby, who went from being the only man in red numbers to 2 over in a matter of minutes. "Extracted par, sometimes, in really difficult situations where I thought maybe I need to realistically think about bogey.

"I would have loved to have had that sand shot again and I was not trying to be greedy. But you know, look, I should have been in the middle of the fairway, no two ways about it, or somewhere a little bit more respectable.

"That was the hole that I let a couple of shots slip for sure. Overall, I felt like there were plenty of holes where I could have left more slip throughout the day. I just happened to bunch one hole up and have a triple."

Appleby was hardly non-plussed by the turn of events, though. He split the fairway with his drive on the final hole and launched his second toward the green where it settled about 10 feet from the pin.

"I got over it," Appleby said. "Spilled milk. Move on. Boy, you'd better move on because you're about to try and hit a very difficult fairway and obviously, a par is a huge bonus and I hit two great shots. Really was confident I was going to make that putt on the last.

"I'm disappointed I didn't because I felt that would have been some redemption after 17."

Appleby felt his putter let him down a week ago in his title defense at the Shell Houston Open, particularly on the back nine on Sunday. He used 30 putts and finished with a water-logged double bogey as he battled fellow Aussie Adam Scott down the stretch.

"I don't want to play like that again," said Appleby, who finished second in Houston. "I don't want to putt like that again. That's the biggest battle. It's a real mind game out here. I just told myself to relax and imagine you're just playing golf -- it doesn't matter what stage it is."

The 35-year-old from Cohuna is playing in his 41st major championship, and he'd be the first to admit he doesn't have much to show for that experience. His best showing came at the 2002 British Open at Muirfield, where he lost to Ernie Els in a four-man playoff.

"Looking back, I was very pleased," said Appleby, who has two other top-10s in majors and has never finished higher than 19th at the Masters. "But looking back, you just don't get a lot of opportunities like that to get into contention all the time."

Now that he is, Appleby has a plan. He wants to relish the opportunity to accomplish what the uber-Aussie golfer, Greg Norman, came so heart-breakingly close to doing.

"It's going to be a very interesting day for me," Appleby said. "It will be a real fight, really, really tough for me. It will be tough for everybody. What I'm going to really focus on is enjoying tomorrow. Because if Tiger wins, or when he wins tournament, he's not so wound up and tight and sense that he is not enjoying it. ...  

"Tomorrow I'll just go out and really try and enjoy myself and understand that it's a very different scenario tomorrow from what the other days have been, certainly from a crowd point of view and where all of the fan base will be towards Tiger.

"I understand how that works, but yeah, I look forward to it. I've just got to relax and enjoy it. That's how all my best play comes."