‘You’ve got to go out there and try’

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tiger Woods wore a cap and ski hat, Viktor Hovland just the ski hat.

Patrick Cantlay and Keith Mitchell donned puffy gloves between shots, Collin Morikawa went with the neck gaiter, and gloves and towels hung from the spokes of logoed umbrellas. Finally, at 3:15 p.m. Saturday, the horn blew as water pooled on the greens, and players piled into vans and evacuated the course. The third round of the 87th Masters was abandoned to everyone’s great relief.

“It’s hard to say when,” said Jon Rahm, who was 1 over through six holes and at 9 under par found himself four behind leader Brooks Koepka. “Obviously when we walked up to the seventh green it was clear to us that that green had been wet for a while. They had been squeegeeing it for a while. I understand they're trying to push us to play as many holes as possible, but it was very apparent when they tried to get the water out that it just wasn’t going to happen in our case.”

Koepka, 1 under through six, was facing a mid-range par putt at the seventh.

Amateur Sam Bennett started bogey, bogey and at 6 under is in solo third, seven shots back.

The leaders will try to get in a little over 29 holes on what promises to be a wild Sunday. “When you’re in the position we’re in, adrenaline kicks in and it doesn’t really matter,” Rahm said.

It’s been said that there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing, but the third round of the Masters at Augusta National, where everybody was saving a bundle on sunscreen, put the lie to that old bromide amid bone-chilling rain. Bad weather? Yes. It was. With the 50-degree temps, one media member tweeted that it was warmer in Wisconsin.

“You’ve got to go out there and try your best,” Rahm said after completing his second round Saturday morning. He had traded blows with Augusta over the final four holes, two birdies and two bogeys, to shoot 69 and get within two of frontrunner Koepka, the four-time major winner who finished Round 2 more conventionally, which is to say on Friday.

And there it was, the Round 3 rallying cry – You’ve got to go out there and try your best. It wasn’t much, but it captured the grim reality of playing golf in weather more suitable for playing cards. Caddies held umbrellas over their players for as long as possible. Adam Scott, Patrick Cantlay and Cameron Smith trudged to the 10th tee as the alluring smell of woodsmoke from the neighboring cabins wafted over them – so close, yet so far away.

There were mud-spattered pants, wrecked shoes, pained expressions – and that was just on Tiger Woods, who made the 36-hole cut on the number but may have wondered if it was worth the aggravation. He started his third round on the back nine and held reasonably steady – just one bogey through four holes – before going bogey, double, double on holes 14 through 16.

At one point limping badly as he headed back to his bag, Woods had never looked more pained on the course.

If anyone was having fun it was the duo of Cantlay (5 under through 13) and Matt Fitzpatrick (5 under through 11), each 3 under for the round despite the miserable conditions. They were tied for fourth, eight back of the runaway Koepka.

Players will try again Sunday, when the forecast is for drier weather. It will be a long day, but there was nothing that could be done about Saturday except try to forget about it.

A volunteer manning the gallery rope along the ninth fairway abandoned his post to chase his wind-blown umbrella. Those umbrellas formed a bobbing sea of Masters-green and white as officials dumped shovelfuls of sand and everyone tried to keep their footing. The low hum of the Sub-Air system whirred over the grounds as two fans from New Zealand, wearing Stanford rain ponchos – a family member rows for the Cardinal – stopped to ask about picture-taking.

“After that we’re going to go watch Ryan Fox shoot 5 under,” one said with a determined smile.

You had to admire his pluck; he’d come a long way to be here, and by golly, he was going to enjoy it even if he had to make his own weather. Others were not as sanguine, capitulating to Mother Nature and streamed for the exits a little after 2 p.m., with the leaders barely away.

“I can cross this off my bucket list,” one said.

In the club’s cavernous press building, a hair dryer whirred as three men surrounded a hulking video camera. What happened to the camera? “Rain,” one of them said.

Everyone will gather again Sunday in the hopes that something better awaits.