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Players' Thoughts Entering Masters Sunday
There are several players chasing 54-hole leader Jordan Spieth at the 79th Masters. But they're a bit farther back than desired as the 21-year-old from Dallas has already set two new low-scoring records - for 36 and 54 holes - and enters Sunday with a four-stroke lead over Justin Rose.
Also in the hunt are Phil Mickelson (five back) and Charley Hoffman (six), while No. 1-ranked Rory McIlroy and four-time Masters champion Tiger Woods (10 shots back) will need something miraculous to happen for them to have a chance at a green jacket.
Anything can happen at Augusta National on Sundays at the Masters. For Jordan Spieth - who's carded rounds of 64, 65 and 70 and is at 16-under 200 through 54 holes - to be atop the leaderboard at day's end and putting on a new green jacket in Butler Cabin will mean he'll have forged a wire-to-wire victory. Here's what the top players had to say.
Spieth
"I was just anxious to get started, but when I got out there and saw a couple putts go in, I felt really comfortable. And that's good. I mean, that gives me a lot of confidence going into tomorrow. I think it's a new position - it was a new position for me and I feel like tomorrow I'm going to approach - it's not like Saturday versus Sunday should make any difference to me.
"So hopefully - what I learned about myself is that I saw a lot of putts go in today. That's something in the weekend under pressure that's kind of hurt me a little bit, and recently I've been making a lot of putts. The downside of it was that I had to make a lot of putts today with five dropped shots, and I'm not going to be able to have that tomorrow. I can't rely on my mid range putts. I can't rely on the putter that much to save me with two major champions right behind.
"They are going to bring their game and I've got to make - I've got to have a relatively stress free round going; and when I say that, I mean give myself some tap in pars and not have to make so many putts."
Rose
Given the choice, you'd want to be in the last group. You want to be seeing what you're up against; you want to feel the atmosphere. You want to get a look at how the guys play next to you, especially when you get to 12, 13, 14, 15 on the back nine. If you're within one or two, you know if you have to chase or if you can still be patient, whereas if you're in the group in front, you don't know what the leader is going to do. You've got to maybe take a shot on because you think they are going to hit a good shot. In hindsight, maybe you didn't need to take on a specific shot. So I think it's always an advantage to be in the final group."
Mickelson
"I don't think it matters who is close to (Spieth). I think he's playing very good golf and I think he'll have a good round tomorrow. I think that if he were to come out on top, it would be great to have him in the Champion's Dinner every year. He would just be a great champion. He's just a classy guy. He just represents the game very well and at a very young age and he's just got a lot of game. So if he were to come out on top, it would be wonderful for the Tournament, wonderful for the game. I'm going to try to stop him, but we'll see how it goes."
McIlroy
"I just have to worry about myself and try and play the best that I can. I know if I do that, then that No. 1 position is pretty safe. But yeah, I mean, he's obviously been playing great golf since the end of last year, a couple of wins and winning again and being in contention, basically, every time he plays. He's playing very well, but I know I have the capability to do the same thing."
Woods
"You just never know. You saw what happened in '96. You saw what happened with Rory in '11. You never know around this golf course. Anything can happen. A lot depends on what the committee does. Today the greens were soft again, they were slow. We're making ball marks with 4 irons in the greens. I don't remember hitting a 4 iron to that flag and having it ever roll out to only about three feet. That's just not normal here. So with that being said, you're seeing guys be a lot more aggressive. They're making - overall the field makes a lot more birdies than we're used to."
The above interview excerpts are courtesy of ASAP Sports.
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