AUGUSTA, Ga. – Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy meet again, this time for a green jacket instead of a gold Ryder Cup trophy.

Reed seized control of the Masters on a wet Saturday at Augusta National with a pair of eagles on the back nine and a 5-under 67 that gave him a three-shot lead. McIlroy, who chipped in for eagle on the front nine to briefly tie for the lead, made an 18-foot birdie on the final hole for a 65 to nudge a little closer.

This is not match play as it was for their singles match in Ryder Cup at Hazeltine.

It sure feels like it.

And it sounded about as loud, too, especially with players taking advantage of greens slightly softened by the rain.

Reed ran off three straight birdies around the turn, and he stretched his lead to as many as five shots with his eagles.

He made a 15-foot eagle putt on the 13th, and then he showed he was not in the mood to play it safe on the 15th. From just under 270 yards, as the rain made the air heavy, Reed hit 3-wood just over the water and short of the bunker, and his chip from 80 feet slammed against the pin and dropped. Reed pumped his fist, the kind of emotion he typically saves for the Ryder Cup.

He narrowly missed a 10-foot birdie putt at the end and was at 14-under 202.

McIlroy can only hope he didn’t use up all his luck.

A chip that likely would have gone off the green at the par-5 eighth banged into the pin and dropped for eagle. He managed to find his second shot among the azaleas on the 13th to escape with par. And he got into the final group, an ideal position as he goes after the final leg of the career Grand Slam.

“There’s a lot more players in this tournament than just Patrick and I,” McIlroy said. “It won’t be quite as intense, but we’ll still be feeling it. Patrick is going for his first (major), and I’m going for … something else.”

He paused to smile when he heard a few chuckles. That “something else” is a collection of four majors that only five other players can claim.

“It’s going to be good fun,” McIlroy said.

On Sunday, golf will not be just a game. #themasters pic.twitter.com/2U8Tm3Uzgc

— Masters Tournament (@TheMasters) April 8, 2018

Rickie Fowler made eagle on the par-5 second and was 5 under through eight holes. He cooled until the end of his round, when a pair of birdies over the last two holes gave him a 65 and left him five shots behind. Jon Rahm of Spain also chipped in for eagle on No. 8 and saved par on the 13th after hitting into the creek in his round of 65. He was at 8-under 208.

Tiger Woods had to significantly lower his goal this week. He shot 72, was 18 shots behind and now hopes to finish the tournament under par.

So many others who started the third round with a chance didn’t do nearly enough to stay even remotely close to Reed. Justin Thomas (70), Jordan Spieth (71) and Dustin Johnson (71) all are at least nine shots behind. Adam Hadwin (72) of Abbotsford, B.C., was tied for 21st at even par.

Reed and McIlroy are linked so indelibly to that singles match at Hazeltine in 2016 when they produced the highest quality of golf amid ear-splitting cheers, making big putts on top of the other. Reed prevailed on the 18th hole in a rare U.S. victory at the Ryder Cup.

Now it’s about stroke play. Now it’s about history of their own, not a trophy they share.

“All the pressure is on him,” McIlroy said. “He went to Augusta State. He’s got a lot of support here. I’m hoping to come in and spoil the party.”

McIlroy has plenty on him, too.

The Masters is where he threw away a four-shot lead in the final round, and now it’s the missing piece of a career slam.

“Hopefully, all I did learn seven years ago, I can put into practice,” McIlroy said. “I’ve been waiting for this chance.”

Reed doesn’t have a major. He doesn’t have experience of a big stage, a big crowd and enormous pressure. That came from Hazeltine and a match described as “one of the best we ever played.”

“The biggest thing I can pull from it is going head-to-head with Rory and I was able to put together a good round,” he said.

But he shrugged off any other comparisons, starting with the decorum outside the ropes at Augusta National compared with a flag-waving crowd at the Ryder Cup.

Reed also doesn’t buy into the idea that the pressure is all on him.

“I am leading,” he said. “At the same time, he’s going for the career Grand Slam.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., shot an impressive 3-under 69 on Thursday in the first round of the Masters to enter into a seven-way tie for fourth, three shots back of leader Jordan Spieth.

Here are three things to know before he tees off at 2 p.m. Eastern time for the second round at Augusta National.

BACK NINE HIGHS AND LOWS

Aside from a birdie on the par-4 No. 9, Hadwin was at even par through the front nine in the first round at historic Augusta National. The back nine, however, was more eventful. He birdied the 10th and 12th holes, then bogeyed the par-4 No. 14, but followed it up with back-to-back birdies on 15 and 16. A bogey on 18 dropped him into the tie for fourth. Had he made that shot, he would have been in a three-way tie for second with Americans Tony Finau and Matt Kuchar.

HEART IN VANCOUVER

Despite playing in the first major PGA event of the season, Hadwin was focused on the last game in Vancouver for Canucks superstars Henrik and Daniel Sedin. The Swedish twins announced their retirement earlier in the week.

“If it werent for this tournament called The Masters, I would be there to send off the Sedins. Guess this view will have to do! Congrats on an incredible career on the ice and for being even better people off of it! The city of Van was lucky to have you!” tweeted Hadwin late Thursday, adding a photo of the game on his laptop computer.

If it werent for this tournament called The Masters, I would be there to send off the Sedins. Guess this view will have to do! Congrats on an incredible career on the ice and for being even better people off of it! The city of Van was lucky to have you! pic.twitter.com/r5MY4DXTj4

— adam hadwin (@ahadwingolf) April 6, 2018

SECOND TIME’S THE CHARM

This is Hadwin’s second consecutive year at the Masters. Last season he finished tied for 36th at 6-over par. His best round was the fourth where he fired a 2-under 70 to move up the standings. On Friday he’s playing with Patrick Reed, who missed last year’s cut, and Charley Hoffman, who tied for 22nd at 2 over.

Almost everyone who has picked up a golf club knows the feeling.

Shanking shot after shot into the woods. Approach shots continuously landing in the drink. Repeatedly trying to get your ball out of the bunker from hell.

Many a weekend hacker could relate to what Sergio Garcia went through during his disastrous turn on the 15th hole in his opening round at the Masters. The defending champion put five balls into the water on the par-5 hole and took a whopping 13 on the scorecard.

“I think that was a very, very unique situation yesterday where we witnessed one of the best players in the world kind of looking like a 30-handicapper for a minute there,” said former PGA Tour player Ian Leggatt.

Clearing hurdles that the golf gods put in place can be a stiff challenge on the local nine-hole track or in the bright spotlight at Augusta.

Either way, when emotions and stress levels run high, decision-making and performance can be affected. Dr. Adrienne Leslie-Toogood, a sport psychologist with Canadian Sport Centre Manitoba, said it’s important to back away a little when things start to go sideways.

Her advice for Garcia in that situation would be to get the mind and body in tune.

“If he’s able to breathe and calm his body down, then he’ll be able to think more rationally and slow things down on the course,” she said Friday from Winnipeg. “So I would definitely just tell him to breathe and calm your body down. We want to buy him some time to let him think of different options.”

Canadian women’s team head coach Tristan Mullally also preaches a mindset of re-evaluation over persistence.

“Good players naturally go to try and make up for their mistake,” he said from Westover, Ont. “That can lead to trying to hit the same perfect shot again and again.”

After Garcia’s first shot went in the water, he took a sand wedge from inside 100 yards and watched four more balls get wet. The Spaniard said he didn’t miss his shots – the ball just simply didn’t stop on the green.

Make no mistake: this wasn’t a duffer’s display with balls being sprayed in every direction. Garcia was burned by a pool table-fast green and just a little too much spin.

“Even the best players, having a mistake like that, there’s a little bit of shock,” Mullally said. “Their natural instinct and why they’re probably so good in the first place is to hit the next shot closer and move on.

“In an attempt to hit it really close, the margin for error is smaller especially at a place like Augusta.”

There comes a point for many players – whether you’re a top pro or just playing a casual round – where you simply have to try a different club or change the approach.

But as Leslie-Toogood notes, armchair quarterbacks aren’t living in that moment on the course.

“It just happens so quickly and he’s in such a different place as he’s processing it,” said Leslie-Toogood, who has worked with Golf Canada for years. “It’s not until later when he reflects back and realizes what other people are seeing, because we can see it very differently when we’re from afar.”

When Garcia eventually got a ball to stick, he hit the 10-foot putt for a rare octuple bogey.

“I think great players are guilty of the same things as an amateur,” Mullally said. “Sometimes the situation can take over and decisions get harder.”

Leggatt, a native of Cambridge, Ont., who won the Tucson Open in 2002, said players avoid laying up on that hole because they know the pitch shot can be very difficult.

“Sergio didn’t really hit any bad shots into that green,” he said from Richmond Hill, Ont. “It’s just the severity of it and being able to pick and choose the right type of shot you need to hit on that particular hole is going to be the most important (thing). But it was all set up by ultimately hitting that second shot in the water and then having to play that pitch shot into the green.

“It’s probably the most difficult shot on the whole golf course.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Vandini Sharma of Chandigarh, India, is the 16-year-old sister of Shubhankar Sharma, who makes his debut at the Masters this week. Her short stories have won literary awards. She has agreed to write a first-person account of her experience at the Masters for The Associated Press.

When reporters and all the new people who’ve recently entered our world ask my brother what it felt like to make the Masters at 21, Shubhankar gently shrugged, and said it wasn’t completely unexpected. After years of hard work and the magical last four months that have flown by, the sun is beginning to dawn on our journey’s horizons.

My first view of the Masters popped up like a jack-in the-box. I felt struck out of the blue. This was the first golf tournament I’d known as a toddler and memorized with care.

Its reputation was fortified by years of sleepless memories. My father and brother would sit rooted for hours, exhilarated and enthralled, before the blaring midnight TV screen. The Masters symbol was gradually emblazoned upon my mind; the classic soundtrack now hums through my dream world of hazy childhood memories.

The first time it really sunk in that Bhai, (brother in Hindi, as I address Shubhankar) would play the Masters came well after my father first shared the news.

And it involved a bit of mischief.

As little sisters do, I pickpocketed Bhai’s phone on the final day of the Indian Open as I was asked to take care of it. Then later, sneaking into a quiet corner with my back against the wall, I had a go at cracking the iPhone’s password. The first thing that glowed to life on screen when I touched it was the wallpaper. There was an invitation that began, “The Board of Directors cordially invites …’.

In that moment, I could imagine Shubhankar opening the email and taking a screenshot to pin up, and the sudden feelings of pride and exhilaration of his whole journey washed over me. With the whirl of tournament weeks and crazy time zones, we’d never got to talk about the moment he knew it was happening.

And this reflected everything Bhai felt.

Not to be outdone by fiendishly modern methods, though, the Masters officials sent an old-style parcel post weeks later. I picked it up coming home from school and the moment I read the words, “Augusta, Georgia,” my mother and I snapped it open. A neat stack of soft parchment letters inscribed in green ink slipped out – addressed to none other than Mr. Shubhankar Sharma residing in Sector 12 Panchkula, Chandigarh.

A memory was pulling itself loose in my mind, of being 6 years old and stepping into the shower to discover the mirror fogged up with water vapour. The previous 12-year-old occupant, my Bhai, had squiggled in cursive letters, “The Masters,” above a trophy titled “Shubhankar.”

The first thing I did was to spread out the letters from Augusta on our sofa, photograph them and send him a ceremonial video, prim, with a thick British accent. You could imagine the Harry Potter vibes of a first Hogwartsian letter. Our spiritually devoted mother then placed these precious cards in the home’s temple, and blessed them.

This homely celebration was humbly sweet, but it did little to prepare me for the actual press conference I’d attend at Augusta National on Tuesday. It was hosted in a vintage hall with a small set of senior journalists and the solemn gaze of great men hanging in oil portraits on the walls.

No matter how aware one is of the monotonously repetitive way sportsmen tend to drone on, a blinding haze of gleeful affection tends to take over when it’s your own brother at the mic.

“What does it feel like to be now known as the future of Indian golf?” he was asked.

In that moment a spotlight I hadn’t imagined lit in my mind.

Later on, Bhai described the kids playing back home and our small Indian golfing community. These were all the people I was familiar with, in my 16 years of following him around fairways and greens.

Although Bhai accepts the pressure with Zen-like calm, I knew the truth – the hopes of 1.3 billion people were riding the currents of history once more.

Everyone we’ve ever known would be looking on, as only the fourth Indian in history sets foot on Augusta National’s majestic grounds.

It’s moments like these I’m trying to begin to get used to that make my chest swell like a helium balloon.

Something of a merry tussle happens in my mind – between the goofy big brother I’ve known forever and the golfing prodigy, who was beginning on the path of legend.

This week I’ve also been determined to explore my privilege of being here.

The overwhelming maiden impression I had in the past 36 hours of the Masters was of old-school grandeur.

There was the famous oak tree, the cheerful staff and painted signs, plus ice-cold lemonade cups. A general whiff of elegance lingers everywhere you go.

I’ve sat on oak benches ten times my age. I have pretended to calmly hover as Tiger Woods walked by ten feet away. The American people, though, seemed as freewheeling, chilled and casually friendly as no others I’ve ever observed.

I also lucked out to get into the snowy white clubhouse, where the portraits of all past champions beamed down upon me.

This gifted me a profound moment of thinking about the significance of legends. In time, today’s champions would become history as well, and the game of golf would evolve on, rewarding the worthy and raising new heroes.

Seeing the bushing, poplin-skirted women captured around Jack Nicklaus in a portrait made it easier to imagine us modern girls being photographed for the memory of new generations.

It all seems surreal.

In writing this piece, I’ve attempted to remember any conversations with my brother on the Masters. It is a piece of work actually, in light of Bhai’s unwavering ambition to be as silly and non-serious as possible off the course. Thus naturally, I found something goofy to round off.

In late autumn three years ago, my brother was 18 and chatting about his favourite player’s Masters performance as we walked down the pot-holed neighbourhood roads, hand-in-hand.

“When I get to the PGA I’m going full Rocky mode. Just like go underground for six months and get ripped. Grow out my hair,” he said.

I laughed. “Your face will be hairy too, Bhai. Like a mountain savage.”

“Oh yeah. They won’t be able to recognize me,” Bhai shrugged with a bit of mock attitude. “I’d be silent and talking to no friends. Just playing m’game and winnin’.”

“Really, win your first Masters?”

“You’ll see Vanni,” he’d said. “I’m going to get us there one day.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Augusta National went nearly 80 years before having female members. Now the club is inviting its first female competitors.

The Augusta National Women’s Amateur begins next year, a 54-hole event for top amateurs from around the world who will become the first women to play a tournament at the home of the Masters.

Fred Ridley, who took over as club chairman in October, said the new tournament will expand Augusta National’s goal to inspire young people, following in the footprint of the Asia-Pacific Amateur, the Latin America Amateur and the Drive, Chip and Putt competition for children.

He said the Augusta National Women’s Amateur was for a “segment of our sport that is … vital to the future of golf.”

“We believe this event will have a long-lasting impact on the game,” Ridley said.

Women have long played at Augusta National, but it wasn’t until the fall of 2012 that the club invited its first women as members – former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore. The latest member is former USGA president Diana Murphy.

“I’ve said many times that our country is a story of our great institutions evolving and becoming more inclusive over time,” Rice said. “This is one of the great institutions, not just American institutions but international institutions, so it’s evolved and it’s become more inclusive, and that’s very exciting.”

Ridley said the opening two rounds would be held at Champions Retreat in Augusta, with the final round moving to Augusta National on Saturday, April 9, extending the week at the Masters. The finals of the Drive, Chip and Putt would be on Sunday, followed by practice rounds for the Masters.

But the announcement caused one conflict.

The first LPGA Tour major of the year, the ANA Inspiration, typically is the week before the Masters in Rancho Mirage, California. The tournament invites leading amateurs, meaning they would have to choose between playing with the best on the LPGA Tour or a tournament with a final round at Augusta National.

“We have no intentions of competing or taking away from the ANA Inspiration,” Ridley said. “We think that to have one week where the future greats of the game and the current greats of the women’s game are all competing on a big stage, it’s just very exciting.”

He said he has spoken to LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan, and that Whan “understands our motivations for doing this.”

Whan was on site at Augusta National, where cellphones are prohibited, and unable to respond to a request for comment. But the LPGA issued statement.

“We have a real opportunity currently to make the weekend prior to the Masters a celebration of women’s golf unlike anything we have experienced previously,” the LPGA said. “While this announcement may create some initial challenges for our first major, navigating multiple opportunities for women’s golf is a good problem to have.”

The 72-player field will be determined by winners of recognized amateur events around the world and by the women’s world amateur ranking. There will be a 36-hole cut to the low 30 scores before moving over to Augusta National.

Ridley said tickets would be sold by lottery, which is sure to attract by some margin the largest crowd for an amateur event simply for the opportunity to walk the grounds of Augusta National in the spring.

The winner will get a five-year exemption to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, provided she remains an amateur.

But she won’t get a green jacket.

“The green jacket certainly is an iconic part of the Masters,” Ridley said. “We plan to have a very distinctive award for the winner of this event, and we think in time that will become iconic. I can assure you it will be very, very nice.”

Annika Sorenstam was among those in the audience when Ridley announced the new tournament.

“Look at the big picture,” Sorenstam said. “Little girls knowing they have a chance to play on the biggest stage? That would send me to the range.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Given Jordan Spieth’s past experiences at Augusta National, there was no reason to panic.

It was the front nine. It was the second round. It was nowhere near the worst he’s been through at the Masters.

So Spieth remained calm despite losing a two-shot lead on the first two holes. He excused it as typical “punches” from a daunting golf course in difficult conditions. He responded by making two birdies over the final six holes, helping him recover from the inauspicious start.

He finished with a 2-over 74 that left him 4 under for the tournament.

“I’ve taken a lot of punches on this golf course, and in tournaments in general,” Spieth said. “I told (caddy) Michael (Greller), ‘Look, when this course plays tough, I’m good for a double here or some bogeys there. Let’s make these the only ones.”’

Spieth began the day at 6 under. He squandered that before more than half the field teed off.

The 2015 Masters champion pushed his tee shot at the par-4 first way right. He failed to get his second shot back to the fairway and then left his third one short of the green. He missed an 11-footer for bogey.

He pulled his second tee shot left and then missed a 5-footer for par.

It opened the door for everyone else on the leaderboard. It also could have been a devastating start for Spieth.

But he took it in stride, chatting with his caddy and talking to himself to not get overly frustrated.

The rough start probably should have been expected given what Spieth endured at Augusta National just two years ago.

Spieth had a commanding lead at the turn in 2016 before stumbling on Nos. 10 and 11, both par 4s. He bogeyed both, and really unraveled at the par-3 12th.

Spieth’s tee shot came up short, landed on a downslope and hopped into Rae’s Creek. He then took a drop and hit a fat wedge that also splashed. Spieth settled for a quadruple-bogey 7 and lost his lead to Danny Willett.

Spieth recovered with by making two birdies over the last six holes, but it wasn’t enough. He finished second, three shots back of Willett.

Compared to that, this was nothing.

“I’m not going to downgrade my skill level, but I’m also not going to downgrade my ability to take punches and fight back on this course,” he said. “Good starts are really nice out here. Bad starts are tough to come back from. If I look at it one way, I mean, in 2016, I went bogey, bogey, quad and then was able to rebound from that.

“So what’s the first couple holes on a Friday start mean? It doesn’t really mean much to me. It means let’s figure out what was wrong and fix it. But it’s not going to affect the outcome of this tournament off of those two holes. I’m still in a great position.”

Spieth credited a par save at No. 9 with turning around his day.

After his tee shot landed in a foot in the right rough, he flew the green with his second shot. He putted from the fringe to 6 feet and then drained it, flashing the kind of putter prowess that carried him (10 putts) on the back nine in the opening round Thursday.

“I thought that my two-putt save on No. 9 was really, really big,” he said. “When that went in, I thought, ‘OK, forget about everything that’s happened here. Let’s try and shoot 2 under on the back nine.’ And that was the goal, and, you know, I almost did one better there.”

Spieth’s 15-foot birdie putt on No. 18 burned the edge.

And now he’s headed into the weekend feeling confident he’s got a shot at slipping on a second green jacket.

“To come back from 3 over through two holes and only shoot 2 over with a limited number of (good) looks, it’s not so bad,” he said. “I’m still in this golf tournament. With the way the back nine was playing today, the wheels could have come off there. But I made some nice par saves and was able to grind out some phenomenal second-shot iron shots and good two-putt birdies.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. – The Masters is living up to its hype with some of the biggest names and hottest games in contention going into the weekend.

Except for two guys who generated so much of the buzz.

Tiger Woods hit another shot into Rae’s Creek, didn’t make a birdie until the 13th hole and wound up with a 3-over 75, leaving him 13 shots behind Patrick Reed. Woods was more concerned with sticking around for the weekend than chasing a green jacket.

Phil Mickelson matched his worst score ever at Augusta National with a 79 to make the cut on the number, leaving him 14 shots behind.

Even without them, the show is just getting started.

Reed, who has never seriously contended on a big stage outside of the Ryder Cup, had birdies on half of the holes he played Friday. That was more than enough to atone for the few times he got out of position, and his 6-under 66 put him atop the leaderboard for the first time in a major.

“I kept myself out of trouble and allowed my putter to do the work,” Reed said.

He was two shots ahead of Marc Leishman, who boldly took on a high risk when he hooked a hooded 5-iron around the trees and barely over the water on the par-5 15th to about 6 feet for an eagle.

Reed was at 9-under 135. He was partnered with Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., for the day. Hadwin shot a 3-over 75 to tie for 18th at even par. Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., missed the cut.

Right behind? Five major champions, for starters.

Henrik Stenson (70) was four shots behind. Rory McIlroy (71) is off to his best 36-hole start in seven years and is looking as poised as ever to capture the fourth leg of the career Grand Slam. Jordan Spieth lost his two-shot lead on the first hole and was on the verge of getting left behind until he made a key par putt to close out the front nine with a 40, and then salvaged a 74 to join McIlroy just five shots behind.

Looming was Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world, who made a 45-foot par putt on the 16th to atone for several birdie putts in the 10-foot range he missed. Johnson had a 68 and was six shots behind, along with PGA champion Justin Thomas, who had a 67.

Eleven of the 17 players still under par at the halfway point can be found among the top 20 in the world.

Reed, who led Augusta State to a pair of NCAA titles, opened with a 25-foot birdie putt and zoomed into the lead after two more short birdie putts. He ran off three straight birdies again at the end of the front nine, holing a 15-foot birdie at No. 9 to stretch his lead.

He is the only player in the field to make birdie on every par 5 both rounds.

“The par 5s are huge around here to be able to pick up ground on,” Reed said. “You’re not going to shoot a low score if you don’t.”

For everyone else, it was about jockeying for position.

Spieth was happy to be near the top after the way he started – a tee shot into the trees on the right and a three putts for a double bogey, and then a drive to the left and three more putts for a bogey. Just like that he was behind, and it kept getting worse. He made bogey from the middle of the fairway on No. 7. He three-putted from long range on the par-5 eighth. And he was headed for a 41 on the front nine until he made a 10-foot par putt.

“I’m still in this golf tournament,” Spieth said. “With the way the back nine was playing today, the wheels could have come off there. But I made some nice par saves and was able to grind out some phenomenal second-shot iron shots and good two-putt birdies.”

Mickelson won the Mexico Championship last month, and at age 47 and with three green jackets, there was talk he could become the oldest Masters champion. Those hopes faded when he bounced around in the trees at No. 9 and made triple bogey and hit into Rae’s Creek on No. 12 for a double bogey.

He bogeyed his final hole for a 79, the second time in three years he posted that number.

Woods made bogey on the opening hole with a sand wedge from the fairway. He really came undone when his second shot to the fifth bounded over the green and into a grove of magnolia trees. He took a penalty drop to clear room through the branches, put that in the bunker and made double bogey.

Very little went right except for a pair of birdies on the par 5s on the back nine. Looking at the white leaderboards only made him feel worse. The cut is for the top 50 and ties and anyone within 10 shots of the lead. Woods kept seeing Reed make birdies, and he knew he was well outside the 10 shots.

“I was hoping to keep it within 10. I didn’t know what my position was, but I think I’m in,” he said after his round. He was tied for 40th.

No one has ever rallied from more than eight shots behind after 36 holes to win the Masters.

“I’m going to have to shoot a special weekend and I need help,” Woods said. “I’m not in control of my own destiny.”

Leishman seized on his moment with the best shot of the day. His tee shot on the 15th was too far left, leaving trees between him and the flag. Instead of laying up from 210 yards, he closed with the face of a 5-iron, aimed toward the right bunker and tried to hook it some 30 yards.

He hooked it about 40.

The ball narrowly cleared the mound at the front of the green, caught the slope and settled 6 feet away for an eagle.

“We’re not here to lay up,” Leishman said. “It’s a major. You’re going to have to take some chances at some point during the week if you want to win, and that was a time where I thought I had to take a chance. I’ve been hitting that shot well on the range and I thought it was a prime opportunity to give it a test. And it came off.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – The new, more social, Tiger Woods was only occasionally seen Wednesday as he made his way around the front nine of Augusta National in the final tune up for a Masters green jacket that suddenly seems very much in reach.

There weren’t many trips down memory lane with playing partner Fred Couples and no long conversations with the firefighter from Massachusetts, who had to look up occasionally at the grey skies and wonder what bolt of lightning would strike him next as he played alongside the greatest golfer of his time.

It was Woods as he might have been 10 years ago, deep in concentration and fixating so much on the smallest details that he walked off a section of the sixth green to measure just which spot he needed to land his ball on when play finally begins for real.

Woods had his game face on, and for his legions of fans that’s probably a good thing. He had a few smiles with Couples, but if the next smile out of him comes when he’s being fitted for a green jacket on Sunday, well, that’s all right with them.

The feel-good Tiger probably can’t win one of those, anyway, no matter how good his game has recently become. That’s probably why a practice round on Tuesday that included Phil Mickelson for the first time anyone can remember didn’t exactly disintegrate into a love fest.

The old Tiger playing with a touch of arrogance and a chip on his shoulder most certainly can.

That’s a bit shocking considering the path Woods has taken in recent years. Back problems, personal problems and drug problems have combined to keep him mostly on the sidelines as a new generation of golfers has taken flight.

Indeed, it’s hard to figure out just where Woods is. His swing is fine, his back feels good, and he’s been back in contention on Sunday in the last few tournaments of his latest comeback.

But he’s less than a year out of rehab, where he went after being busted for DUI in the early morning hours last May on a Florida highway. Woods was so out of it that he told police he was driving to California, and toxicology tests later revealed five different drugs in his system.

And it’s got to be hard to get the killer instinct back when you’re suddenly trying to be friends with guys you made your life’s mission to beat.

“I walked past Tiger on the range just before he came in and spoke to you guys, and I said, ‘I never thought I would see the day, Tiger and Phil playing a practice round at Augusta,”’ Rory McIlroy said. “So we had a bit of a laugh about that.”

That it took Woods until he was in his 40s to be able to relate to most of his fellow players – and some of his fans – isn’t all that surprising for anyone who has read the exhaustive new biography “Tiger Woods” that details his great successes and biggest lows.

The book describes him as a product of his parents, who were determined to raise a champion but also raised a loner who found his only solace on the golf course.

“Even the most basic human civilities – a simple hello or thank you – routinely went missing from his vocabulary,” authors Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian wrote. “A nod was too much to expect.”

There were a few nods on Wednesday, though they were perfunctory at best. On the seventh hole, Woods actually mouthed “thank you” to fans who cheered him on the way to the tee box, and earlier on the driving range he signed a few autographs.

Most importantly, though, the driver was finding the fairway and the putts were going where he wanted. In the practice round a day earlier, Woods had made eagle on both the par-5s on the back nine.

If he hasn’t exactly been fan friendly, it doesn’t seem to matter to those who continue to watch him in numbers no other player can come close. He’s a legend with flaws, but a legend nonetheless and any mention he might be nearby always gets fans rushing to whatever hole he’s playing.

Woods fit in fine Wednesday in a curious practice round pairing with the 58-year-old Couples and Matt Parziale, the amateur golfer and professional firefighter who squeezes in amateur tournaments between shifts at the firehouse in Brockton, Massachusetts. Parziale won the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship to get a spot in the Masters at the age of 30.

Woods complimented Parziale’s game, and said nice things to a Masters representative about his caddie father after the round. But this was clearly a day to fine tune his game, a day to get ready for his first Masters in three years.

There were a few smiles at the end of nine holes, but the real smiles can wait until Sunday.

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Canadian duo of Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp began the LPGA’s first major of the season on a high note.

Henderson, a Smiths Falls, Ont., product, led the way with a 2-under 70 boosted by a three-birdie string on the front nine before dropping a stoke on the par-4 15th. The 20-year-old trails the leaders by four strokes heading into Friday’s second round at the Mission Hills Country Club.

“Yeah, I played really well today, so I’m happy—I got off to a really fast start on the front nine, three birdies, 7 through 9, which was exciting to get to 3-under making the turn,” said Henderson. “Unfortunately, on the back, some putts didn’t fall and things didn’t go quite my way. But I’m excited with the 2-under start, and hopefully it will continue on through the weekend.”

Hamilton’s Alena Sharp, Olympian teammate alongside Henderson, kicked off the ANA Inspiration with a 1-under 71 to sit tied for 36th. Sharp will look to improve on her best result in the ANA Inspiration, which came in 2016 with a T56 finish. She’ll tee-it-up in Friday’s opening slot at 7:10 a.m.

.@BrookeHenderson sits -2 after the first round of @ANAinspiration. Trails lead by 4 pic.twitter.com/xETLuTTS58

— CP Women’s Open (@cpwomensopen) March 30, 2018

Lexi Thompson is smiling and having fun again at the ANA Inspiration.

A year after a rules violation cost her four strokes in regulation in an eventual playoff loss, Thompson shot a 4-under 68 on Thursday to finish three strokes behind leader Pernilla Lindberg.

“I don’t know if I would say it’s a relief,” Thompson said. “I was just really looking forward to just playing this week. I love coming here.”

Thompson also again overpowered Michelle Wie on a hot afternoon at Mission Hills, four years after routing her in a final-round showdown for her first major title.

Wie fought dizzy spells on the front nine in a 75 that left her in danger of missing the cut.

“I had the mad spins,” Wie said. “I just got really dizzy. I don’t know why or how. I don’t know.”

Wearing a black dress in the mid-90s heat, she birdied the second hole, then dropped five strokes in four holes with two double bogeys and a bogey.

“I fouled five balls out there on the front nine,” said Wie, the Singapore winner four weeks ago. “One that I whiffed in the rough.”

She felt much better on the back nine, but still couldn’t keep up with Thompson. The distance disparity was particularly pronounced on the par-4 12th when Thompson cracked a 348-yarder 72 yards past Wie.

“Probably my farthest,” Thompson said. “This golf course definitely sets up for my game off the tee. I get to just aim up the right and fire away.”

That got her in trouble on the par-5 ninth – her 18th – when she drove into the left trees and made her lone bogey.

Lindberg birdied her final two holes for a bogey-free 65, playing in the last group to finish the round. The 31-year-old Swede is winless on the LPGA Tour.

“I often get the question, favourite tournament, favourite golf course, and I always say this event and this course,” Lindberg said. “I like this place and I always feel good playing here.”

Beatriz Recari and Ayako Uehara were a stroke back, and Jessica Korda, Ha Na Jang and Stanford sophomore Albane Valenzuela shot 67. In Gee Chun and Cristie Kerr were at 68 with Thompson, Chella Choi, Sung Hyun Park and Brittany Altomare.

Recari had a bogey-free round , saving par on the par-3 17th with a 10-footer. The 30-year-old Spaniard has three LPGA Tour victories.

“I’ve always felt very comfortable here,” Recari said. “I felt like if I was going to win a major, it was going to be on this course.”

Uehara birdied her final two holes. The Japanese player credited instructor Ted Oh for her strong play. “Now I have confidence,” she said.

Korda birdied the 18th after bogeying 16 and 17. She birdied the first four holes and was 6 under after 11.

“A couple of weird shots there, especially on 17,” she said.

The winner last month in Thailand in her return from reconstructive jaw surgery, Korda reached the par-5 ninth with a driver from the right first cut. She hit driver off the deck twice two weeks in the Founders Cup.

“I actually caught way more air than I expected,” Korda said. “That’s kind of what I’m just trying to do is have fun out there, hit shots that normally I would probably not hit in a tournament.”

She travelling with a mini Goldendoodle puppy named Charlie.

“It’s so nice to have a puppy with you to distract you,” Korda said. “He’s so cute.”

Playing partner Lydia Ko, the 2016 winner, had a 70. She closed with a double bogey after finding the water fronting the green from the fairway bunker.

Jang birdied the final three holes for the last of her nine birdies.

“Any golf course straight ball is very important, but Mission Hills is more important,” she said.

Jang left the LPGA Tour in the middle of last season to return home to spend more time with her mother, left alone when she and her father were away. Her mother is visiting the U.S. for the first time this week.

“I’d like to play the LPGA again, but my mom’s more important than myself,” Jang said.

Valenzuela topped the seven amateurs in the field.

“I love this course,” Valenzuela said. “I feel really comfortable on it.”

Autistic brother Alexis is working as the Swiss Olympian’s caddie.

“I love having him on the bag,” she said.

Stacy Lewis had a 72 in her return from a rib injury sustained practising before the Thailand event. She won in 2011 at Mission Hills and lost a playoff to Brittany Lincicome in 2015.

Defending champion So Yeon Ryu failed to make a birdie in a 75.

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Alena Sharp made the most of Friday’s opening tee slot, posting a 4-under 68 to climb 25 spots into a tie for 11th at the mid-way point of the ANA Inspiration.

The Hamilton, Ont., native notched five birdies against one bogey on the par-4 12th, bringing her to 5 under par for the tournament — seven strokes back of the leading Pernilla Lindberg and Sung Hyun Park, the 2017 CP Women’s Open champion.

Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., slipped with a 3-over 75 to sit at 1 over par, making the cut on the number.

We see you, @alenasharp07! ?? The Hamilton native posted a 4-under 68 to currently sit T9 at the @ANAinspiration ?

A post shared by Golf Canada (@thegolfcanada) on Mar 30, 2018 at 11:51am PDT

Park and Lindberg shared the lead at a tournament-record 12-under 132, three strokes ahead of Jessica Korda after two rounds in hot and mostly calm conditions at Mission Hills.

Lexi Thompson was 4 under after an even-par 72, undone by a series of short missed putts a year after a rules violation cost her four strokes in regulation in an eventual playoff loss.

“I hit it really well today,” Thompson said. “I just struggled on the greens.”

Fighting dizziness caused by a virus, Wie followed her opening 75 with a bogey-free 67 to get to 2 under.

“Saw one golf ball today, which was good,” Wie said.

With little fanfare five groups in front of the Thompson-Wie morning pairing, the fourth-ranked Park shot a 64 for the best round of the week. The U.S. Women’s Open champion played a nine-hole stretch in 7 under. She holed out for eagle from 100 yards on the par-4 15th to cap the run.

“I was super-focused at the U.S. Open, and felt just as focused today,” the 24-year-old South Korean player said. “I just felt really good about my driver. The shots fell in just as I wanted.”

Lindberg had a 67 in the final group of the morning session. The 31-year-old Swede had the first-round lead at 65, and was the only player without a bogey the first two days.

“Just not put myself in too much trouble and then my short game and putting have been great,” Lindberg said. “I’m just collecting so much experience out here every year, that I’m getting more and more ready just to be in this situation. Every time I’m there, I’m just so much more comfortable.”

She hit inside 2 feet to set up birdies on the par-4 13th and par-4 14th and parred the final four holes. The leaders broke the 36-hole record of 11 under set by Lorena Ochoa in 2006.

Thompson missed five putts inside 4 feet, four of them to the right side. She three-putted the par-3 fifth and par-4 12th, missing from 4 and 3 feet on 12. She also missed a 4-foot par try on 13.

The 2014 champion rebounded to birdie three of the last four , beginning the run with a downhill 12-footer on the par-4 15th. She went right at the back left pin on par-3 17th and got a 4½-footer to fall on the left side, then hit a lob wedge to 4 inches on the par-5 18th.

Wie often sat and rested in the shade in the 90-degree morning heat on the 97-degree day. She walked with a sun umbrella and relied on caddie Matthew Galloway more than usual.

“I just sat down every chance I could,” Wie said. “My caddie helped me a lot out there, just getting all the numbers. I asked him to read every putt for me because I just couldn’t see everything.”

Wie was stricken Thursday afternoon, leading to two double bogeys and a bogey in a four-hole stretch.

“Yesterday I wasn’t prepared for it at all,” said Wie, the winner four weeks ago in Singapore. “I felt good, felt good on the range, and all of a sudden I started seeing multiple golf balls, and that scared me a little bit. But today I woke up feeling dizzy. I knew exactly what I was getting into.”

Korda birdied five of the last 10 holes in a 68 to get to 9 under. She won last month in Thailand in her return from reconstructive jaw surgery.

“It all depends on if these putts are going to drop or not,” Korda said. “That’s the difference out here.”

Jodi Ewart Shadoff (67), Charley Hull (68), Amy Olson (68) and Ayako Uehara (66) were 7 under.

Stanford sophomore Albane Valenzuela was 6 under after a 71.

“I had to kind of save my pars today, but still a good round overall,” the Swiss Olympian said. “I put a good fight out there.”

Valenzuela was one of four amateurs to make the cut, with Rose Zhang (70), Atthaya Thitikul (71), Lilia Vu (70) also advancing. Zhang and Thitikul were tied for 34th at 2 under, and Vu was tied for 41st at 1 under. The 14-year-old Zhang, from Irvine, won the ANA Junior Inspiration on Sunday to get into the field.