Eagles soar and fans roar for Mickelson at Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. - As any club pro will tell you, golfers should aggressively go for a third-straight eagle whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Which, of course, is basically never. Because, of course, it's borderline impossible.

But in a Masters the global media had essentially made Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, Saturday was Phil, Phil, Phil. And, very nearly, eagle, eagle, eagle.

Mere inches separated Phil Mickelson from accomplishing the borderline impossible. He eagled the par-5 No. 13 with a 6-foot putt. Then he holed out from 141 yards on the par-4 14th to become the third player in Masters history to eagle consecutive holes.

Lefty's third shot on the par-5 No. 15 was 87 yards from the pin. His wedge spun it five inches from the cup. Five inches from another eagle.

Had it gone in, a certain vile place in the afterlife might have frozen over.

“As it was crossing the hole,” Mickelson said, “I was expecting it to disappear, yeah.”

He tapped in for a birdie, the only gentle thing he had done in shooting 5-under-par within 27 minutes. He changed the complexion of a tourney that had been teasing a runaway win for Lee Westwood.

Mickelson set off roars from the crowd loud and long enough to probably knock cones off the Augusta National pines. Especially after the eagle at 14.

“It was pretty cool, yeah, that walk up (14),” he said. “I can't believe that ball disappeared and went in. It was sure fun, especially after eagling 13, and that walk up was awesome.

The leader board at the third-round's end said Westwood was the leader at 12-under, and Mickelson was next at minus-11. But the Brit became a sidebar for two-time Masters champ Mickelson. Today, they'll be playing partners who settle this thing.

Unless someone else - oh, I don't know, Tiger Woods? - goes on a Sunday spree and makes a move similar to the one Mickelson made Saturday.

Woods is four shots out of the lead. Maybe he will go eagle-eagle on the first two holes today, just to be a wiseguy.

However, only once in the past 20 years has the Masters champion come from outside of the final group on Sunday. That was Zach Johnson, in 2007.

Huge manually operated leader boards are throughout the Augusta course. Most players deny looking at them during their rounds. Mickelson said Saturday he thinks it's fun to check them out.

“I enjoy it,” he said. “You see the roars and you try to figure out who did what, and the leader board tells you.”

Imagine what fun it was for Westwood to see Mickelson to go from a red 7 (under par) to a 9 to an 11 to a 12 in a half-hour.

Mickelson did bogey the 17th hole, and finished with a 67. Westwood, who began the day tied for the lead with countryman Ian Poulter, never seemed unnerved on his way to shooting his 68, including getting up-and-down on the final hole with his 6-foot par putt.

And what about Woods? Well, he went from being seven shots behind Westwood to just four. And while I wasn't near him to hear it, he apparently cursed on two different occasions.

“Did I?” Woods said.

“If I did, then I'm sorry.”

If he doesn't make a lot of birdies today, another of his many recent apologies won't be much of a story. For a change.