Jordan Spieth maintains lead after difficult day 3 at Masters

On another treacherously difficult day at Augusta National, Jordan Spieth kept his streak of seven straight rounds with the lead going back to his victory last year as he shot 1-over 73.

The power duo of Spieth and world No. 3 Rory McIlroy ended up a bit flat Saturday afternoon as the Northern Irishman looking for the career grand slam left much to be desired with a 5-over 77, leaving him five behind Spieth's 3-under mark.

'Just one of those days, you have to try to forget about it and move on,' McIlroy said. 'To be honest with you, I would be feeling a lot worse about myself if I hadn't have just seen what Jordan did the last two holes. I sort of take a bit of heart from that, that I'm still in this golf tournament.'

Spieth bogeyed the 17th and double-bogeyed the 18th to open the event up for chasers like McIlroy and PGA Tour rookie Smylie Kaufman who stands in second, one back at 2-under.

'Today was a good day,' Kaufman said. 'I think our game plan the last couple days kind of carried into today. I knew (Augusta National) was going to play extremely difficult today, and you know, I just went out and tried to stay as committed as possible to all my golf shots.'

Committed to say the least. Kaufman fired a 3-under 69 and it could have easily been two better as he lipped out birdie putts on the 17th and 18th.

For Kaufman's grandfather Alan, who coached for 14 years at UAB, Saturday's third round was a wonderful surprise.

'We came in here hoping he'd make the cut and now we're in a position where we'll see what happens tomorrow,' Alan Kaufman smiled.

Indeed, we'll see if Kaufman can become the first player since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 to win in his first-ever Masters appearance.

The 22-year-old appears unaffected by the pressures that come with weekend contention at a major championship.

So where does his fearlessness come from?

'I think it's just from playing a variety of sports growing up, he was a leader in high school with public speaking and I think that helped him to be comfortable being in front of people,' Alan Kaufman said.

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'We hope his heart is not beating like ours.'

From what appears on his exterior this far, Kaufman seems relaxed and ready for the challenge ahead.

The only thing he might need to straighten out, certainly not his drives, but his shoulder. Kaufman said he slept on his right shoulder incorrectly and has been working to stretch it out with his trainer all week. It was 70 percent according to Kaufman on Friday.

Hey, if you're leading The Masters at 70 percent one has to wonder what 100 percent looks like.

It certainly wasn't a full-percentage performance from Spieth Saturday, especially in the afternoon.

'It was a really tough finish to go from really holding a four‑shot lead and being in a very similar position to last year to where all of the sudden now it's anyone's game, so it's tough to swallow that,' Spieth said. 'I'm in the lead after 54 holes. If you told me that at the beginning of the week, I'd be obviously very pleased. So it's mixed feelings right now.'