By David Kraft
 ESPN.com
 Saturday, April 7
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Tiger Woods stood in the middle of the 14th fairway tied for fourth place in The Masters and two shots out of the lead.

Angel Cabrera was 12-under and playing the 15th hole immediately to Woods' left through a bank of Georgia pines. Phil Mickelson was 11-under and putting on the 14th green directly in front of him on the only bunkerless hole at Augusta National. Chris DiMarco was 11-under and standing in the same fairway with Woods.

 Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods went from 9-under to 12-under and the lead in a matter of 30 minutes.
Woods, talking with caddie Steve Williams, was 10-under thanks to a birdie at the par-5 13th.

By the time Woods made his birdie putt on the 14th hole 15 minutes later, he had a share of the lead. Cabrera was fading, having found the water at 15. Mickelson was reeling, having double-bogeyed the 14th. DiMarco was treading water, taking bogey on two of the final four holes.

And Woods? He was in position to win his fourth straight major and second green jacket. During his professional career, he's won 24 of 28 times when he's lead after 54 holes.

Did he feel like he was in control at that point?

"No," he said, laughing.

"I really hit good shots, yes, but they were not ... stoning," Woods said. "They were not kick-ins. I still had to make putts."

Woods' rally came at a pivotal point in the round. Unlike his runaway Masters title in 1997, Woods was in a third-round dogfight. Two holes earlier, he made his only bogey of the round, hitting an 8-iron over the green at the 12th and failing to get up-and-down.

He'd bounced back at No. 13 with a birdie but didn't look invincible. He was 2-under for the round, but said he wasn't doing anything special.

And the 14th hasn't been Woods' favorite hole. In 24 previous Masters rounds, he had just three birdies and was a combined 1-over.

Mickelson blinked first. His second shot to the 14th didn't get to the hole on the middle shelf of the sloping green and rolled back to the right-front. Instead of bumping the ball, Mickelson tried a flop-shot with his L-wedge. It stopped short of the hole and trickled back 25 feet away. He followed that with a three-putt for a double-bogey.

"That shot on 14 was a foot from becoming somewhat close to the hole or having a pretty easy par," Mickelson said. "It looked like it was going to stay up top (of the ridge) and it didn't. It came back down and all of the sudden, I've got a very difficult 4."

Mickelson said he wouldn't second-guess the choice of a wedge instead of a bump-and-run.

"I felt like the shot I played was not an unintelligent shot," he said. "It didn't come off that badly. It just was 30 feet and I three-putted."

Mickelson fell to 9-under.

Cabrera blinked next. Leading after a birdie at the 13th, he hit his second shot at the 15th into the pond in front of the green. After dropping, his fourth shot skidded over the green and he couldn't recover, taking a double-bogey as well.

He fell to 10-under.

"I hit a good drive and a 6-iron, which I felt was an extremely good 6-iron," said Cabrera through an interpreter. "It just lacked another ... 10 yards or less (and) it would have been perfect. As it was, it was in the water."

He then took bogey on the 18th hole to fall into a tie for fifth.

"These are the things that happen in golf," Cabrera said. "You have to be prepared for them."

Woods, as he does, tightened the noose. He hit his second shot on No. 14 to within four feet, and made the putt. He then birdied the 15th hole for the third straight time, chipping his third shot to within 18 inches while DiMarco was taking bogey.

Suddenly, Woods was 12-under and two shots ahead of the field. Mickelson rallied with birdies at Nos. 17 and 18 to get back to 11-under.

But by that time Woods was on his way to the 54-hole lead.

"I understand the danger out there," Woods said. "I understand that you have to execute the golf shots. If you slip up just a little bit..."

On Saturday, Woods' competitors did the slipping, and in one quick stretch, put Woods in the driver's seat.




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