When Jordan Spieth walked off the 18th green after his third round at the Augusta after finishing with a bogey on the 17th and a double-bogey on 18 , it was the first time in his Masters career that he looked utterly dejected.
As he headed for the recorder’s hut, hands in his pockets, he looked most un-Spieth-like.
However, after the press conference he appeared to have loosened up, almost as if he had used that time as a therapy session to clear out all that negativity that must have been swirling around his mind after the four- stroke lead that he had enjoyed with two holes to play had been eroded to a single shot.
Bad decision making and bad shot execution at a time when he needed to shut it down and coast in with at least a three shot lead cost him dear.
You have to feel now that that the rest of the field has a real chance.
His driver errors did come in the wind and in the final round that wind is expected to drop and we’re going to have good scoring conditions, which means that his one-shot lead looks precarious.
There’s a possibility of a round in the mid 60s. Spieth himself shot a 66 on day one, Shane Lowry shot a 68 that could have been a lot better.
Spieth will be partnered by Smylie Kaufman. The rookie was sixth on the Web.com Tour, which is the secondary America tour last season. Having secured his full card, he won in Las Vegas at the end of last year and is up to 51 in the world rankings.
And Kaufman underlined a rookie’s disregard for the reputation of the Masters and Augusta in shooting a 69 in windy conditions on a course that’s drying out - it was an indication that he has the talent.
At 24, and making just his second appearance in a major, he could become the first first-time winner of the Masters since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.
The story of the third round has to be Bernhard Langer, who won the second of his two Masters in 1993 before Spieth was even born.
Langer, who still has a very competitive winning habit on the Champions Tour - albeit at a lower level - knows what tournament play feels like on week-in, week-out basis.
His round of 70, which featured a run of three birdies in a row in the middle of the back nine, showed that he has no fear of these younger players. He remains in a competitive bubble.
It harks back to near misses of Jack Nicklaus, who at 58 finished sixth in the Masters in 1998, and Tom Watson, who only missed out on Open glory in 2009 after a play-off.
Langer is threatening to do something that others of his age have threatened to do in the past. Will he become the oldest winner of a major in history? If he does so he will become the oldest winner of a major by 10 years, obliterating the record set by Julius Boros at the PGA Championship way back in 1968.
World number one Jason day is in fifth place after rounds of 72, 73 and 71. If it wasn’t for a 41-stroke back-nine on the opening day, he would be leading the Masters and he has to be a danger only three shots back. So too Dustin Johnson, also on level par, he’s a player who has had so many chances and he will have another chance on Sunday.
Rory McIlroy is five off the lead and remarkably still has a chance after shooting a 77.
He made no birdies in round three, which is for a player of his audacity one of the most depressing things imaginable. And yet he admitted that he couldn’t believe he was only five shots back.
He said earlier in the week that he felt it was within him to shoot 30 strokes on on the back-nine on Sunday at the Masters if he absolutely needed to go for it. It may be within his capacity, but whether he does so or not is a different matter.
Shane Lowry, after carding a 79, will now be hoping for a top-20, top-15 - or with a really good final round - possibly even a top-10 finish.
He’s learned a lot in the Masters, but after that round of 79 he’s a lot more to learn.
