On final day, it’s going to take a major change to take air out of this Jordan

AUGUSTA — Jordan Spieth missed a couple of three-foot putts down the stretch Saturday, scored a double-bogey on the 17th, whacked an approach shot into the crowd on No. 18. He was human after all, it turned out, teasing the big names who had been waiting for three days for the broad-shouldered kid to unravel.

He may yet throw away this Masters, as he did last year. But for now, the math is simple enough: Spieth started Saturday with a five-stroke lead on Charley Hoffman, and ended the day with a four-stroke lead on Justin Rose, hardly a choke job. He even pulled out that par on 18, a great relief, with a delicate lob over the bunker to a tight pin, then a nerveless six-foot putt.

“That up and down, I don’t ever recommend hitting it there,” he said, of his foray into the spectators. “That just took some guts, and having been in this scenario or having been in contention enough, having been on tour for a few years, I felt comfortable enough playing that full flop.”

For much of the day, he had been unflop-able, unflappable. One big name after another made a run at the 21-year-old Texan. Spieth tried hard to ignore the leaderboard. “Keep my head down,” he had told himself, after those first two spectacular rounds. “I didn’t do any scoreboard watching until maybe like 15, because it’s just right there,” he said.

He saw a lot of large, red numbers. Augusta National is playing soft this week, but nobody has taken advantage like Spieth, who finished with a 2-under 70 Saturday and a 16-under 200 after three rounds.

He has broken the 54-hole scoring record of 201, shared by Tiger Woods and Raymond Floyd. He now takes aim at Tiger’s record 270 at the 1997 Masters. A lot will depend on whether the Masters committee is embarrassed enough yet by these

low scores to do something about it.

“He’s got a lot easier way of it than I had it,” Woods said, after his own 4-under 68. “I only had a three-shot lead after two days, going into the third round. He’s just playing Steady Eddie, that’s all he has to do.”

Spieth came out of the gate on Saturday not quite as sure of himself, backing off several shots. He admitted to some anxiety, waiting 24 hours between his rounds. “That’s a long time to sit on the lead,” he said. Every time he blew that rare bunker shot or misread a putt, however, Spieth came right back on the next hole, or the one after that.

He rebounded from a bogey on No. 3 with a birdie on No. 5, a par-3. He gave back a stroke on No. 7, when he botched a sand wedge, landed the ball short of a ridge and watched his ball tumble far away from the pin. He didn’t rattle. Spieth got that stroke back on the ninth hole with a perfect approach and a five-foot putt.

On it went like this. He dropped a 10foot birdie putt at No. 12, at Amen Corner. When he sliced his drive deep into the trees on 15, Spieth managed better than rescue par. He holed a 15-footer for a birdie, simple as that.

There was one moment that might well have become a full-blown crisis. Spieth lipped a three-footer for a bogey on 14, while Phil Mickelson holed a 41-foot putt up ahead on 16. If ever the yips would get him, you thought, it would be now. Instead, he went for the green on his second shot over the water on No. 15, a par-5. Spieth didn’t clear the pond by much, but he ended up on that green, then two-putted for another birdie to restore a five-stroke lead.

His competitors knew coming in that Spieth is no fluke, that he is on a run of two second-place and one first-place finish.

“Other than (his double bogey on No. 17), he’s played great golf,” said Rose, who will be paired with Spieth on Sunday. “He’s made great birdies on tough holes. Obviously he’s taken care of the par-5s very well. So he’s done all the right things so far.” Spieth still looks very much like a game changer, a player who will keep American golf in good stead for decades to come. If that’s a lot to put on one young man, then Spieth sounded as if he could handle that load on Saturday.

“They are going to bring their game and I’ve got to have a relatively stress-free round going,” Spieth said. “When I say that, I mean give myself some tap-in pars and not have to make so many putts.”

Eighteen holes, 7,435 yards, and one final psychology exam to go, for a 21-yearold hoping to go wire-to-wire.