He compounded the error with a bogey on the 11th, then shaved the lip with a short birdie putt on 12 and dropped another shot after dunking his ball into Rae’s Creek on No.13.
Suddenly Davis had tumbled back to one under, six shots adrift of the lead.
He steadied with a bounce-back birdie on the par-4 14th before finishing with four straight pars, including a brilliant up and down from the drop zone after again finding the water on 15.
“I hung in there quite well. It was playing tough, but I feel pretty proud walking away with one over after a few, it felt like, disasters while I was out there,” Davis said.
“I’m giving it everything I’ve got. Today I wasn’t laying up and I was giving it a good crack.
“Hopefully tomorrow we’ll make the right decisions in the moments and come away with a round that’s as good as we can make it.”
Davis is sharing sixth spot with American Xander Schauffele and Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard.
Smith couldn’t buy a putt all day.
After collecting his only birdie on the third, the 2022 British Open champion reeled off 14 consecutive pars before closing out his frustrating round with a bogey on the last.
“I’m still in the golf tournament,” Smith said.
“The way that the golf course is playing, I feel really confident with my ball striking – probably the best I’ve felt in a while.
“It’s only one or two their way and one or two my way, and it’s really close.
“Just got to keep grinding it out.”
Adam Scott showed some resilience with a sub-par round of 70 to edge his way back to four over and a tie for 26th, 11 shots off the pace.
But Min Woo Lee (75) slumped to seven over and Jason Day (76) eight over to round out the Australian challenge.
Scheffler keeps his cool
Scheffler, who used a back-nine eagle to get his round back on track, carded a one-under-par 71 on a firm and fast layout to reach seven under on the week and in position to win a second Masters.
Morikawa, who is seeking the third leg of the career grand slam of golf’s four majors, began his day with three consecutive birdies and was alone in second place after a three-under-par 69 that was one shot off the day’s low round.
In the lead: Scottie Scheffler.Credit: Getty Images
Scheffler had dropped out of the lead after a shaky start to the back nine where he followed a double-bogey at the par-four 10th with a bogey at the 11th.
But he joined Morikawa atop the leaderboard with a 31-foot eagle putt at the par-five 13th where his approach shot looked ready to settle some 10 feet from the hole before it suddenly gathered speed rolled away.
Scheffler then picked up another stroke at the par-five 15th where he got up and down for birdie after his approach shot from 238 yards rolled right off the back of the green and then offset his bogey at 17 with an eight-foot birdie at the last.
Tiger Woods shot 82 in the third round.Credit: AP
Struggling Woods
A day after only eight players broke par in a second round played amid wind gusts that made a difficult course even more challenging, the early starters were greeted with dazzling sunshine and a much lighter breeze.
Woods, fresh off his Masters record-setting 24th made cut, began his third round seven shots behind the leaders and hoping his injury-ravaged body would hold up and allow him to move into contention for the final round.
But Woods, who said this week he can still equal Jack Nicklaus’ record six Masters titles, looked worn out after playing 23 holes on Friday and suffered an unwanted personal milestone with a 10-over-par 82 that was the highest 18-hole score of his major championship career.
“Just hit the ball in all the places that I know I shouldn’t hit it,” said Woods. “And I missed a lot of putts. Easy, makable putts. I missed a lot of them.”
Following a three-putt bogey at the par-three fourth, Woods drained a fist pump-inducing birdie putt from 19 feet at the fifth before he suddenly started to unravel.
He bogeyed the par-three sixth after his tee shot landed behind the green, made a double-bogey at the seventh where he chipped into a bunker, carded another double at the eighth and a bogey at nine where his approach found another sand trap.
The 15-time major winner then mixed five bogeys with a lone birdie on the closing stretch of a layout that many consider one of the toughest walks in golf.
Day’s bold outfit
Day went viral at the Masters this week for wearing some rather bold outfits from Malbon.
Turns out one of them was a bit too bold.
Day said after finishing his third round that he was asked the previous day to take off the white vest he was wearing that said in big letters across the midsection: “Malbon Golf Championship”. Day wasn’t sure who exactly requested the wardrobe change, but “respectfully, you do that, because it’s all about the tournament here, and I respect the tournament.”
Malbon founder Stephen Malbon told The Associated Press on Friday that he wasn’t sure whether someone told Day to change out of the vest, or whether the former PGA champion had pulled it off because the weather was warming up.
Day said he wasn’t trying to make a statement, either. Just like other players, whose apparel providers “script” certain looks for major tournaments, Malbon had laid out what it wanted him to wear at Augusta National.
“They send you the scripting and say, ’This is what we want you to wear Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,” Day explained after a third-round 76 wearing a far more subdued olive green polo Saturday, “and I’m like, ‘OK’.”
Reuters, AP, AAP
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