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Paul Stankowski with his caddy Rich Mayo study the No. 1 green before making par Saturday. (Steve Shelton/Augusta Chronicle)

Stankowski Diary: 11 strokes back, but doing well


Web posted 04/13/97


Saturday was my dream pairing. As a kid, I was a Tom Watson fan and I still am. To be playing with him is great, but to be playing with him on Saturday at the Masters was awesome.

I was really excited about the pairing and I'm glad that I played well, shooting a 69. It was a cool pairing.

Tom also shot 69 and hit the ball so well. Tom's still one of the best ballstrikers on tour, I think. He hits it long. He was knocking it by me all day. It's nice to see him playing. He hasn't lost a step in the last 20 years.

I'm in third place in the tournament, 11 shots behind Tiger Woods. I shot 68-74 in the first two rounds so I'm at 5-under-par 211 for 54 holes.

For awhile, it looked like I would be playing with Tiger in the final pairing today. But Costantino Rocca finished at 210 for three rounds and is playing with Tiger. I'll be paired with Tom Kite at 2:59 p.m.

I played with Tiger in a practice round once in Phoenix, never in a tournament. I was looking forward to it, to seeing first-hand how far he hits it. He wouldn't have been threatened by me if we had played.

I'll definitely be relaxed today because there is no chance to win, unless I shot 57 or something. You never know. Anything is possible out here, as we saw last year. I'm just going to go out and play my game like I've been doing every day and then add them up at the end.

If I start thinking about catching Tiger, I'm probably going to go the other way. If I can make five or six or seven birdies early - like in the first three holes - then I'll definitely put some heat on him.

There are lot of guys who can shoot seven or eight under par today. If someone turns in 30, Tiger's definitely looking up there at the leaderboard.

The biggest highlight of the day on Saturday was a flop shot I hit on No. 15. It was pretty much the shot of my career so far. I hit my second shot over the green and into the water on No. 16. After I dropped, I was 29 yards to the pin and the grass was growing into me. If I hit it 5 feet short of where I landed it, it probably comes back another 10 feet. I figured I'd try to hit a flop shot so if it landed on the green it wouldn't go over and into the water in front of the 15th green. It was one of those shots where I hit it, I liked it and I walked off of there shaking in my boots, but happy.

One of the goals I set at the beginning of the year was trying to play well in the majors. We're one round away from finishing the first major. It's nice to be in this position. It's nice to be in one of the last two groups. The Masters is the tournament I would most like to win.

I putted better than I did Friday. I had 26 putts on Saturday after needing 33 on Friday.

Today, I didn't have many of those 5-footers. I had a lot of tap-ins and a lot of 10-footers. On Friday, I started the day off missing an 8-footer on the first hole and then about a 12-footer on the second hole and my confidence started slipping. On Saturday, I started off with a two-putt from 25 feet on the first hole, then made a 10-footer on No. 3 for par and that kind of got it going.

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