Jim Furyk made a flurry of birdies, then pulled out a few magic tricks to match his personal best score at the Masters Tournament on Saturday.

"I did a little Houdini out there on the last two holes," Furyk said of a pitch-in birdie at the par-4 17th, then another near hole-out for birdie at the par-4 18th.

Furyk tapped in for par at the last hole for 67, his best round on the PGA Tour this year since his 65 in the fourth round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Furyk shot 67 in the third round of the 1998 Masters, where he went on to finish fourth, and had not had a round better than 68 since that day at Augusta.

Considering that Furyk opened the tournament with 76 and was coming off a missed cut in The Players Championship, his second round in the Masters was a relief. It put him into a tie for ninth at 1-under 143 at the end of the round.

Furyk played his first 11 holes of the third round at even par, and fell into a tie for 17th when play was suspended.

He birdied Nos. 7 and 8 to get to 2-under but finished with a bogey at No. 11.

Furyk has now made the cut in eight of nine Masters starts and has finished tied for 14th or higher five times.

"I didn't play well at all in the first round ... I played lousy," said Furyk, who missed last year's Masters with a wrist injury. "I hit a few errant shots and kept making mistakes - a three-putt, or putting myself in the wrong spots when I missed greens."