It took three days, but the 69th Masters Tournament finally has the feel of a major championship.

Golfers spent more time on the course Saturday than the locker room watching raindrops; three-time Masters champ Tiger Woods woke from his slumber with the best golf of the day; and six-time champion Jack Nicklaus prowled the Augusta National Golf Club fairways, even if it was for the final time.

About the only thing that wasn't out of the norm for the strange week was the play of Chris DiMarco, a three-time PGA Tour winner who is seeking his first major championship.

When darkness halted third-round play at 7:35 p.m., DiMarco held a four-shot lead over a resurgent Woods, who was 11-under par for the 26 holes he played Saturday, with 12 birdies.

"Yes," Woods said when asked if he'd ever had 12 birdies in one day, "but I don't know when."

The 36-year-old DiMarco, who lost in a three-hole playoff in the last major championship - the PGA Championship in August - played 26 holes at par or better Saturday, running his streak of bogey-free holes to 44.

He moved into second place in Masters history in that category, passing Ben Hogan. Stuart Appleby holds the record at 50.

DiMarco, who started the first round on No. 10, made bogey there and hasn't had one since. For 45 holes, he has 14 birdies.

DiMarco said he would continue his attacking game the rest of the way.

"Yeah, especially with Tiger behind me, no doubt," he said. "It's going to be fun. I'm looking forward to it. I've got a lot of great players behind me that are trying to win, too. I'm going to have to keep the foot on the accelerator, for sure. Going out there and trying to hold on to a lead isn't going to get it. Go out and step on it. That's what you have to do around here."

DiMarco played 17 holes Saturday morning to complete a 5-under-par 67 for the second round, matching his first-round score. In the afternoon, DiMarco shot 33 on the front nine before play was suspended by darkness.

"I'm hitting the ball real good, and I'm putting really good," said DiMarco, who had 27 putts in both the first and second rounds and has 12 putts through nine holes of the third round.

For the tournament, DiMarco is 13-under for 45 holes.

When Phil Mickelson won last year with a 9-under total, DiMarco was his playing partner in the final round. DiMarco started the final round tied with Mickelson, but shot 76 to tie for sixth.

"I watched how it was done (last year with Mickelson)," said DiMarco, whose final-round scoring average in the Masters is 74.3. "If anybody had sat back and had the best seat in the house, it was me. Did I enjoy watching him win? As a friend, yes. As a competitor, heck no. I wanted to do it."

Woods - who has won eight major championships but is winless in his past 10 major starts - is the hottest player in the field.

Woods played 17 holes to finish his second-round 66, the low round of the tournament, which put him six shots behind DiMarco entering the third round.

In the abbreviated third round that followed, Woods picked up two shots on DiMarco by shooting 5-under-par 31 on the front nine.

History is not on Woods' side today. In his 40 stroke-play PGA Tour victories, he has never won after an over-par first round. He opened with 74 this week.

"I kept hitting good golf shots and I would just mess it up, or I'd get a bad break," Woods explained. "So I said, 'Just keep hanging in there, keep hitting quality golf shots and it will turn,' and luckily, it turned."

If Woods does win, he will have the "Jack Nicklaus Retirement Slam" to go with his 2001 "Tiger Slam" of winning the four major championships in a row.

Woods won the three major championships that Nicklaus announced in 2000 would mark his final appearances.

"It would be kind of cool," Woods said.

Nicklaus has said he will play in the British Open this year, but as it stands now, he officially retired from that tournament in 2000.

Entering today's play, Denmark's Thomas Bjorn is in third place at 8-under for the tournament, five behind DiMarco. Bjorn opened with 71-67 and shot 34 on the front nine as DiMarco's playing partner.

With 27 holes to play, DiMarco, Woods and Bjorn have separated themselves from the field.

The next closest golfers are nine shots behind DiMarco at 4-under for the tournament.

They are Vijay Singh (1-under through 10 holes), Rod Pampling (4-under through 12 holes) and Mark Hensby (2-under through nine holes).

Six golfers are at 3-under for the tournament, including the past two Masters champions, Mike Weir (4-under through 15 holes and Mickelson (1-under through 11 holes).

Of other notables, Retief Goosen shot a third-round 70 and is at even par for the tournament, and Ernie Els is 6-over for the tournament. He's 2-over through 10 holes of the third round.

The third round will be completed today beginning at 8 a.m., with 44 of the 50 players left in the field returning to the course. The final round is expected to start at 11 a.m.

The field would have gotten in at least two more holes of the third round if not for problems in making up the third-round pairings at tournament headquarters Saturday afternoon. When second-round play ended at 2:22 p.m., Masters officials announced that the third round would start at 3 p.m. But after a delay with the pairings, it wasn't until 3:35 that the first groups went off Nos. 1 and 10.

When play begins today, Nicklaus won't be around. In his 45th Masters appearance, Nicklaus shot 77-76-153, missed the cut by five shots and said it was his last competitive round here. He hasn't made the cut since 2000 and is 54-over for his past 10 rounds.

"You know, this is not a celebrity walk around," Nicklaus said. "This is a golf tournament. It's a major championship, and if you're going to play in this championship, you should be competitive and you should be able to compete with who is out there."

The delays during the first two days of the tournament haven't bothered the patient DiMarco, who was the first- and second-round leader. He led by one shot after a six-birdie, one-bogey first round and by four shots after a five-birdie trip in the second round.

His four-shot lead was one shot off the tournament record for largest 36-hole lead.

The final-round pairings won't be made until the completion of the third round this morning, but it would be a good idea to be in the last group. The winners of the past 14 Masters have all come from the final group.

There is a chance that Mickelson and Singh could be paired today in what would be a twosome that could produce fireworks, if not fisticuffs.

In all three rounds, Mickelson has played in the group in front of Singh. During play Friday, Singh had a rules official check Mickelson's spikes to see if they were "unduly damaging the greens," Mickelson said in a statement released Friday.

In the statement, Mickelson said he confronted Singh in the locker room and told him he wished Singh had handled the situation differently.

Asked for his side of the story, Singh said Saturday, "There's no side. You know it all. Let's talk about golf."

Mickelson, who said in his statement that "everything is fine" with Singh, said Saturday that he "tried to be as careful as I could today (on the greens)."

Larry Mize, the 1987 Masters champion, was in the locker room when Mickelson and Singh had their heated discussion.

"It did not get physical," Mize said. "It was no big deal."

Mize said the locker room was full of players.

"It was just us up there; it wasn't like they were out on the lawn," Mize said.

In his final round, Nicklaus had two birdies but missed a 4-footer for birdie on his final hole, which was No. 9.

"I would have liked to have finished with a birdie," said Nicklaus.

His 9-over total for 36 holes "is about four under par for me; maybe five," Nicklaus said.

"It's no fun to go out there and hack it around and struggle to try to figure out some way to shoot, break 80. That's never been the way I've operated, and I don't believe I should be out there."

Fifty players made the cut, which fell at 148 for the second straight year. Four of the top 10 finishers from the 2004 Masters missed the cut, headed by Sergio Garcia (77-72-149), who tied for fourth last year after a final-round 66. Three players who tied for sixth place last year - Davis Love III (76-75-151), Nick Price (78-76-154) and Paul Casey (79-78-157) - are also gone.

Padraig Harrington (72-77-149), ranked sixth in the world, also missed the cut, as did seventh-ranked Sergio Garcia (77-72-149) and eighth-ranked David Toms (77-75-152).

Other notables missing the cut were Augusta native Charles Howell (73-76-149), Players Championship winner Fred Funk (72-78-150), Jose Maria Olazabal (77-76-153), David Duval (75-77-152) and John Daly (80-74-154).

Reach David Westin at (706) 724-0851 or david.westin@augustachronicle.com.

In the lead
Through nine holes of the third round, Chris DiMarco leads at 13-under par. Tiger Woods was second at 9-under, and Thomas Bjorn rounded out the top three at 8-under.