Ben Crenshaw and Arron Oberholser face a difficult task today in the Masters Tournament's final round. They'll be going off in the first group with no realistic chance of winning.

Arron Oberholser and Ben Crenshaw, pictured, will tee it up in the first group today. (Special)

At 18-over 234 for 54 holes, Crenshaw and Oberholser, along with Billy Mayfair, have the highest aggregate score of those players who made the 36-hole cut.

Because the pairings are based on graded scores, the pair will go off first. In most tournaments, they would be teeing off so early that they'd be called dew sweepers or the dawn patrol. Because the Masters has a limited field, Crenshaw and Oberholser won't tee off until 9:35 a.m. Mayfair and Trevor Immelman, who is at 232, will tee off next.

Crenshaw and Oberholser hope their pairing works out better today than it did Saturday, when they had matching 84s, the high rounds of the day.

In the past five years, it's rare for a player bringing up the rear after 54 holes in the Masters to suddenly turn his game around and shoot a low final-round score. It might have something to do with the mental strain it takes to play Augusta National Golf Club, where players must focus on every shot or pay the cost.

Of the eight players who went off in the first group of the day in the final round in the past five years, only David Toms broke par. Toms closed with 71 in 2002 to finish tied for 36th of the 45 who made the cut.

In that situation, "it's Sunday at Augusta and you're trying to play the best you can," Toms explained after shooting 74 on Saturday, which put him at 6-over 222 for the tournament. "If you're out there giving up and not giving it your all, you're going to shoot a real high number, and that wouldn't be a lot of fun going into the next year."

Chad Campbell has been in the situation that Crenshaw and Oberholser face today, though not in the Masters.

"It's tough to get motivated a little bit when you don't have a chance to win," said Campbell, who shot 77-77 and missed the cut by two shots. "You're still working to get better; you're obviously not playing well. You just want something to click and do something right so you can take it to the next week and get it going from there."

Unlike regular PGA Tour events or the other three majors, the Masters has a limited field. This year, 96 started. When the field was cut to those players within 10 shots of the lead after 36 holes, 60 remained for the weekend.

The short field gives the early starters motivation to try to fire a low round today and finish among the top 16 and ties, which will earn them an automatic invitation to the 2008 Masters.

"In the Masters, if you are in last place (after 54 holes), you're not that far back in trying to get in the top 16," Campbell said.

That probably won't be the case this year. The three players tied for last place are well back of 16th place.

Without that hope, Immelman said, "What you'd like to do is shoot a round in the 60s and go to the next tournament with some extra confidence."

Shaun Micheel, who shot 82-77 to miss the cut, said there are two ways the early starters can approach the final round.

"You can hurry up and try to get finished, or you can really go out there and grind and try to post a good number and see how far up the leaderboard you can move," he said.

"You have to find a way to stay in the tournament. You can't just give up.

''We are out here to make a good living. If you go in and just cave in, you'll make $8,000, where you can grind it out and shoot 4- or 5-under and make $28,000. You can't throw in the towel."

When Rich Beem is in the first group off in a final round, he starts off hoping to shoot a good round to take some confidence to the next week, he said.

"But if things don't go your way the first four or five holes, then it's pretty much, 'Let's see how fast we can get out of here and catch that earlier flight,'" said Beem, who has shot 71-81-75. "You always want to put forth your best effort. I know Tiger Woods always said he never quit on a single shot. I've certainly given up on a lot of shots. I don't care."

Beem said there have been times when he was off in the first group in the final round and never lined up a putt.

"I'm not the first guy to do it nor the last," he said.

In the 2002 Players Championship, Beem shot a third-round 80, which put him last in the field, and first off the next morning.

"I played in like two hours and 15 minutes around Sawgrass and I ended up shooting 66 (in the final round)," Beem said. "I moved up a few spots. It didn't take very long for me to shoot 66."

Reach David Westin at (706) 823-3224 or david.westin@augustachronicle.com.