Tiger Woods was in full strut after bombing a drive over the Eisenhower Tree down the 17th fairway. He peeled a banana and wolfed it down, tossing the debris behind him.

Tiger Woods, who is six shots off the lead, follows his fairway shot on the first hole. (Chris Thelen/Staff)

Caddie Stevie Williams dutifully picked it up, except for a little sliver of the peel that fell just off the crosswalk. When the gallery guards opened the ropes, the released fans went on a mad scramble to claim the litter as a souvenir. A grown man cut off a little kid to grab the prize.

Today has the potential to be the wildest Sunday scramble in Masters Tournament memory. And instead of fighting over a piece of trash, the reward is a green jacket.

Seven strokes separate the top six players in the field and, as crazy as it seems, any one of them could win. With a forecast for wind gusts up to 25 mph and a go-for-broke Sunday setup, even sitting six shots behind wire-to-wire leader Trevor Immelman had the world's No. 1 player comfortable with his chances.

"Anything can happen," said Woods, the only guy inside nine shots of the lead who has a major title to his credit. "You can shoot yourself right out of it and you can put yourself right back in it."

For anybody who counted out Woods' stated quest for the Grand Slam before the weekend started, Saturday changed the dynamic considerably. He may have made up only one stroke on the leader with his third-round 68, but he left a lot of obstacles in his wake.

"I put myself right back in the tournament," Woods said. "As I said, this was as high a score as I could have shot today, and if I have a few more putts go in I'm right there, but I'm still right there anyways."

Tiger Woods looks at overhanging limbs as he prepares to hit from the trees along the 18th fairway Saturday. Woods hit the green and two-putted for par. (Annette M. Drowlette/Staff)

Woods is right there because nobody in front of him has ever been in anything like this situation before. They've all won events. Some of them have handled great off-course adversity. But none of them has ever experienced a Sunday in the hunt at a major -- much less the Masters.

Of course, Woods has never rallied in the final round to win a major -- a statistic that gets blown out of perspective because he has had the misfortune of leading after 54 holes in all 13 of his major wins. Breaking his rut is the farthest thing from his mind.

"You want to win the Masters, period," Woods said. "Doesn't really matter how you do it as long as you do it."

How these guys have to do it today could be very interesting. The winds are predicted to howl. The course was softened by rain. The Sunday pins are traditionally tantalizing.

"With the weather factor, it really could be very tight this time tomorrow," said Stewart Cink, who will play in the final round with Woods for the third time this year.

"You could have 77s and you could have 7-under."

This is not going to be easy for anyone. Guys like Immelman, Brandt Snedeker, Steve Flesch and Paul Casey will have to do something they've never done to win.

"Somebody is not going to come backwards out of that group," said Cink.

Said Casey: "If you're courageous and hit great shots, there's no reason somebody can't shoot a very good score."

Woods will have to be one of them to keep his slam hopes alive. And he'll need to count on the guys ahead of him slipping on the many banana peels that lurk around Augusta National.

"I got a lot of work to do," Woods said.

"The back nine they have some dots out there, so you saw the pin locations and they're going to be a little bit more accessible. But then again, you got the wind blowing. It's supposed to be 20 to 30. So we'll see what happens."

We'll see if Immelman can repeat the success he had beating Woods in the 2006 Western Open.

We'll see if Snedeker's laid-back attitude can handle the pressure.

We'll see if Flesch can deal with having nothing to lose.

We'll see if Casey's superlative talents are ready for the next step.

And we'll see if the world's best player can make up the second largest final-round deficit to win his fifth green jacket.

"There's not as many guys ahead of me," Woods said. "But it all depends on what Trevor and Brandt do back there; how low they go."

Buckle up, because this one could get wild.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.