Tiger Woods at Masters 2013: Grading Tiger's Round 3 Performance

Moving day is always chaotic at the Masters.

The Saturday of the Masters tournament is when players shuffle up and down the board in hopes of moving into contention for that fabulous Sunday afternoon ride on Augusta National Golf Club’s back nine.

Tiger Woods’ day started in a chaotic fashion well before his 1:45 p.m. tee time.

Being summoned to Augusta National at 9 a.m. to discuss his now-infamous drop on the 15th hole on Friday had to get his heart pumping.

Working off that adrenaline, Woods jumped out to a tremendous start, knocking in a three-foot birdie putt on the first hole and just missing another birdie on the second.

Here’s a report card on how his day went overall.

Putting

The surge Tiger Woods has made this season has had a lot to do with his putter.

He seems to have regained confidence in that club, but it was not quite as good on Saturday as it has been.

He missed makeable putts for birdie on the second and third holes, but made a nice downhill birdie putt on seven from about six feet. He made birdies on 12 and 13.

The most cruel stroke of the day came at the uphill par-five eighth. He played a masterful pitch to about three feet and hit what appeared to be a solid putt, but the ball caught the edge of the cup and spun around the hole.

He missed a slick 10-footer on the ninth for par and made an equally tricky four-footer on No. 10 for par.

He didn't three-putt a single green and needed just 28 putts for the round.

Grade: B-

Driving

Tiger's driving has been an issue for a while, but he had been able to play well and win despite spraying the ball.

He lost one to the right on the difficult ninth, leaving himself a challenging second shot.The best he could do was get the approach a bit short of the green, leaving a bad angle chip. It eventually resulted in a bogey.

Woods drove it into the pine straw right on No. 13 and knocked his second into the pine straw behind the green, but eventually made birdie.

He missed the fairway on 17 to the left and had to hit a low runner into the green-side bunker.

He did get a bit of revenge on the 15th by hitting the fairway and drilling a five-iron to 10 feet under the hole. That turned into a birdie.

He missed the fairway on 18, putting him in an awkward stance. He came up short of the green, but he got up and down for par.

For the day, he hit just six of 14 fairways.

Grade: D

Distance Control

Watching Woods throughout the day Saturday, his entire game was not as sharp as it needed to be for him to snuggle up to the leaders.

He’s in range, certainly, but if he’s going to come back to win Sunday (he’s never come from behind to win a major), he’ll not be able leave his tee shot short and right on No. 16, for example.

His distance control wasn’t as bad as it was a year ago, but he needs to be sharper to make a serious run over the final 18.

Grade: B

Short Game

Woods made a wonderful pitch from right of the eighth green to get in position for birdie and executed bunker shots on 16 and 17 to leave short putts for pars.

He didn’t handle a tough pitch on No. 9 very well, which led to a bogey.

Ultimately, Tiger's short game wasn’t what kept him from getting up into the top four or five on the leaderboard on Saturday.

Grade: B

Course Management

This category was not Woods' best on Saturday, as it seemed he hit from places that had been previously undisturbed by mankind.

On a day when there was very little wind and low scores were being posted all over the course, Woods did not make his way around Augusta National in the manner necessary to make the kind of move everybody expected him to.

After making only two bogeys in his first 36 holes, Woods put up three in the third round.

Like everything else, the management of his game was just a bit off.

And while a round of 70 wasn’t great, it was solid considering the way the day went for him.

Grade: B