The Masters LIVE: Leaderboard and latest updates from Augusta

Not how Rickie Fowler would have wanted to begin his third round. His tee shot at the 1st goes right, although clings on to the first cut, and his second is then over the back of the green. He can’t get up and down for the par save, so a bogey to begin and he immediately drops to +7 for the tournament.

By contrast, Hideki Matsuyama pipes his drive down Main Street and then leaves himself 20-odd feet for a birdie. The putt doesn’t drop but a solid par to start for the 2021 green jacket winner.

Here’s a list of the early starters on day three. Remember, players go out in reverse order on Saturday and Sunday, so these are the guys who only just made the cut.

Rory McIlroy will be out alongside Camilo Villegas at 3.55pm BST by the way.

Early round three tee times (all times BST)

1435: Rickie Fowler, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)

1445: Russell Henley, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den)

1455: Luke List, Jose Maria Olazabal (Esp)

1505: Tom Kim (Kor), Jake Knapp

1515: Si Woo Kim (Kor), Adam Scott (Aus)

1525: Jon Rahm (Esp), Grayson Murray

1535: Chris Kirk, Tony Finau

OK, play is about to start on day three at Augusta and it’s a fun pairing first out of the gates today. The always-popular Rickie Fowler and former winner Hideki Matsuyama will tee us off.

Frankly, it took a huge stroke of luck for them to even make the cut. Those on +6 looked set to miss out until, late on Friday, Justin Thomas inexplicably played his final four holes in seven over par to drop from level-par to +7 and, in the process, moved the cut line from +5 to +6, ultimately missing it by one. Absolute catastrophe from JT

Here’s a reminder of how things stand heading into the third round.

-6: Scheffler, Homa, DeChambeau

-1: Pavon, Young, Fleetwood, Willett, Smith, Fox, An

Selected others: +1: Woods; +4: McIlroy; +5: Rahm.

Golf fans hoping to tune in to The Masters will again have to wait for full television coverage to begin as organisers stick with their traditional broadcasting model.

Established in 1934, the first men’s major of the year is held at Augusta in Georgia, with about 90 of the world’s best golfers battling to pull on the famous green jacket.

Sky Sports continues to be the exclusive live broadcast partner of the event in the United Kingdom, but while the first golfers will tee off at about 1pm BST in round two, it is not until 7.30pm that viewers will be able to watch every group live. This situation is exacerbated by plenty of big names needing to finish their first rounds on Friday morning after Thursday’s weather delay but fans won’t be able to watch.

This is due to the organisers of The Masters limiting the amount of live coverage it allows broadcasters to show.

“Really tough day,” the Northern Irishman reflected after his round. “Just hard to make a score and just sort of trying to make as many pars as possible. I felt like I did okay. I made that bogey on 14, and even just to par the last four holes and get in the clubhouse and have a tee time tomorrow, I’m sort of pretty happy with. Scoring was very difficult.

“I mean, most of the field couldn’t really get anything going. It was just a matter of trying to hang in there as best you could.”

On the length of his round: “It felt long, yeah. My golf swing felt horrific for the last six or seven holes, just from hitting around. Especially that 11th hole. On 11 it felt like it took an hour to play that hole. Yeah, it was stop and start, hard to get into a rhythm with the conditions and obviously how slow the play was as well.”

Jack Nicklaus criticised Rory McIlroy for a lack of concentration as the 88th Masters belatedly got under way at Augusta National.

Overnight rain and the threat of thunderstorms saw the start of play pushed back from 8am to 1030am, with honorary starters Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson kicking off proceedings 20 minutes earlier by hitting tee shots on the first before retiring to the clubhouse.

The trio then gave a lengthy press conference before Nicklaus joined “Live from the Masters” on the Golf Channel and discussed why McIlroy had yet to win a green jacket to complete a career grand slam.

Scottie Scheffler shares a lead of The Masters at the halfway stage, but with his wife Meredith only weeks away from giving birth to their first child, has left a clear message that he’ll depart at a moment’s notice if necessary.

It may not come together this week but Sir Nick Faldo believes Rory McIlroy has at least another decade of opportunities to win the Masters, despite the scar tissue from his previous attempts.

McIlroy famously squandered a four-shot lead in the final round in 2011 and has recorded six top 10s at Augusta National since victory in the 2014 Open left him needing a green jacket to complete a career grand slam.

The world number two finished second behind Scottie Scheffler in 2022 thanks to a thrilling final round of 64 and is second favourite behind the same player this week after finishing third in the Texas Open on Sunday.

Rahm said: “It is a very difficult set-up. It would have been very difficult anyway without the win but that just adds a whole level to it. You have to play really good golf on get lucky with the gusts.

“It was a bad day for me not to have it. I was fighting my swing all day. But at the end of the day, I have made the cut and have two rounds to make up 12 shots. I feel it has been done before – if the conditions aren’t too easy tomorrow, maybe I can make a push for the win.”