No more red...only black, and freezing cold

Consider this. 5000 spectators are lining the fairway at Camellia (the 10th) at least five deep; near the green, it's like seven or eight deep.

Tiger has made his charge and is two under for the day,starting the second nine. His drive cuts the fairway in two,right down the middle and his ball is in a natural valley, in good position for his next shot.Waiting for the green to clear, just imagine a baby blue sky above,the most exquisite emerald green fairway below and the magnificent pines right around the course.

As Tiger begins to address the ball,the huge gallery falls completely silent and all that can now be heard is the breeze in the pines,one of God's sweetest sounds.

Tiger swings back smoothly and powerfully to release the ball on its trajectory, heading right for the pin.The roar from the spectators is deafening,with shouts of "in the hole"!What an electric atmosphere.

The whole gallery moves as one,jockeying for position to wherever his ball is likely to be.

They sense that the tiger has smelt blood and is hot on the trail of his natural prey,in this case the competition.From where people thought that he might miss the cut,to look like a likely winner is a fantastic,but for his huge fan club predictable,turnaround.

By the end of the day, Tiger ended with one three putt (putting for an eagle and missing even a birdie), and a bogie, bogie finish just like in the first round.

It looked as though he might be left four, may be five, six shots off the leaders. BUT, as described later, the playing conditions which caused Tiger such grief also took their toll on those ahead of him.

Appleby, dropped three shots on the seventeenth (Nandina) that kept him in the lead from Justin Rose and Tiger Woods by only one shot, with local wonder boy Vaughn Taylor bogeying the last three holes to be at 4 over.My guess is that the prey can smell Tiger too and tonight is not going to be that restful for the hopefuls as they dream about the pressure from Tiger already.

As predicted by the weather bureau,the cold front hit Augusta, threatened frost, hardened the fairways and the greens and caused the start to be delayed. We have just been handed the predidictions for the final day and the temperature is going to be a high of 52 degrees Farheneit (11degrees Centigrade).

The windchill factor, with gusting winds of 20mph, will make it feel 7-8degrees colder. The fairways and greens will be even harder and the mayhem of today is going to look like a school picnic (of course the birdies will be substantially missing, although the bogeyman,of the double and triple variety,will be much in evidence.

Vijay, once again, flattered to deceive.

After looking good he seemed to lose interest and quickly balooned to a seven over;still only 5 shots back. If a few leaders have acute problems and he holds his own, he could make it into the first 5, but not better, I think. Casey was looking good until he triple bogeyed the 13th (Azalea), something he fully expected to birdie, lost confidence ad is now completely out of contention. Wetterich and Clark, overnight leadres at 2 under dropped 10 and 8 shots respectively and will be completely devoured by the daemons of their disasters to be able to recover.

Jeev did remarkably well in these trying conditions.He three putted the short fourth but that was his only real gaffe today. At 7 over he is tied with the likes of Vijay Singh and is only 5 shots back.His character is so sound and his concentration so acute that he is ab le to withstand pressure from his able Japanese sponsor to take some risks to score better. Jeev has well understood that these are not the conditions to take anyrisk at all;just plod along and try to be conservative.

Some birdies may come and others may fall taking risks that woul be valid in any other conditions. Lots of local Indians joined in to swell the ranks of his gallery and they followed him around wishing him to have an excellent showing. Let us see tomorrow. I followed him for seven holes and then decided that it was too much for my nerves.

My prediction is that, Woods, the only American in the real fray, beset by two Europeans, Rose at 3 over and Harrington at 4, and the Australian Appleby who is in the lead by one, will give the field a lesson in how to play golf under these most testing conditions. It is felt by many that Woods's talent and competitiveness,coupled with his intensity and focus for the job at hand will allow him another Masters Green Jacket. He will, thus, set himself up to repeat the Tiger slam when The Open is held at Carnoustie in July this year.

He will continue with his formula for success,under these conditions.

The Tiger slam would be nice present for the cub that's due in July.