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A Masters Saturday to forget for Mike Weir

Canada's Mike Weir reacts after his shot from the sand trap on the second hole during the third round of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia April 12, 2014. REUTERS/Brian Snyder (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT GOLF) (REUTERS)

After he finished the second round at the Masters on Friday, Mike Weir talked confidently about the prospects of getting into contention even though he was eight strokes off the lead.

``One mis-step and you can make six-seven-eight out there," he told Postmedia's Cam Cole. ``If I play well tomorrow, I can put myself right in this tournament.”

Those turned out be prophetic words, much to Weir's dismay.

There indeed were plenty of mis-steps. Unfortunately, most of them were made by Weir. Though there were no sevens or eights, he did not play well and can't even dream about getting into contention.

The lone Canadian to make the cut here after coming off a series of disastrous and injury-filled seasons looked lost on Saturday as he racked up seven bogeys and one double-bogey in finishing with a seven-over par 79. On the positive side, he looked a lot better on the back nine and birdied two of those holes.

But that 79 puts him eight over for the tournament and well off the leader board.

His big problem was on the greens, which took their toll on a lot of golfers Saturday.

“I couldn’t figure them out," he told Cole. ``I didn’t make one putt today. They were really, really fast and treacherous.

“I hit that putt (at the fourth where he double-bogeyed) and it looked like it was stopped two feet from the hole and it ended up being 18 or 20 feet."

Adding to his woes was the fact that he and playing partner K.J. Choi were put on the clock for slow play.

``This is the last golf course in the world you want to be put on the clock," Weir said. ``Just ... things didn’t go my way, the things that could happen wrong it kind of seemed to go that way today.”
But despite Weir's stumbles over the last 27 holes -- he had his troubles on the back nine Friday -- he can still count the 2014 Masters as a success if he turns in a decent round on Sunday. After falling off the map the last couple of years -- he was ranked 692 in the world heading into the Masters -- Weir thrust himself back into the spotlight ever so briefly here with a great front nine on Friday.

At one point he was three under par and threatening to make one of the great comebacks in recent years. In fact, for the first 27 holes of this tournament he looked like the Mike Weir of old. And while it may be a bit much to expect him to be the Mike Weir of old at age 43, he has proven that he's not done yet. There's still time to put the bad years behind him.

If he finishes well here, that could give him the confidence to at least make himself a contender again.