Weather: Cloudy, with light showers late in the afternoon. High of 79. Wind SSE 10-15 mph, gusting to 25 mph. Play was suspended at 3:58 p.m. due to a dangerous weather situation. Play resumed at 5:15 p.m. for a delay of 77 minutes.

Third-Round Leaderboard

Hideki Matsuyama            69-71-65—205 (-11)

Xander Schauffele              72-69-68—209 (-7)

Marc Leishman                  72-67-70—209 (-7)

Justin Rose                         65-72-72—209 (-7)

Will Zalatoris                      70-68-71—209 (-7)

Corey Conners                   73-69-68—210 (-6)

Things to Know

• Hideki Matsuyama seeks to become the first male major championship winner from Japan
• Just two major championship winners (Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth) among the top 12 players on the leaderboard
• Matsuyama’s 65 is his best score at the Masters and represents the only bogey-free round of the week
• Matsuyama now has 10 straight par-or-better scores at the Masters
• The winner of the Masters has come out of the final pairing 25 out of the last 30 years; following a 4-under 68, Xander Schauffele joins Matsuyama in Sunday’s final pairing
• Jordan Spieth sits inside the top 10 through three rounds of the Masters for the sixth time in eight appearances
• The last Masters champion to win from outside the top five was Nick Faldo in 1989 (T9)
• First- and second-round leader Justin Rose trails by four after an even-par 72
• Will Zalatoris trails by four in his attempt to become the first player to win in Masters debut since 1979
• Marc Leishman is four behind in attempt to join Adam Scott as Aussie winners of the Masters
• Corey Conners hopes to become the first player to record an ace and win the Masters in the same week

Third-Round Lead Notes

47          Third-round leaders/co-leaders to win the Masters Tournament (most recent: Dustin Johnson/2020)

11          Third-round leaders/co-leaders to win in 2020-21 (most recent: Jordan Spieth/Valero Texas Open)

Final pairing (entering the week)

Hideki Matsuyama (1^st/-11)

• Seeking to become the first male major championship winner from Japan
• A victory Sunday would come in his 187^th start on the PGA TOUR at the age of 29 years, 1 month, 17 days
• Third-round 65 is the only bogey-free round of the week and his 10^th straight par-or-better score at the Masters
• 65 is his best score in 37 rounds at Augusta National Golf Club (66/R4/2015)
• Holds his fifth third-round lead/co-lead on the PGA TOUR (1-for-4 to date; won the 2016 WGC-HSBC Champions)
• Only previous lead/co-lead at a major championship came at the 2017 PGA Championship (R2/finished T5)
• Making his 87^th start since the last of his five PGA TOUR wins: 2014 Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, 2016 Waste Management Phoenix Open, 2016 WGC-HSBC Champions, 2017 Waste Management Phoenix Open, 2017 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational
• Making his 33^rd major championship appearance; best finish came at the 2017 U.S. Open (T2)

• Has finished inside the top 20 in five of his last starts at Augusta National, led by a fifth place showing in 2015
• Leads the field in Scrambling (13 of 15) and eagles (3)

Additional Player Notes

• Xander Schauffele (T2) enjoyed his best finish in three prior starts at the Masters in 2019, finishing T2 and one stroke behind Tiger Woods; has three runner-up finishes this season (2020 THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK, 2021 Farmers Insurance Open, 2021 Waste Management Phoenix Open)
• First- and second-round leader Justin Rose (T2) carded a second consecutive even-par 72 and trails Matsuyama by four strokes; 2013 U.S. Open champion is making his 67^th major championship appearance; finished T2 in 2015 and 2^nd in 2017 for his best finishes in 15 prior appearances at the Masters

• Marc Leishman (T2) trails by four in bid to join Adam Scott as Aussie winners of the Masters; scoring breakdown for the week: Nos. 1-6 (8-under; 8 birdies), Nos. 7-18 (1-over; 6 birdies, 7 bogeys)

• Will Zalatoris (T2) would become the first player to win in his debut Masters appearance since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979; the last player to pick up his first PGA TOUR win in a major was Danny Willett at the 2016 Masters; has 10 top-25 finishes in 14 starts this season

• Corey Conners (6^th) aced the par-3 sixth hole with an 8-iron from 182 yards; marks his second ace on the PGA TOUR (2020 BMW Championship/R3/No. 6); of the 33 aces in Masters history, six have come at the sixth hole (most recent: Jamie Donaldson/2013); would become the first winner of the Masters with an ace during the week

• 2015 Masters champion Jordan Spieth (7^th) sits inside the top-10 on the leaderboard through three rounds of the Masters for the sixth time in eight starts (2014/1^st/finished T2, 2015/1^st/won, 2016/1^st/T2, 2017/4^th/T11, 2018/9^th/3^rd, 2021/7^th/TBD); the last player to win the week before winning the Masters was Phil Mickelson (2006 BellSouth Classic); leads the field in Greens in Regulation (44 of 54)

• With his third even-par 72 this week, Jon Rahm (T21) now has 14 consecutive par-or-better rounds at the Masters

Course Statistics

Toughest Hole                   Easiest Hole

R1:         Par-4 11^th (4.511)               Par-5 2^nd (4.705)

R2:         Par-4 5^th (4.460)                 Par-5 13^th (4.494)

R3:         Par-4 7^th (4.556)                 Par-5 8^th (4.389)

Scoring Averages

              Front 9                 Back 9                  Total                    Cumulative

R1:         37.159                  37.364                  74.523                  —

R2:         36.333                  35.920                  72.253                  73.394

R3:         36.185                  36.241                  72.426                  73.166

Bogey-free rounds

R1: None

R2: None

R3: Hideki Matsuyama (65)