Peter Hanson – History awaits as he seeks to become the first Sweden born player to win a Major Championship.

Here is some interesting stats and ancedotes from the third round of the 2012 Masters.

Sweden (Peter Hanson/1st and Henrik Stenson/T6) has never produced a major championship winner.

Swede Jesper Parnevik finished 2nd at the 1994 British Open and T2 and the 1997 British Open.

The eventual Masters champion has come out of the final Sunday pairing 19 out of the last 21 years, with Zach Johnson (2007) and Charl Schwartzel (2011) the exceptions.

Peter Hanson one round away from becoming the first Sweden born player to win a Major. (www.europeantour.com)

The third-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win the Masters Tournament 41 (out of 75) times, most recently Angel Cabrera in 2009.

Dating to 1991, with the exception of Zach Johnson (T4) in 2007, the Masters champion has been ranked no lower than T2 following 54 holes.

The only Masters champion who was not inside the top 10 on the leaderboard after 54 holes was Art Wall Jr. in 1959 (T13).

The largest comeback at the Masters after the third round is eight strokes (Jack Burke, 1956). Burke was eight behind Ken Venturi through three rounds but edged Venturi by one with a closing round of 71 (compared to Burke’s 80).

The last four Masters champions have played the week prior at the Shell Houston Open (2008/Trevor Immelman, 2009/Angel Cabrera, 2010/Phil Mickelson and 2011/Charl Schwartzel) and Hanson, Mickelson and Oosthuizen all played the Shell Houston Open last week.

Peter Hanson

Hanson has never held a lead after any round on the PGA Tour in 38 previous starts.

He accepted ‘Special Temporary’  membership onto the PGA Tour March 27 for the remainder of the 2012 season and it means the 34-year old is eligible to receive unlimited sponsor exemptions for the remainder of the season.

Hanson missed the cut in his only other start at the Masters in 2011. He is making his 39th PGA Tour start with five top-10 finishes. He is playing in his 19th major championship overall.

Hanson missed the cut last week at the Shell Houston Open.  He also has two top 10s on Tour this season T5/WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and T4/WGC/Cadillac Championship).

Phil Mickelson

Phil Mickelson has made 19 of 20 cuts (1997) at the Masters to go with 13 top-10 finishes and three wins.

At the 2010 Ryder Cup, Phil Mickelson defeated Peter Hanson, 4 & 2 in the Singles.

Mickelson is the first player since 1999 to birdie the 18th hole at Augusta National GC in the first three-rounds (Shigeki Maruyama and Justin Leonard).

Mickelson’s position by round this week:
R1        T55 (2-over 74)
R2        T11 (4-under 68)
R2        2nd (6-under 66)
 
Players who have won three or more Masters (8):

6          Jack Nicklaus    1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975, 1986
4          Arnold Palmer   1958, 1960, 1962, 1964
            Tiger Woods     1997, 2001, 2002, 2005
3          Jimmy Demaret 1940, 1947, 1950
            Sam Snead       1949, 1952, 1954
            Gary Player       1961, 1974, 1978
            Nick Faldo        1989, 1990, 1996
            Phil Mickelson 2004, 2006, 2010
 
List of player with four or more major championship wins:

18         Jack Nicklaus
14         Tiger Woods
11         Walter Hagen
9           Ben Hogan, Gary Player
8           Tom Watson
7           Harry Vardon,  Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer
6           Lee Trevino, Nick Faldo
5           James Braid, James H. Taylor, Byron Nelson, Peter Thomson, Seve Ballesteros
4           Old Tom Morris,  Young Tom Morris, Willie Park, Willie Anderson, James       Barnes, Bobby Locke, Ray Floyd, Phil Mickelson
 
Matt Kuchar

The only players to earn low amateur honors that went on to victory at the Masters as a professional are Tiger Woods (1995), Phil Mickelson (1991), Ben Crenshaw (1972), Jack Nicklaus (1960) and Cary Middlecoff (1946) and Kuchar was low amateur in 1998.

Kuchar is making his 26th start in a major. He missed 12 of 13 cuts in majors starting at the 1999 U.S. Open through the 2009 PGA Championship. Since then he has made eight of nine cuts in majors with a best finish of T6 at the 2010 U.S. Open.

Kuchar has made five of six cuts at the Masters. He played as an amateur in 1998 and 1999 before missing the cut in his first professional start in 2002. He did not play in the Masters again until 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Hideki Matsuyama (2011-2012) became the first amateur since Matt Kuchar (1998-1999) to make the cut in consecutive years at the Masters.

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods has not recorded a birdie or eagle on any of the par-5s in round two and round three.

Prior to this week the only times Woods did not record a birdie or eagle on at least one par-5 in a round at the Masters was in 2008 (R4) and 2003 (R1). Woods played his 69th career round at the Masters today.

Woods has gone 233 consecutive holes without a double-bogey at the Masters (last was 1st hole in R3 in 2009). The double-bogey in 2009 is the only one in his last 471 holes at the Masters.

Scoring Averages:

                  Front 9       Back 9        Total          Cumulative
Round 1      36.726        36.642        73.368        —
Round 2      37.362        37.064        74.426        73.894
Round 3      36.397        36.540        72.937        73.655