By ,
Published January 13, 2015
'Dropalypse' dominated coverage of the 77th Masters Saturday morning, overshadowing a brilliant effort by Tim Clark.
As all eyes focused on Tiger Woods and his two-stroke penalty for an illegal drop, Clark quietly worked his way up the leaderboard at Augusta National. The South African tallied five birdies in his first seven holes and played the rest of the round at even-par en route to a 5-under 67.
"It was gettable for me today being firmer, the fairways being firmer anyway, and going off early," said Clark, who began the day tied for 37th. "The front nine, the greens are somewhat receptive, so I was able to get some birdies early and sort of try and hang on."
The 67 was Clark's best effort in 35 career rounds at Augusta National, where he finished solo second to Phil Mickelson at the 2006 Masters. It also tied Dustin Johnson for the second-lowest round of this year's tournament. Johnson shot a 67 on Thursday, when Marc Leishman and Sergio Garcia set the bar with matching 66s.
Clark, whose lone PGA Tour win came in 2010 at the Players Championship, now finds himself tied for seventh place at 3-under, four shots back of leader Angel Cabrera.
"If you watched me yesterday, I think I missed 10 putts inside eight feet," continued Clark. "I don't believe it's that much of a putting contest out there. I mean, you've got to hit the ball so good around here, and particularly control your irons. That's all I really did today. I played smart shots. I didn't go at every flag ...
"For me it's really been about the ball striking this week. I've driven it great, hit a lot of fairways and obviously to shoot a round like that you've just got to start to make putts."
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/clark-quietly-moves-into-contention