AUGUSTA, Ga. – It was a day searching for answers that never came for Adam Hadwin during the third round of the Masters, where he shot a 3-over-par 75 to slide down the leaderboard.
Hadwin admitted he has been fighting his swing this week but was trying to battle through it. Augusta National, however, is not the golf course to be looking for a secret formula to success. It’s just too difficult a layout.
“Since the beginning of October I just haven’t played bad golf. Searching for the club face is just not a fun thing,” he said. “I hit enough good shots (today) to say that I can do it, but I hit enough really ugly golf shots to say that I’m searching. I’m going to do my best to stay positive and grind through it.”
Hadwin started his day with a lucky birdie on the par-5 second.
“When you hit a 50-yard hook into the tree and it ends up in the middle of the fairway, you feel pretty good. That ball should have been long gone. I probably should have been re-teeing,” he explained. “I saved one there, but decided to give it right back on the next hole.”
He rattled off three straight bogeys to put him in a hole he couldn’t get out of. He made one more birdie on No.11 after draining a long putt from the left side of the green, but immediately gave it back with a bogey on No.12 and a double bogey on No.14.
Coming into the week as a Masters rookie, Hadwin had no real expectations for his final result. But after struggling through three rounds to keep it in play, he said it’s the first time in approximately six months he’s been fighting his swing this much.
He was also warned by the rules official on No.8 that he and playing partner Daniel Summerhays were out of position and was told to speed up. That didn’t have much of an impact on his play Saturday, though, he was more so just trying to get something – anything – going.
“I’ve been playing such good golf all year that I really felt I could come in here and play well. I know I’m a rookie, I understand that we’re not supposed to play well but I feel like the way that I putt suits these greens. I feel like I see the breaks really well, I could imagine playing off the slopes, having a little imagination on the greens. I feel like I can play the golf course if I’m playing well, it’s just extremely difficult to play golf swing around this golf course and hit it to the proper spots,” he said.
“I’m fighting it all the way around, but doing the best that I can. I’m just disappointed this is the game that I brought to the Masters. The worst part is I know I’m not far off, but mentally it’s difficult to get back there and have it.”
Hadwin said he would hit the driving range after his round to try to work away on a couple things prior to tomorrow’s final round. It’s still an important one for Hadwin – although he’s far back of the leaders, sitting at 8-over for the tournament – as he can earn valuable points towards earning a berth on the Presidents Cup team later this year.
He wasn’t 100 per cent sure of his approach for tomorrow, but he knows he’s got one last round to try to move up the leaderboard.
“I would love to come out and free-wheel it, but it’s just been so difficult. I’ve tried to do that and hit a few bad shots, so we’ll see what happens,” he said. “Try to find something on the range this afternoon, if not tomorrow morning, if not, we’ll guess again tomorrow afternoon.”
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