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| - Hideki Matsuyama sank back-to-back 10-foot birdie putts to grab a share of the lead with Justin Rose and Will Zalatoris in Saturday's third round of the Masters at Augusta National. Matsuyama, trying to become the first Japanese man to win a major golf title, birdied the par-4 11th and par-3 12th holes after a 78-minute storm delay to stand on 7-under par. After sinking a four-foot birdie putt at the par-4 seventh, Matsuyama nearly completed a perfect run through "Amen Corner" -- Augusta's formidable three-hole stretch on the back nine -- but was just left of the cup on a six-foot birdie putt at the par-5 13th that would have given him the outright lead. Rose, the 2013 US Open champion who began the day with a one-stroke lead, opened with back-to-back birdies but bogeys on the par-3 fourth and par-4 fifth followed by four pars left the 40-year-old Englishman on 7-under at the turn. Zalatoris, Rose's last-duo playing partner, began the back nine with a birdie to join the leaders on 7-under in his bid to become the first player to win his Masters debut since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979. The 24-year-old American birdied the third but followed with a bogey at four, then went bogey-birdie at seven and eight. World number 25 Matsuyama, who hasn't won since the 2017 Akron WGC event, has seven top-10 finishes in majors, including a 2017 US Open runner-up effort. His best Masters showing was fifth in 2015. After the storm delay, swirling winds vanished and wet Augusta National was more receptive, slowing greens that had been lightning-fast but making them far trickier to read. Reigning Olympic champion Rose began Saturday with 12-foot birdie putt at the first and a 10-footer at the par-5 second to lead by three before falling back. Australian Marc Leishman, Canada's Corey Conners and Americans Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth shared fourth on 5-under. Rose, twice a Masters runner-up, won his only major title at the 2013 US Open. The world number 41 has led or shared the Masters lead after seven career rounds, the most of any player never to win a green jacket. He is trying to become the sixth wire-to-wire Masters champion after Americans Craig Wood (1941), Arnold Palmer (1960), Jack Nicklaus (1972), Ray Floyd (1976) and Jordan Spieth (2015). Conners, who had electrified the crowd earlier with a hole-in-one at the par-3 sixth, birdied the seventh but fell back to 4-under with bogeys at 10 and 14. Justin Thomas, the 2017 PGA Championship winner, will overtake Dustin Johnson to become world number one if he wins the green jacket after 2020 Masters champion Johnson missed the cut. He was also on 4-under after a birdie at the 12th. Conners aced the 180-yard par-3 sixth. He watched the shot bounce twice and roll into the cup. Conners had started his charge with birdies at the par-5 second and par-4 third and answered a bogey at the par-4 fifth with the ace. the 33rd in Masters history and just the sixth at the sixth hole. The world number 43 followed with a birdie at the seventh but began the back nine with a bogey. It was the second ace of this year's Masters. England's Tommy Fleetwood aced the par-3 16th on Thursday for the first. Three-time major winner Spieth, who snapped a four-year win drought last week in San Antonio, took a double bogey at the seventh but birdied the par-5 eighth just before the horn to halt play to stand on 4-under. Only twice since 1960 has a player won the Masters the week after a US PGA Tour victory -- US left-hander Phil Mickelson in 2006 after a triumph in Atlanta and Scotland's Sandy Lyle, who won at Greensboro the week before taking the 1988 Masters. Augusta National announced prize money figures Saturday with the same totals as the past two years, the winner taking home $2.07 million (1.7 Euros) from a total purse of $11.5 million. js/bb
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