Molinari has a neat story. He also has Tiger on his tail at Masters

Francesco Molinari has been grouped with Tiger Woods at the Masters before, but it was nothing like what’s in front of him Sunday.

Molinari fired a 6-under 66 on Saturday at Augusta National Golf Club, giving him a two-shot lead over Woods and Tony Finau heading into Sunday’s final round of the Masters. Molinari is 13-under for the tournament. Woods and Finau sit at 11-under.

Due to an unprecedented schedule change, all three will all tee off as part of the same group at 9:20 a.m. as Molinari and Finau chase their first green jacket. Woods is going after his fifth.

Molinari was in the same group as Woods in the first round of the 2006 Masters, but that year he was serving as the caddie for his older brother Edoardo in 2006 after Edoardo won the U.S. Amateur Championship. The 36-year-old Italian, who won The Open Championship last year, is playing is in eighth Masters and has never finished higher than 19th.

“Played the back nine as good as I’ve ever played here,” he said Saturday. “My plan for [Sunday] is to go out and do the same, but I think there are going to be a few guys trying to mess up my plan.”

Brooks Koepka, who has won two of the sport’s last three major championships, is alone in fourth place at 10-under after shooting 69 on Saturday. Webb Simpson and Ian Poulter are tied for fifth at 9-under, and Columbia’s Dustin Johnson is among a large group tied for seventh at 8-under overall.

“We’ve seen in the past that a few shots lead doesn’t mean too much and we’ve seen today that you can shoot 7- or 8-under the way the course is playing,” Molinari said.

None of the players will get a long rest. Due to forecasts calling for severe thunderstorms Sunday afternoon, Augusta National officials moved the fourth round up to 7:30 a.m. and will group golfers in threesomes and start them from Nos. 1 and 10 to expedite play. The leaders will tee off 9:20 a.m., about 14 hours after Molinari walked off the course Saturday evening.

“Interesting, threesomes” Sunday, Woods said. “Usually the reward for playing hard and doing all the things correctly is you get a nice little sleep coming into Sunday, but that’s not going to be the case. We’ve got to get up early and get after it.”

Woods said during his CBS interview that he planned to get up at 3:45 a.m. to being his final round preparations.

Woods, 43, shot a 5-under 67 on Saturday, his best Augusta National round since the final round of the 2011 Masters. After hitting his tee shot on No. 5 into the bunker and giving himself a quiet pep talk, Woods birdied six of his last 13 holes.

Woods hasn’t won a major since 2007 and hasn’t won the Masters since 2005.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been in contention here,” Woods said. “I’ve been in the mix with a chance to win major championships in the last two years, so that helps. And [Sunday] it will be — it will be interesting to see if that wind comes up like it’s forecast, 15, 20 miles an hour around this golf course is going to be testy.”

Finau was one of three players Saturday who came within one shot of tying the course record of 63, set by Greg Norman in 1996 and Nick Price in 1986. Simpson (9-under overall, T5th) and Patrick Cantlay (8-under overall, T15th) also shot 64s. Until Saturday, there had not been multiple rounds of 64 or better in any single year of the Masters.

Finau tied the record for lowest score on the front nine with a 30.

“I’m driving the ball nicely, and on this golf course, I can attack the golf course if I’m hitting my driver well, and I have been thus far,” Finau said.

The 29-year-old from Utah is the first person of Tongan and American Samoan descent to play on the PGA Tour. He is playing in his second Masters and has dreamed of being grouped with Woods on the final day of a major, he said.

“As a kid, I always wanted to compete against him,” Finau said. “It would be quite a cool thing for me if I were to play with him [Sunday] in the final group of a Masters. It would be a dream come true for me.”

This story was originally published April 13, 2019 at 7:19 PM.