Ricky Barnes had a frustrating third round, shooting a 3-over 75 to fall out of contention.
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

Former Arizona Wildcats Jim Furyk and Ricky Barnes failed to mount a serious charge in the third round of The Masters on Saturday.

Each was in position to threaten second-round leader Rory McIlroy, with Barnes starting the day five strokes back and Furyk six shots back.

But McIlroy continued to go lower, shooting a 2-under 70, while the ex-Cats fell back. By the end of the day, Barnes and Furyk were at 2 under for the tournament, while McIlroy was four shots ahead of the field at 12 under.

Furyk made six bogeys Saturday. Barnes had five bogeys and a double bogey at the par-3 16th hole.

Barnes, who was at 7-under at one point Friday before falling back, is playing in only his sixth tournament of the season because of a balky back.

“I was trying to do too much stuff to help it; almost over-rehabbing,” he said on Thursday.

Barnes said he received a cortisone injection about 10 weeks ago to relieve pressure on bulging discs.

“I needed to get the inflammation down. It kept on pressing against it,” he said. “Don’t wish that upon anybody.”

Furyk

Tiger Woods was doing nothing more remarkable than talking on television when Jim Furyk was putting for his victory at the Transitions Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla., his first PGA Tour victory since July 2007.

“Shoot, no one was watching me, then,” Furyk said, drawing laughs in his post-round press conference.

OK, so Tiger talking, answering questions on his imposed timetable of five minutes on ESPN and the Golf Channel, was fairly interesting, if not particularly revelatory. Just another baby step on the Tiger Rehabilitation Tour.

Meanwhile, ex-Arizona Wildcat Furyk was sharpening his game just in time for The Masters, which begins April 8. Furyk usually does well at Augusta, finishing fourth twice and posting six top 10 finishes in 13 starts.

Furyk called the Woods interview a “natural progression” of his comeback from personal and marital problems.

“You know what, tomorrow the paper is going to read that I won the golf tournament, and I don’t really care if it’s a three-page spread or a little blurb in the corner of the paper because the article is about him,” Furyk said.

“I won the damn thing and it really doesn’t matter to me. I’ve never been someone that’s craved the notoriety or the limelight. I can live with it and I’m fine with it.”

Tiger is such a dominant storyline that Furyk said he was given a transcript of Woods’ interview before he walked into his press conference … just so he could be prepared to answer questions about him.

“I think it’s good for him to get his face out there and have people see him,” Furyk said. “They are going to make their judgments, but I think it allows him to kind of move on and get focused for the next thing.”

As for Furyk, he had gone 58 official tournaments without winning, although he was still ranked ninth in the world rankings before his victory.

“I never doubted that I would win again,” said Furyk, who turns 40 in May.

“I felt like I have a lot of golf left in me and I feel like I’m still at the top of the peak of my career. How many more years that will last for, who knows, but I felt like I have way more golf tournaments.”

You can read the full transcript of Furyk’s interview here. As for Tiger’s interview … you’ve probably already seen that.