Tiger Woods not about to let some newbie like Snedeker, Immelman or Casey take away another Masters title and Grand Slam bid

Tiger Woods has somehow found his way back into the Masters after putting together by far his finest nine of the tournament, shooting a 33 on the backside of Augusta National this afternoon.

It’s Tiger and a bunch of newbies without any major experience at the top of the leaderboard.

Brandt Snedeker, Paul Casey and Trevor Immelman are all youngsters with no major wins. They have yet to crack under pressure like Justin Rose, Ian Poulter and plenty others.

I wouldn’t like Tiger’s chances as much if Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and Jim Furyk were able to keep pace.

But all it takes is one shot for a youngster to completely fall apart. We saw this over and over again this afternoon: Look at Ian Poulter’s inexplicable shank for his second shot on No. 9 today that put him on the bogey train and out of contention. Or how about Andres Romero following up a birdie on 15 with a terrible miss short side. Visibly flustered, he couldn’t even capitalize on a short birdie putt on 18.

Steve Flesch, while he hasn’t dropped any strokes as of 11, is hanging on by a thread. Phil Mickelson…I don’t even know where to begin with this guy…the short putts he’s missing is inexcusable, yet seemingly typical, perplexing Lefty.

Snedeker and Immelman look sharp headed into Amen Corner. But how they react to a self-inflicted wound will determine if they’re able to keep their comfortable lead over Tiger. 10-under can likely put them out of Tiger’s reach (pending a Norman-like collapse), while a few lost strokes back to 6-under putts Tiger in the driver’s seat.

Woods has never won a major trailing after 54 holes. To win step one on his Grand Slam season, he’ll need a comeback of dramatic fashion that began on the back nine this afternoon. And I’m sure he’s tired of guys like Zach Johnson and Angel Cabrera taking his major titles.

His putter is going to have to take it up a notch, but I like his chances to intimidate the youngsters tomorrow, especially 8-under is the leader after action today.

Snedeker just went long and left on 12…let’s see what he’s made of!