BY BRENDAN JAMES at Augusta National GC

A former champion and a first-time starter at Augusta National lead the Masters by one stroke and will play alongside each other in the last group of the final round.

Bubba Watson, the 2012 Champion, and Masters rookie Jordan Spieth sit atop the leaderboard after 54-holes, one shot clear of fellow American Matt Kuchar and Jonas Blixt, who is looking to become Sweden’s first male golfer to win a major championship.

Then there are the Australians – John Senden, Adam Scott and Jason Day – who are among the chasers and ready to make a Sunday charge, on a day when 23 players will start their rounds within seven shots of the lead.

Bubba Watson tees off on the 7th hole during the third round. PHOTO: Getty Images

Watson, 35, was as many as four strokes clear of the field early in the third round and he looked likely to add more space between him and his chasers when he bounced back from a bogey at the 1st with an eagle at the par-5 2nd hole. At that stage he was eight under, with a four-shot buffer back to playing partner John Senden and Spieth, who was playing two pairings ahead.

But cracks in the Watson game began to appear, especially with his putter. The 36-hole leader, who surged to top of the leaderboard on Friday on the back of just 26 putts for the round, began to struggle with the flat-stick. He left himself some difficult par-saving putts, due to some poor bunker shots and chip shots, and once he started missing those he began drifting back to the field. He had two three-putts in his third round, but it was the par-saves he missed – the same ones that he had made consistently in the first two rounds – which hurt most.

Watson gets a little wayward on the 18th hole. PHOTO: Getty Images

Bogies at the 4th, 6th and 16th holes were offset by just one birdie, which jumped onto his card at the long par-4 10th. There could have been further damage to the Watson scorecard if not for two gutsy par-saving putts on the 17th and 18th holes, which helped him finish with a 74 to be five under for the tournament.

“The greens are really firmed up, a lot faster, a lot harder than what we are used to the day before,” Watson said. “Maybe that's because a played a little bit earlier yesterday. But it was the firmest I've seen it in the last couple of years.

“A lot of my bogeys were long, long or short. It wasn't left‑to‑right, so I'm not too worried about what went on. A couple 3‑putts; you 2‑putt those, you're right there and you've got a two‑shot lead.

“If somebody told me on Monday I'd have 74 and still be tied for the lead, I'd have taken it all day long.

“I knew that I was hitting the ball good. I know I was hitting my driver well. I knew the key was just making some putts down the stretch, and luckily I did that on the last two holes to get in the final group.”

Recent Masters history suggests Watson will have to defy the odds to win a second Green Jacket. In the past two decades, there have been only four players lead after 36 holes that have gone on to win the Masters ­– Tiger Woods (1997), Jose Maria Olazabal (1999), Mike Weir (2003) and Trevor Immelman (2008).

Playing alongside him will be 20-year-old Spieth, who can re-write Masters history with a victory here. If he can claim the Green Jacket he will become the youngest player in Masters history to win. He’ll also be the first player since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 to win at Augusta National in their first Masters appearance.

Watson says the occasion will be huge and both and Spieth will be nervous.

Jordan Spieth gets some congratulations from his caddie, Mike Greller. PHOTO: Getty Images

“He's young, nerves are no big deal to him,” Watson smiled. “I've won one, so I've got that going for me, you know, but if I play bad tomorrow, I still have a Green Jacket, so that's the positive I have to go for.

“We're all trying to win the same trophy. We are all trying to do the same thing. We are all going to be nervous and we all know what it means to our career, for our status to move forward in the game. So it's going to be tough for everybody, not just guys that have never won one.”

Spieth, armed with a conservative game plan, carded four birdies in his round of 70 and at no stage did he look overawed by seeing his name creep up the leaderboard.

Part of his game plan – to remain as patient as he can no matter what the situation and to talk through every shot – has come in part from advice he has received from two-time champion Ben Crenshaw, Crenshaw’s old caddie, Carl Jackson, and the great Jack Nicklaus, a six-time Masters winner.

“I'm 20 and this is the Masters, and this is a tournament I've always dreamt about and, like Mr. Crenshaw has always said, it brings out more emotion than ever in somebody,” Spieth said.

“As far as being patient shot‑to‑shot, I think I've done the best that I've ever had with my mental game.  But yeah, I'm still going to talk to myself out there. Really a lot of it is just kind of guiding myself, trying to pump myself up and be really positive, which is abnormal. I mean, typically I'm quiet, or if I'm talking, I'm talking to Michael (Greller his caddie) saying, ‘What's going on?  What's going on.’

“Carl Jackson was foremost (with advice) … Mr. Crenshaw was very helpful.

“I had a little talk with Mr. Nicklaus, and he helped me out. Those guys, which I think are pretty good guys to learn something about the golf course from have really helped.”

Spieth will be nervous but he expects that the course will be so difficult for the final round it will help him focus.

“You're just so focused on from the tee box on how you need to attack the holes and where you need to place the ball in the fairway and what shot you need to shape into the green; how high or low you need to hit it,” he said. “There's just so much that goes into each shot with how hard the course is that you're not worried too much about outside – anything on the outside. I think that that makes a difference.

“Tomorrow, I know the course will be difficult. It was difficult today, and I don't think it will change a whole lot. And I plan on sticking with the same plan.”

WHERE THE MASTERS WILL BE WON & LOST IN THE FINAL ROUND

There are five players immediately in Watson and Spieth’s rear view mirror who have the opportunity to not only win the Masters but claim their first major championship. There’s Kuchar and Blixt and four under, and a further shot back is Rickie Fowler and 50-year-old Miguel Angel Jimenez, who interestingly made his Masters debut in 1995 when Spieth was just two-years-old.

Miguel Angel Jimenez says he is loving life, golf and having fun at 50. PHOTO: Getty Images

Playing in his 58th major championship, the Spaniard made Masters history in the third round by tying the record for the lowest score shot by a player age 50 or older.

The winner of 20 European Tour titles, shot a six-under-par 66 to surge up the leaderboard and match the 66 shot by Ben Hogan here in 1967 and again by Fred Couples in 2010.

"I love the place," he said. "It's a beautiful place, a beautiful golf course, always manicured, and I feel great here. Doesn't matter how you play, you feel good, because everything is prepared for us the way it is.

"If you are 50 doesn't mean that you cannot play well. I'm still moving. I'm still flexible ... the main thing is I'm doing what I like to do in my life and I'm enjoying it completely."

Jimenez started his round at three over, but birdied the 3rd, 5th, 10th and 11th holes before a bogey on the 12th hole interrupted proceedings. He then added birdies at the 13th, 14th and 16th holes.

A win here on Sunday for Jimenez would be one of the sports stories of the year.

So would a win by any of the five Australians who made the cut, three of which have an outside chance to win.

John Senden fires his approach into the par-5 13th. PHOTO: Getty Images

John Senden is the best placed of the Aussies at one under, just four shots behind Watson and Spieth. The Queenslander bogied the last hole for a 75 but he showed gutsy resistance to fight back from dropping four shots in the first seven holes.

“Even though my score was going in the wrong direction, I was still feeling pretty good about myself,” Senden said. “I was still hanging around even par and then I got some really nice birdies on 8 and 9 which put me back in position.

“And then I felt like I played quite well on the back nine, as well, but just didn't drive the ball quite well enough coming down the stretch.

“But how could you still be four off the lead with the way I felt out there? I still believe that I've got a chance tomorrow.

“Sunday at the Masters is always interesting on the back nine.  Anything can happen.

“The golf course is playing difficult, but I think you can really get the back nine in some certain spots.  Look at the way 13 and 15 played today. If you drive the ball well on the back you've got a good opportunity to shoot good scores.”

Adam Scott plays from the creek in front of the 13th green. PHOTO: Getty Images

Adam Scott, the defending champion, is still six shots from the lead despite another frustrating day when at least a handful of putts burned the hole and his usual stellar iron play misfired a few times.

At one stage late in the back nine, caddie Steve Williams could be heard giving his charge a rev-up. “Pars aren’t going to do it mate,” he said. “You need birdies.”

The World No.2 found one at the 17th and was desperately close with his birdie attempts at 15, 16 and 18, which might suggest with some fortune he will start finding the bottom of the cup in the final round.

“I just kind of compounded my mistakes early with a couple three‑putts and got me off on the wrong foot today,” Scott said.

“And with conditions being so hard when you're on the back foot, this is a very hard course to pull shots in, even with opportunities at 13 and 15, I didn't manage to do it. And I just fought really hard but I couldn't get any of those early shots back.

“I'm disappointed, but a good round tomorrow could go a long, long way.

“It's not the end of the world. There are a lot of people between me and the leaders.

“But if I can play a good front nine, anything can happen on the back, and it would be fun to post a number and sit in the clubhouse and watch.”

Starting the third round four over and just inside the cut line, Jason Day was out early and carded a two under 70, which saw him slingshot more than 25 spots up the leaderboard. Seven shots might be a stretch to overhaul the leaders, but like Scott, if he can post a low number early and watch what happens he could be in the frame.

“It is very difficult trying to attack this course with how the greens are right now,” he said. “You leave yourself in the wrong positions you can go backwards in a heartbeat. So it's going to be interesting how the leaders go.

“Definitely it all depends on how they set the course up tomorrow. If they set it up hard, you'll have to give it more respect. If they set it up easier you can take a few more chances and take that risk and get the reward.”

Steven Bowditch has had a terrific Masters debut and his third round 74 has him entering the final round tied for 29th at four over. Oliver Goss, who wrapped up the Silver Cup awarded to the low amateur here by making the cut, had a 76 on his 20th birthday, which leaves him tied for 42nd place.

“I got a couple hundred happy birthdays from the crowd,” Goss said. “And then after the last hole the crowd got a happy birthday song going, which was great.”

Goss will be in Butler Cabin after the final round is completed to collect his Silver Cup. Just who will sit alongside him as the 2014 Masters Champion is not clear but there is still a big chance it might be another Australian.