Tom Curran • E-mail

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Step one is done.

Tiger Woods woke up on a drizzly Georgia Saturday in a seven-way tie for 13th place at the Masters.

Tiger Woods went to bed Saturday night having elbowed through assorted Weirs, Poulters, Goosens and Oberholsers to move into fifth place all by himself at 5-under.

The names of the men ahead of him — Trevor Immelman, Brandt Snedeker, Steve Flesch and Paul Casey. They are not a pack of hackers. Neither will they be confused with the ’27 Yankees (apologies for the mixed sports metaphor).

A quick glance at their resumes show Immelman’s won one PGA tournament and, surprise, so has Snedeker (bless you). Casey’s an accomplished European Tour player, but he has never won in America. Flesch is a 40-year-old lefty journeyman who has won three PGA Tour titles. Combined majors for this group we now dub "Flimmelcaseker"? Zero.

Tiger, at the height of his powers and catching the scent of fresh meat on Sunday at Augusta, is lurking. For Flimmelcaseker, this is Dale Earnhardt Sr. on your collective bumper coming into the final turn, Jordan on the elbow sizing you up with the clock ticking down and Gretzky with a penalty shot in overtime.

Flimmelcaseker might want to get on a conference call with Bob May and Matt Gogel to prepare themselves for what lies ahead. May, you’ll remember, played valiantly in the 2000 PGA Championship, going head-to-head with Woods. It didn’t work out. Gogel had a seven-shot lead over Woods going into the back nine of the 2000 AT&T at Pebble Beach, then Woods went Tiger on him.

A lot of forks were sunk into Woods’ back Friday night in the media room at Augusta. Woods’ round of 4-under 68 pulled them halfway out Saturday, but those forks aren’t all the way out because, well, Flimmelcaseker has a bit of a bulge.

Immelman’s at 11-under, righting his ship after an uneven start with a back-nine 33. Snedeker got his head handed to him at Amen Corner with three bogeys, but he made three birdies in his last five holes to finish at 9-under. Flesch had a solid 69 capped by a birdie at 18 and he’s at 8-under. And Casey went out in 32 and came in at 37 to finish at 7-under.

Woods? He had a 68 that could have been a 65.

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“Today was probably the highest score I could have shot,” Woods said. “Sixty-eight was as high as I could go. I hit the ball well all day, hit a lot of good putts that didn’t quite have the right speed or the right line. It was just a touch off and you’re going to pay the price. I hit the ball so well and hit so many good putts that just skirted the hole. But, hey, I put myself right back in the tournament.”

Woods is aware that Sunday's weather is going to be cooler and more windy. Composure and patience are going to be at a premium and Woods has both in great reserve.

“(Playing) the back nine, they have some dots out there (for the Sunday pin placements) and they’re going to be a little more accessible,” theorized Woods. “But then again, you got the wind blowing tomorrow, it’s supposed to be 20 to 30 (miles per hour).”

Woods acknowledged he won’t have the chance to be extremely aggressive with the wind kicking up.

“Not out here, especially not under the conditions we’re going to have tomorrow. ... You just got to hang in there and hang around,” he said. “I’ve been around here. I played under these tough conditions here before.”

Slide show   Scenes from the Masters A visual tour from Augusta National, site of the year's first major. more photos

The fact that Woods never came from behind on the final day to win any of his 13 majors was mentioned often Saturday. Yeah, what a gagger. And nobody ever won this tournament by 12 shots before he came along, either.

Flimmelcaseker is well on his way to being the fall guy for Tiger’s latest and greatest. Each of them has a nice story. But what they do not have is history. Woods does.

“I’m sure Tiger is going to be there somewhere on the back nine (Sunday),” Snedeker said. “I’m sure he’ll be doing it. I’ll worry about that when the time comes.”

Set your watch for around 5 p.m., Flimmelcaseker.

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