Moving day: Mahan, Snedeker among those taking advantage of Saturday

On Moving Day at Muirfield, a few players — very few — were able to take advantage of the day’s conditions and post low numbers. And as a result, one of them might just bring home the Claret Jug.

Hunter Mahan leads the pack of players who put themselves in position for a Sunday run. Only nine players finished under par on Saturday, and Mahan was one of only three — Richard Sterne and Sergio Garcia (!) were the other two — to finish at -3. As a reward, Mahan gets to sleep in a little more, teeing off in the final pairing with Lee Westwood.

Mr. Best-Never-To-Win-A-Major helped his own cause with a -1. Westwood’s ride on Saturday was a characteristically ridiculous one; the man simply can’t stand prosperity, and almost every time he broke out to a lead, he gave it back. Mercifully for him, the round ended with him one stroke ahead of playing partner Tiger Woods, who like Mahan finished at -2.

But the best turnaround of the day had to belong to Brandt Snedeker, who’s now gone 68-79-68 in three rounds at Muirfield. Four birdies, four bogeys, one eagle, that’s how you do it if you’re Snedeker.

Perhaps the best indicator of how the end of this story keeps changing is this: Snedeker was T20 when he finished the round; when everyone else finished, he was T11. The swings in both momentum and scoring are dizzying for fans and nausea-inducing for players. But, in a statistic you’ll hear plenty of times on Sunday, last year’s winner, Ernie Els, came from six strokes back. This year, that encompasses 17 players. It’s nowhere close to over yet, folks.

Devil Ball Golf – Golf – Yahoo! Sports