Woods and Rose in solid position

Padraig Harrington is just two behind and Augusta debutant Bradley Dredge a mere three strokes back.

With halfway pacesetters Tim Clark and Brett Wetterich crashing to 80 and 83 respectively, Australian Stuart Appleby is the man out in front now.

But amazingly he sits on top of the leaderboard on two over par - by two strokes the highest 54-hole score that ever led the tournament in a history going back to 1934.

Appleby even plunged to a triple-bogey seven on the 17th and still ended the third round on top thanks to a 73.

"Augusta is a tough opponent - and will be tomorrow," he said. "We all know what we are in for."

In the cold, windy conditions on a course already rock hard the average score, hard though it is to believe, was over 77.

Retief Goosen's 70 was the low round of the day and, having made the cut with nothing to spare at eight over, he still has a chance, as do defending champion Phil Mickelson, Luke Donald and the others on six over.

Woods moved up from 15th to second with a 72 - and would have led on his own but for bogeying the last two holes just as he did in Thursday's first round.

Nevertheless, the world number one is poised now to challenge for a third successive major, his 13th in all and a fifth Masters victory in 11 years.