By David Kraft
 ESPN.com
 Friday, April 6
AUGUSTA, Ga. - That sound you heard at high noon Friday was the wheels coming off Chris DiMarco's unlikely bid for the Masters championship.

 Chris DiMarco
Chris DiMarco stayed in control with four birdies and just one bogey on Friday.
DiMarco, a rookie at Augusta National, led the Masters after one round. So had Dennis Paulson a year ago when he shot 68 on opening day. He shot 76 in the second round. So had Brandel Chamblee two years ago when he shot 69 to tie for the first-round lead. He shot 73 the next day.

And so had Mike Donald, the poster boy for the kind of Masters train wrecks that sometime engulf newcomers. Donald shot 64 in his first Masters round in 1990. He shot 82 on Friday and almost missed the cut.

And now, after one hole, DiMarco was threatening to join them. He had hit a bad drive on the first hole and couldn't recover, taking bogey.

"I got off to not the greatest start," DiMarco said, mangling his sentence about as badly as his tee shot.

The vultures were circling. Tiger Woods, playing 90 minutes ahead of him, was closing ground. David Duval was making noise. Jose Maria Olazabal and Lee Janzen, with four major titles between them, were on the leaderboard. Steve Stricker was already in the clubhouse at 7-under -- the same number DiMarco had started with.

But DiMarco didn't fold. He didn't succumb to Masters pressure, which he contends is a creation of the media, anyway. Instead, he birdied the par-5 second with a driver, a 3-wood and a solid chip to three feet. He birdied the par-4 third with a 20-foot putt. He didn't make a bogey for the rest of the day.

"Once I hit my drive on 2, which was a really good one down the left side, that settled me down a lot," he said. "And obviously, to make birdie there was, like, 'OK, we are not going in the wrong direction. We're going in the right direction.' From that point on, I never thought about anything negative the rest of the day."

DiMarco made par for the next eight holes. He picked up two more birdies on the back nine, including one at the par-3 12th, when he drained a 20-foot putt. It was his second straight birdie on one of the toughest par-3s in golf. He also birdied the 15th.

Four hours after the wheels were about to come off, DiMarco walked off the 18th green with his chances firmly intact. He cemented the deal with a clutch 8-foot par putt -- after surviving the fairway bunker -- that gave him a 69 and put him to 10-under.

And he wouldn't be known as the guy who started strong, but faded in the second round.

"I read a lot of articles today and they said that Dennis Paulson and Brandel Chamblee shot in the 60s and were leading and never shot in the 60s again. That putt on 18 was big. I wanted to put it in the 60s today."

Saturday, he'll be in the final pairing with Woods for the first time in his career. In the group ahead will be Mickelson, who caught Woods at 8-under. Olazabal, with two green jackets, won't be too far ahead.

"I'm excited. I really am," DiMarco said. "I had a lot of opportunities to play with (Woods). We missed each other by a player here or a player there.

"I think I've gained a lot of fans over the last few days," he said. "We go to a normal tournament, everything is pro-Tiger. I'm sure there will be a lot of pro-Tigers, but I think I gained a lot of fan base out there, so I'm sure I will hear a lot of ?Go Chrises,' which will be nice."

DiMarco gave no predictions, other than he won't lose his composure.

"The bottom line is, he's got to play the course, too," DiMarco said.




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