Receiving a warm ovation at the 18th green, Justin Rose (Stats | Bio) tipped his hat and gave a shrug of his shoulders.

The 36-hole Masters Tournament leader finally succumbed to his poor putting. Rose carded a nine-bogey, no-birdie 81 in Saturday's third round. The 23-year-old Englishman fell all the way to 3-over par and is tied for 20th place entering today's final round. He trails Chris DiMarco (Stats | Bio) and Phil Mickelson (Stats | Bio) (Stats | Bio) by nine shots.

"I'm still a bit shell-shocked, to be honest," he said. "Whether you believe me or not, I felt in a great frame of mind going out there. I hit the ball beautifully on the range. I just got off to a bad, bad start, and every little minor mistake got punished.

"That's obviously what Augusta is all about. Today it bit back in a large way."

Rose has been writing an online diary of his golfing experiences for the past three years. After taking a two-shot lead after 36 holes in the Masters Tournament, he wrote:

"Today will be a good experience going into the weekend having slept on the lead and having dealt with the pressure that comes with that."

What will he write about now? Rose bogeyed the first three holes and Nos. 5, 7 and 9 en route to a front-nine 42. He followed with a bogey at the par-4 11th for the third day in a row and later bogeyed Nos. 13 and 15, the two par-5s on the back side.

Despite shooting his worst round of the week, Rose put the day in perspective. He endured a streak of 21 consecutive missed cuts on the European Tour to begin his professional career. His father and mentor, Ken, then died of cancer when Rose was 22.

"No matter what happened today, it was going to be a great learning experience," he said.

"At 23, it's not the end of the world. It hurts, because this week I was thinking I was playing well enough to win."

Playing well enough until he got to the green.

Through two rounds, Rose led the field in greens in regulation. In his third round, he found just eight greens, hurting his cause because he couldn't save himself with his flatstick.

Putting has not been Rose's strength this year, and he has yet to find his touch around the slick bentgrass greens. After using 32 putts each of the first two rounds, he took 34 putts in the third round, including two three-putts. Rose ranks next to last in the 44-player field with 98 putts.

Rose was trying to win a green jacket in just his second appearance, a feat pulled off only by Jimmy Demaret and Herman Keiser in the 1940s. Only Fuzzy Zoeller (Stats | Bio) , Gene Sarazen and Horton Smith have won in their initial showings.

Now he'll have to pull off a Sunday miracle never seen at Augusta National before - Jack Burke (Stats | Bio) overcame an eight-shot deficit after 54 holes to win the 1956 Masters.

Regardless of how he performs, though, he has won over the hearts of Masters patrons.

"I got a beautiful ovation at the last," he said. "That was a nice touch."

Reach Chris Gay at (706) 823-3645 or chris.gay@augustachronicle.com.