Jon Rahm is some 11 strokes off the lead but at the minute all he will be bothered about is at least making a par on the 18th to make the cut.

Easier said than done with the blustery conditions around the Augusta National. The defending champion heads slightly left off the tee but looks to be okay.

Matt Fitzpatrick doesn't quite have the same length but it's straight as a die off the tee.

Any lingering hopes Viktor Hovland had of making the cut have evaporated on the 15th green.

He misses a short par putt by inches and carelessly stabs at his ball with one hand on the putter. And that results in his ball missing the hole and slipping four feet back in the other direction.

He wastes no time lining up the double-bogey putt. In it goes. The ball is plucked from the hole and lobbed in the lake. Game over.

Happier times for Jon Rahm, just ove a hole ago. Still if he gets down the 18th with at least a par this sublime putt on the 16th will have proved to be pivotal.

Oh my word. Jon Rahm takes three with his putter, missing a par putt from three feet or so. Nobody saw that coming least of all the Spaniard who now faces a tense finish on the 18th.

Meanwhile, Fitzy escapes with a par and Nick Dunlap bounces back with a birdie.

John Murray
Commentator on BBC Radio 5 Live

It is one of those days for Rory McIlroy. The body language says everything as he talks to his caddie Harry Diamond. He does not look angry just resigned to it.

Image source, Getty Images

Jon Rahm heads down the right of the fairway on 17 and thrashes his second in towards the green. He has to take the aerial route given his line and the two front bunkers but still lands slap bang in the middle of the green some 25 feet from the pin.

Matt Fitzpatrick, who was part of the same winning European Ryder Cup team as Rahm last year, strays left and then right. Fitzy's getting his steps in here but is going to have to get up and down from the right edge to save par.

The sun's getting low and the shadows are lengthening across the greens at Augusta now, making even the smallest putts just a tad bit more tricky.

Our group here all manage to tidy things up though for pars on 16 and they march off to the 17th looking likely to get things done before we lose the light.

It's an A++ effort from Xander Schauffele out of the bunker on 16 as he gets his low escape bang on the money and lands the ball in the first cut to take the sting out of the ball allowing it to trickle down to the hole. Magic.

What are we watching here? Jon Rahm rolls in from downtown to a huge cheer. Fist clenched, putter in the air, the Spaniard has a huge grin on his face.

And so he should. The defending champion looks like he could end up sticking around for the weekend after all.

Just a par for Fitzy mind as Nick Dunlap's hopes tumble with a bogey.

Rory McIlroy saves his par, but saving his par is not what he is normally doing on the par fives - he usually dominates them.

Scottie Scheffler's birdie try isn't very good. It's downhill and he's take the option of nurdling it down there rather than having a proper pop at holing it.

With a little bit of momentum finally going his way Jon Rahm wants to get on with things on the par-three 16th hole but has to put things on hold as Hideki Matsuyama, Will Zalatoris and Justin Thomas take an eternity to get off the 16th green.

Rahm and Fitzy both find the green but have long putts incoming. Nick Dunlap finds the greenside bunker but splashes out beautifully to seven feet.

The former US Amateur champion still has an outside chance of making the cut here.

Image source, Reuters

Bryson DeChambeau speaking to Sky Sports after shooting a one-over 73: "The conditions were so difficult. It was one of the toughest tests of golf I have ever had in my life.

"You can easily fly the greens if the wind changes just a fraction. You just have to protect yourself out there and put yourself in position where you do not make big numbers. That is the key out here.

"Not three putting is a big thing too. I have done that a couple of times this week so that is what I will be working on this afternoon. Other than that I feel pretty solid.

"Shooting one over par was not too bad. I have a chance and that's all I could ask for was to play my way into an opportunity come Sunday."

Careless again from Rory McIlroy who lays up on 15, like all three of them do in this group, but hits his pitch too far and his ball just tumbles off the back of the green.

Matt Fitzpatrick's sequence of pars does end. Not quite enough oomph behind that putt from the Englishman, who spoils his card with his first bogey of the round.

Jon Rahm on the other hand almost cracks a smile as he knocks in his first birdie of the day.

Matt Fitzpatrick's run of pars could be coming to an end here on the 15th.

The Englishman looks pretty perplexed, has his second gone into the water here? It looks like he is checking with the officials and preparing to take a drop.

He has indeed found the drink and now plays his fourth from the right side of the fairway, clipping it to 10 feet.

Meanwhile, Jon Rahm is on the dance floor and will have a birdie putt from 15 feet.

That's another shot gone for Rory McIlroy and at four over he's just a couple of shots inside the cut line as it stands.

He's also not managed to make a birdie yet today, and the last round he played at the Masters without making a birdie is the third round way back in 2016.

Matt Fitzpatrick goes pin hunting on the 14th and isn't far off.

His ball lands just right and then trickles a little further away before slowly stopping. The Englishman has a birdie putt which is good for distance but it just peels off left and it'll be his 12th consecutive par and 13th of the round.

Jon Rahm, is in big trouble here mind. His ball spirals away and through the green and while he chips back on his seven-foot par putt breaks sharply left and rolls a good 15 feet away.

It's going to be a double for the defending champion who has not missed a cut at a major since the 2019 US PGA Championship.

A bogey on a par five around here is borderline criminal from Scottie Scheffler, but we'll give him a pass considering the conditions.

Rory McIlroy is just a couple of rolls of his ball away from making a birdie, and his shoulders sink as his effort pulls up just short.

Image source, Getty Images

Iain Carter
BBC golf correspondent on BBC Radio 5 Live

Rory McIlroy's figures for the 11th hole, he averaged 4.35 on this par-four hole coming in and that has got even worse.

Rory has played the 11th 56 times and had 15 bogeys, four double bogeys and one worse than that. So 20 times out of 56 that he has not been able to par it. It has to be in his head.

Matt Fitzpatrick emerges from Amen Corner with his card still bogey free and frankly it could have been even slightly better than that with a long-range birdie effort almost brushing the right of the cup on the 13th.

Jon Rahm's attempt from even further away never really threatens the hole but is close enough to ensure at least a par. Wonder if he has heard that the projected cut line has shifted to five over?

Nick Dunlap is able make his third birdie of the round, his biggest problem has been the four bogeys and the double that have accompanied them today.