Spieth could punch out and lay up, leaving a wedge shot that he'd have to execute perfectly to secure a birdie.
Garcia and Rose will play in the final group. With a four-under 68 third round, he's well within contention of a second green jacket.
Rose and Garcia wound up tied for the lead Saturday on a tense afternoon that set the stage for a Masters finale up for grabs. "That's all you want but really it starts on the back nine (in the final round)", added Rose.
"You're going to have to go out and play a good round of golf, and I think there's going to be four or five guys pretty much with the same mindset". For me the test was around six when I made bogey, I stayed with it and played well on the back nine.
The Englishman, who has four previous top-10 finishes at the Augusta National, was level par for the round after 11, only to blitz the final seven holes.
The American looked like he was playing a different course to the rest with a run of four birdies in a row on the back nine to finish on seven-under par and a lead of four shots. Moments later, he realized the ball had bounced softly enough off the side of the bank to stop halfway down it.
He then chipped to a foot and made the birdie putt.
"This is a new experience for me, coming from behind at the Masters", Spieth said.
At one-under-par he is well placed for a Sunday charge and knows all too well what can happen on the back nine at Augusta having been alongside Danny Willett a year ago as Jordan Spieth collapsed. They're a lot less confident in Garcia, whose odds are 9/2.
It's a crowd at the top of the Masters leaderboard and one of the contenders, Rickie Fowler, hardly went out on a limb when he predicted more of the same for Sunday's final round. Fowler also has never felt better about his game or his chances.
Wild Lose In Game 2
Instead, the Blues have snaked their way into the heads of Minnesota like those nasty worms from Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan. Sobotka has been a welcome addition to the Blues lineup, scoring a goal in the first game of the series.
He will be paired with Spieth in the penultimate group. "I'm going to need something like that to have a chance tomorrow", McIlroy said. I feel good about everything.
Perhaps the most daunting name at Augusta National is Jordan Spieth, who began this Masters with a quadruple-bogey 9 on the 15th hole of the opening round and was 10 shots out of the lead when he trudged off the course Thursday. Spieth, who was T41 after the first round, started Saturday at even par and is 4-under through 13.
Spieth cranked a 4-iron, and the ball cleared Rae's Creek by plenty, settling 29 feet from the hole.
He is two shots back at four under, along with Ryan Moore and Spieth. The 18th played the most hard in round three with Justin Rose making one of just five birdies, with 16 bogeys and two doubles leading to an average of 4.283.
Rose and Garcia, friends and European Ryder Cup teammates, tee off in just less than two hours.
The South African made a double-bogey and five bogeys in his first eight holes to slump to 10 over par.
Adam Scott of Australia was seventh with a 69 that took his total to 213 after 54 holes at the Augusta National Golf Club.
On the 20th anniversary of Tiger Woods' record-setting victory, which he led by nine shots after three rounds and turned the final round into a formality, this isn't expected to be a runaway.
Riding the crest of a wave, McIlroy almost nailed a hole-in-one on the short 16th but a tap-in birdie brought him back to level par. Ranked No. 1893 in the world, Couples finished tied for 89th in 2015 and missed last year's tournament with wrist and back injuries, but rounded back into form in this year's first two rounds. He was six shots behind.
After a brutal double-bogey on the par-3 16th hole, Charley Hoffman settled for an even-par 72 Saturday to finish at 4 under.
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