Brilliant round, lucky bounce gives Masters hopeful one last shot at Augusta National

Andrew Novak doesn’t have plans next week.

That could change on Sunday.

The 30-year-old PGA Tour pro has played in just one major in his career and has never teed it up at the Masters. Novak entered the week at the Valero Texas Open at TPC San Antonio needing to win to punch his ticket to the year’s first major. Entering Saturday six shots back of Brian Harman, Novak’s chances looked dim.

But with the Texas winds whipping up to 25 mph, Novak did what few could Saturday and rose up the leaderboard.

He went out in one-over but carded five birdies on the back nine to shoot three-under and climb within three shots of Harman, who shot even par on Saturday.

Novak was one of just seven players to shoot under par on Saturday. He was one shot off the round of the day, which was shot by Tom Hoge.

“It was tough,” Novak said after the round. “I played really well. I made sure not to put myself in any like disastrous spots. I obviously got lucky a few times when I did miss and made a lot of putts when I needed to. I’m not surprised at all that there weren’t many rounds under par, this course was playing really difficult.”

One of those lucky breaks came on the par-3 16th hole when he blew his tee shot out to the right toward the grandstands. But the ball ricocheted off the buildout and rolled onto the green, giving Novak a five-footer for birdie that he buried.

I”t was like a 5-iron today with it being into the wind and I pushed it, wind caught it,” Novak said of the shot on 16. “Obviously not a great shot, but I know if it’s over there, there’s some space, it can be OK. I didn’t expect it to kick back and go on the green, that was obviously ridiculous. Not the best swing and sometimes golf rewards you.”

Not many golfers got rewarded on Saturday at TPC San Antonio.

Daniel Berger shot a front-nine 40. Matt Wallace went out in 41. Sam Ryder shot 77 in the final group. J.T. Poston also shot 77.

Hoge was the only bogey-free player in the field, climbing 19 spots to get within four of Harman.

“It was tough,” Hoge said. “Totally opposite wind than we’ve had the last two days, so made a little more thought off the tees to figure out the new golf course. Like I said, even the downwind holes, they were a challenge because the ball was bouncing out so much. I just tried to battle and fight and knew I had to make a lot of those six-, seven-foot par putts in there, which I did off the start, and that kind of kept me in thing.”

Harman opened the day with bogeys on No. 2 and No. 4 but steadied the ship and made nine consecutive pars before a birdie at 15.

The 38-year-old hasn’t won since the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, where he entered Sunday with a big lead and had to fend off a host of chasers in poor weather conditions.

He’ll fall back on that experience Sunday when he tees it up at TPC San Antonio, but he knows his best will be required to keep a pack of pros behind him at bay — with Novak, eyeing a trip to Augusta National, chief among them.

“I certainly know that I can do it,” Harman said after Saturday’s round. “But the guys that are behind me, they’re hungry, man, they’re coming. A lot of guys that haven’t won, guys that have won a couple times, good players, so I’ll have to play really well tomorrow.”