© Augusta National

When Nick Price, more than two decades after the fact, was asked about the principal of "Moving Day" at the Masters, the three-time major champion chuckled.

His is a classic example of the rewards -- or perils -- of a charge on the Tournament's penultimate day.

On Saturday, April 1986, Price, then 29, was for a day the master of the Masters. The young pro from South Africa (now Zimbabwe) shot a brilliant 9-under-par 63 to set Augusta National's single-round course record. And that was with a lipped-out birdie putt at the 18th.

"Sixty-two or 63, I didn't really care," Price said in 2006, the 20th anniversary of his feat. "I'd shot myself back into the Tournament, and that was really important to me."

He smiled at the memory and then laughed at what happened next.

Jack Nicklaus upstaged him. The Golden Bear's come-from-behind victory at age 46, the oldest Masters champion, made Price's day-earlier accomplishment fade into insignificance and years later Price doesn't mind. "That was one of the greatest days for Jack Nicklaus and for golf, ever," he said.

Still, Price's Saturday was special, too, even if it didn't result in him winning the Green Jacket.

"Moving Day" is when players push to put themselves in position close enough to the leaders to perhaps make a move Sunday on Augusta National's second nine. Or, in the case of the other "greatest" Masters, it can come when a player goes from contention to domination.

When 21-year-old Tiger Woods shot 70-67 the first two rounds in 1997, the PGA Tour rookie took a three-shot lead on perennial major contender, Colin Montgomerie. Late Friday, Monty speculated that the "youngster" might not be up to the pressures of leading the Masters.

In retrospect, that was akin to wondering if penguins like ice.

Saturday Woods tamed Augusta National and the rest of the field, shooting a Tournament-low 65. His lead was nine shots, en route to his record 18-under-par 270 and 12-shot victory. Montgomerie was singing a different tune.

"There is no chance (to overtake Woods)," he proclaimed. "We're all human beings here. There's no chance humanly possible."

Woods' fourth triumph at Augusta National, though, might top the first, at least in terms of Moving Day madness.

Through two rounds of the 2005 Masters, Chris DiMarco had a stranglehold on the lead at 10-under through 36 holes. Woods was six shots back at 4-under par. Even after Woods birdied three straight holes before darkness forced suspension of the third round Saturday, DiMarco still led, 13-under par to Woods' 9-under.

When daylight came Sunday morning, it was lights out for DiMarco.

Woods made birdies on Nos. 10, 11, 12 and 13 -- including Saturday, for a record seven birdies in a row. DiMarco, meanwhile, had a mini-meltdown, making two double bogeys to finish the round at 74. Tiger's 7-under par 65 meant a nine-shot swing, and a three-shot lead.

Though he ultimately needed sudden death to outlast DiMarco, it was Tiger's two-day, third-round blitz that made it possible.

And it wrote yet another Moving Day chapter at the Masters.

Other notable Moving Day charges:

* Sam Snead's 67 on Saturday in 1949 took him from five shots behind to tie Lloyd Mangrum (Snead won with a closing 67).

* Ben Hogan's 66 to outdistance Ed "Porky" Oliver in 1953 en route to a five-shot win.

* Gary Player's 66 in 1974 to rally from five shots back of Dave Stockton.

* Nicklaus' 64 in 1965, breaking a tie with Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, and fueling his then-record 271 and nine-shot victory.

* Nick Faldo's 66 in 1990, which paved the way for him to overtake Raymond Floyd and then win in a two-hole playoff.

* Phil Mickelson shot 70 in 2006 and made up three shots on Tim Clark, who lost by two.

* Woods' third-round 66 in 2002 tied Retief Goosen and set up Tiger's three-shot win.

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