Only the second eagle of the week on the 575-yard second brought Brandt Snedeker, the little-known American, into a tie for the lead with Trevor Immelman of South Africa in the Masters at a blustery Augusta.

After both had begun nervously with bogey fives - Immelman was in the trees right off the tee, Snedeker fired a wild second - the 27-year-old from Nashville made a 30-footer on the next green.

Immelman, also seeking his first major, could only par after finding sand so they were level at ten under par, two ahead of Steve Flesch and England's Paul Casey, who pitched to three feet at the 350-yard third.

Casey followed that, though, by needing two attempts to get out of the bunker on the next and double-bogeying to slip to joint-fourth with Stewart Cink as conditions began to get tougher.

Padraig Harrington was up into a tie for sixth on four-under with birdies at the second and third. Alongside him was Tiger Woods after a disappointing start of three pars and a bogey on the short fourth.

The world No 1 bunkered there, played a brilliant recovery, but missed a four-footer and had to hole an even longer one coming back just to drop one shot.

Ian Poulter had high hopes of getting into contention when he started with birdie putts of 20 and 15 feet to climb to four under, but then it all went horribly wrong.

Poulter bogeyed the third, double-bogeyed the fifth, triple-bogeyed the 180-yard sixth and double-bogeyed the next. Suddenly he was five-over for the day and down to 27th place on three over.

Phil Mickelson, armed with a new putter, was almost certainly out of it, too. The two-time champion, two-under overnight, bogeyed the fourth but then birdied the long eighth to return to joint eighth.

Lee Westwood, one under when he resumed, slipped to one over with bogeys at the seventh and eighth, while Nick Dougherty, his goal a top 16 spot to earn a return trip, birdied the first, but double-bogeyed the seventh and after a bogey on the 10th was three over.