AUGUSTA, Ga. » Moving day at the Masters was more like being stuck in neutral for Tiger Woods.

After a quick start in which he managed back-to-back birdies for the morning masses at the difficult third and fourth holes, things slowly turned into another afternoon of dropping his head and club in dismay. By the time he made the turn, Woods was even for his round and is now a non-factor.

The oddsmakers had him listed as the 3-1 favorite for the first major of 2012 due in part to his win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill two weeks ago. But whatever goodwill Woods built for himself coming to Augusta National faded from view.

After going 2 under through the opening 10 holes on Thursday, Woods is 5 over since and sits at 3-over 219 entering today’s final round with little hope of catching a ride up the leaderboard.

If you want a simple explanation for his performance, look no further than the par 5s. Entering this year’s Masters, he was 133 under on the long holes. He’s only 1 under this week. Each day after his round, he’s gone to the practice range to try to break the bad habits that creep into his swing, but they just won’t go away without a fight.

“I’m just trying to get back to how I had it at Bay Hill,” Woods said after shooting an even-par 72. “I got here and for some reason I kind of fell into my same old patterns again. I just can’t do that. This round was a lot better today. I felt a lot more comfortable over the shots. Unfortunately, I was just a fraction off.”

WOODS SEEMED TO have found himself early on. He was confident on the practice range, producing shouts of “Go Tiger” as he strode to the first hole as the gallery swelled from the tee box to the green 445 yards away.

“I was so close to putting it together today,” Woods said. “I’m telling you it was so close to being a really good round of golf. I just didn’t take care of the opportunities when I had them.”

Things started unraveling with a three-putt bogey at the par-3 sixth, prompting one fan to yell as Woods and playing partner Charl Schwartzel walked by, “Hey Tiger, you’re costing me money.” It brought a small smirk to Woods’ face, but the good-natured ribbing did little to improve Woods’ swing.

The back nine was a long exercise in futility. A steady stream of pars kept Woods from getting back into the fray. He will tee it up today tied for 38th and in danger of being irrelevant in the one major many felt was his best chance to win.

“Hey, anything can happen here, that’s the thing,” Woods said. “You can be four, five, six back on the back nine and still win the golf tournament. Anything can happen. I need to put myself there where I have a chance.”

A DOZEN SHOTS off the pace is too steep a hill to climb even for the Woods of old. With this missed opportunity, his chances of catching Jack Nicklaus grow more difficult.

Several years ago at a Senior Skins event on Maui, Arnold Palmer matter-of-factly predicted that Woods wouldn’t surpass Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors. The closer Woods got, the more pressure he would face, Palmer said. The King also accurately predicted that injuries, as well as a deep pool of young talent that Woods helped develop, were potential obstacles for “the young man to overcome.”

On Saturday, one member of the foreign press put it this way: “He has to win four more majors from age 37 just to catch Jack. And that’s as many majors as Phil Mickelson has won in his entire career.”

Well said. And given the state of today’s game, where there are more young guns around than Dodge City of the 19th century, it gets more challenging with each passing year.

Paul Arnett is sports editor of the Star-Advertiser. Reach him at parnett@staradvertiser.com.