Spieth surges five clear with nine to play

Jordan Spieth was on the brink of making history with a second successive wire-to-wire victory in the Masters, after surging five shots clear heading into his final nine holes at Augusta.

Spieth was just one ahead of rookie Smylie Kaufman overnight following a horrendous finish to his third round and a host of big names were within striking distance of the world number two.

However, Spieth overcame a couple of hairy moments midway through his outward nine to turn in 32 on Sunday and significantly enhance his chances of becoming only the fourth man - after Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods - to win the Masters in successive years.

More remarkably, the 22-year-old reigning champion was on course to lead after every round at Augusta once again - an unprecedented feat.

At seven under following an outstanding run of four successive birdies from the sixth, Spieth held a healthy lead over England's Danny Willett (-2), with Dustin Johnson and Soren Kjeldsen a further stroke back.

A struggling Kaufman had slipped back to even par, while the likes of Jason Day (+1), Hideki Matusyama (+1), Rory McIlroy (+3) and Bernhard Langer (+4) also appeared to have far too much to do.

Kaufman fired a superb approach to four feet at the first, only to miss a golden opportunity to pull level with Spieth.

Both members of the final pairing then birdied the second, but back-to-back dropped shots followed for Kaufman, meaning Spieth - who saved an unlikely par at the fourth after his blocked tee shot almost went out of bounds - led by three.

That advantage was trimmed back to two when Spieth again went right with his approach to the fifth, resulting in a bogey.

Yet after Willett had followed a birdie at six with another on the eighth, moving him into sole second, Spieth set about making a seemingly decisive move with four gains in a row - curling mid-range putts at six and nine coming either side of two tap-in birdies.

With the leaders tackling the back nine, the low round of the day belonged to young Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick, who shot 67 - a score only bettered by Spieth this week - to move inside the top 10 at even par.

The typical Sunday pin position on 16 often leads to aces and this year was no exception as Ireland's Shane Lowry, American Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III and Louis Oosthuizen all made holes-in-one, the latter via a deflection off JB Holmes' ball.