Tiger Woods tees off on the second hole. Woods sits six strokes back following Saturday's third round in Augusta, Ga.

Augusta, Ga. ? Out there in the sports world, fans no longer believe. It’s as if they have a contest to see who can give up first. Their team is too far behind. The game, the series and the season are finished.

But in Tiger World, everybody believes. Thousands of fans march with him Saturday at Augusta National Golf Club, slipping and stomping through the quagmire. They walk when Tiger walks and stop when Tiger stops and wait for the brilliance that will make the Masters right.

When Tiger steps to the first tee, he is seven strokes out of first place and four strokes behind Phil Mickelson, the new favorite to win. Twelve players have at least one stroke on Tiger. But none of them is Tiger.

“He’s the one to be very wary of,” says Paul Casey, one of the four golfers still in front of him.

At Augusta, there are only two golfers, Tiger and Everybody Else. Tiger might have introduced diversity to golf, but golf wants no diversity when it comes to its champions. Everybody – fans, sponsors, networks, women, men, old people and kids – wants Tiger.

So they join him. Other golfers have galleries. Tiger has legions. The ground beneath them is so slippery that a middle-aged woman falls into the muck, her white pants suddenly looking like a sundae. She stands up, not embarrassed, and rejoins the crusade.

Tiger birdies No.2, and Tiger World is convinced more will immediately follow. They’re wrong.

Although he hits the ball well, he rarely has an easy putt and consistently fails to make the long ones and finishes the front nine without another birdie. Fans cheer, but the cheers are based on what they expect rather than what they see.

Still, his legions cling to him, pants muddied and expectations high. They are all of us.

They wear caps that say Maine, Florida, Detroit Pistons, Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys. They eat chips, chocolate, power bars, peanuts and $1.50 sandwiches. They speak English, British, Spanish, Italian and Japanese.

And when they cheer, they all speak the same language. Tiger finally gives them a reason. He birdies 10 and 13.

Fans who await his arrival at No.18 see the scoreboard operators manually stick a red five beneath his name, meaning he is 5 under, meaning he just birdied No. 17, and they make so much noise you would think they had seen him do it.

But when they do see Tiger, he’s in the pine straw beneath the trees on the right side of the fairway, 180 yards from the hole. He sees an opening between the branches and, rather than play safe, goes for it.

Now he’s on the green, and fans who had been holding their breath let go.

Tiger finishes 5-under par and six strokes out of the lead.

“There’s no doubt,” he says. “I put myself right back in the tournament.”

Although Tiger has won 13 majors, he has never won when he trailed going into the final round.

Reasonable folks would not expect that to change on Sunday.

Tiger World is not reasonable.