Admittedly as yesterday's third round unfolded with bursts of torrential rain descending on east Georgia, the leaderboard was liberally laced with long hitters.

Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington were all in the mix, but this 70th edition of the tournament has not been solely the preserve of the bombers.

If the initial stages of the championship belonged to a Texan whose surname began with 'C', you could be forgiven for wondering if that accolade was for Chad Campbell or Ben Crenshaw. It was hard to fathom that a 54-year-old, who only ranks 65th in driving distance on the Champions Tour, could be occupying the same rarified space as Woods, Goosen and Harrington.

"I've got some game left, " said Crenshaw, and no one could disagree, but then he wasn't the only older, shorter hitter to figure. Rocco Mediate, a PGA Tour veteran at 43, was also in contention along with Olin Browne, who will be 47 next month.

It is undeniable that before the rains came, the fast-running nature of the course gave the likes of Crenshaw, Mediate and Browne the sort of respite that hadn't been predicted. "I've proved to myself that there's a way around here, " added Crenshaw.

Unconsciously, he has helped to justify the controversial changes to the course.

The men of The Masters will have been privately relieved to see all five top-ranked players in the world in with a chance of victory, but the presence of Crenshaw, Mediate and Browne . . . even if it turns out to be fleeting later today . . . means that Augusta, with all its modifactions, remains a course for all-comers.

There was plenty of resignation around earlier in the week that the added length would play into Woods's hands, but with his intelligent course management, his experience, and his sublime touch in the greens, Crenshaw has shown emphatically that there is more than one way to tame the monster.

He was 86th out of 90 players in driving distance going into the weekend, but predictably he was second in putting. "I'm playing longer irons into the greens than most of the other guys, and my ball is coming in hot into the greens, but the contours can help as much as hurt you out there, " he explained.

If Crenshaw's long game has been impressive, the appreciation of the pace and slopes on the greens which brought him glory here in 1984 and '95 has once again been the key. "Once he gets in the right position on these greens, he's dangerous, " said his caddie Carl Jackson.

Perversely, the very length of the course, and the fact that Woods, Singh and Mickelson are no longer hitting short irons for the second shots into the par fives, has increased the possibility of a player taking a double or a triple bogey without making an obvious mistake. "I don't see anyone shooting a 65 this time, " said Els.

So, with all-out attack seemingly a thing of the past here, someone like Crenshaw has been able to hang on to the coat tails of the leaders.

"The test here now is much more solid driving, " he explained. "You must hit it very straight, you just can't get away with something that's too much off line."

Even if Crenshaw fades, his contribution has already strengthened the case for Augusta's new look. As for Fred Couples, he could yet defy the odds in a different way. If at 46 he is only three years older than Singh, he won here as far back as 1992 and comes across as a player for whom winning here is a long way removed from life or death. "I don't play great golf a lot now, " he admitted. "It was a lot more important when I played well."

But the possibility that Couples could become the oldest player to win the Masters . . . he would eclipse Jack Nicklaus's record by three months . . . is not far fetched. If Crenshaw has putted magnificently, Couples has demonstrated that by averaging 302 yards off the tee, he can still live with the younger, stronger power-hitters. "For me it's length, I've been driving the ball really well, and I feel like this course is set up for my game, " he said.

Couples is long, but not always a reliable putter, Crenshaw is short, but inspired on the greens, while Woods is the complete player. All were in the mix yesterday. Augusta, it seems, it still a place where diversity can thrive.