Rory McIlroy rode his luck over the first 36 holes and the Golfing Gods bit back on Amen Corner as a double bogey, bogey run on 11 and 12 blew the 90th Masters wide open and left him in a share of the lead with Players champion Cameron Young at the end of round three at Augusta National.
McIlroy, who briefly lost the lead before regaining the solo advantage, saw his six shot overnight lead evaporate by the end of the day after his 73 and Young’s blistering 65 left them tied at the top on eleven-under, one shot clear of Sam Burns and two ahead of Shane Lowry. World number one Scottie Scheffler (65) lingers ominously at seven-under with five shots separating eleven players going into Sunday.
“Yeah, didn’t quite have it today,” said McIlroy who has his third 54-hole lead at the Masters and fourth final group pairing having converted five of his previous seven 54-hole leads at majors. “Yeah, even just starting at the first hole with that soft bogey, even though I hit a pretty good drive. Yeah, I mean, the course was obviously gettable. There was a lot of good scores out there, and obviously the quality of the chasing pack is obvious. There was a lot of guys that shot good scores.
“You know, there’s a lot of guys in with a chance tomorrow. I’m still tied for the best score going into tomorrow, so I can’t forget that, but I do know I’m going to have to be better if I want to have a chance to win.”
It was a strange start to McIlroy’s round as the chasing pack made hay while the sun shone on a gettable course with no wind and watered greens. After an opening bogey and a par on the second, his lead had been trimmed down to just two as Patrick Reed opened with three successive birdies before slumping to a 72 for a 6-under total.
It looked like McIlroy had found his stride when he drove the green at the par-4 3rd to set up an eagle chance and a cast iron birdie three. But he struggled with the lefts all day and made great par saves on 4 and 6 before eventually moving in the right direction again with a birdie on 10. Despite a charge from Young, he bogeyed the 15th to drop to -10 and all looked well in Rory’s world with a three-shot lead at 13-under.
However, the tournament hinged on the next half an hour. After finding the water with his approach to the par-4 11th he was unable to save his bogey and the lefts haunted him on the par-3 12th as he couldn’t get up and down from underneath the bushes. All of a sudden he was tied with Young.
Probably as expected, the defending champion bailed out right into the trees on 13 and his layup along the right side of the fairway was scuppered by an unfortunate patron’s foot. Another par and a three-over return for Amen Corner. But he looked to have got back in the groove with back to back birdies on 14 and 15 to regain the outright lead before a bogey after another missed fairway dropped him back into a share of the lead with Young and that’s how he finished.
McIlroy was the epitome of a rollercoaster day. 73 today and 73 for 18 holes on Sunday last year both with their fair share of the sublime and the ridiculous.
“There’s a long way to go. Yeah, this golf course has a way of, you know, when you’re not quite feeling it, you struggle. You have to dig deep, and I felt like I did that on the front nine and made a lot of good par saves.
“Missed a couple of chances on eight and nine; then I thought I turned the round around with the birdie on ten. Then I felt like I hit a pretty good second shot on 11. It just drifted on the wind a little bit and went in the water. Those two holes weren’t great.
“But again, I felt like I bounced back pretty well with the birdies on 14 and 15. It would have been nice to play those last few holes and not make that bogey on 17, but you know, I still have a great chance. I’m in the final group.
“I just need to go to the range and try to figure it out a little bit.”
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