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Rory McIlroy sends his tee shot at 8 into the trees down the left. He’s now dead last in the driving accuracy stats: 91st of 91. He’s leading the Masters by three strokes! This is gloriously absurd.
Scottie Scheffler shoots 65
Scheffler yanks his tee shot into the bushes down the left of 18. With his backswing impeded, he’s forced to punch out. No matter, though! He wedges his third from the centre of the fairway, 101 yards out, over the flag, and spins it back to kick-in distance. In business mode, when he makes it to the green, he pulls the flag himself and taps in for a bogey-free 65. That’s the round of a two-time champion. A two-time champ who fancies making it a hat-trick. Even so, he’s left himself with work to do tomorrow. But he’s in the mix, and having started 12 shots back, that was all he could ask for. Simply brilliant from the world number one.
Rory holes his par putt. He’s hanging on a little here, but two big scrambles in a row will give him succour. Especially as Li lets his birdie effort on 10 dribble off to the right. The lead could have been down to one; it remains at three.
-12: McIlroy (7)
-9: Young (11), Li (10), Lowry (8)
Haotong Li very nearly holes out from 185 yards on 10. He’s guiding his approaches with laser-like accuracy today. The ball slingshots around the rim and he’ll have a five-footer for birdie. That could put the cat among the pigeons, because back on 7, Rory McIlroy is forced to send a chaser up towards the green, under some hanging branches, and can only find the bunker front right. He whips out to six feet, but there are a couple of big putts coming up. Meanwhile birdie for Shane Lowry on 8, and the 2019 Open champ moves alongside Li at -9.
Cameron Young is launching a serious bid for this title. He flings a dart at the flag on 10, and that moves the Players champion to within three. Meanwhile McIlroy misses another fairway with the big stick, sending his drive into the patrons down the right. The woman whose feet the ball lands by seems delighted; the man who hit the ball less so. A look of concern spreads across his face. He’d be no doubt slightly buoyed by Scottie Scheffler’s misread of a short birdie putt on 17, but that’d be slim pickings for the leader, who has stalled today while several big names behind him are charging hard.
-12: McIlroy (6)
-9: Young (10), Li (9)
-8: Lowry (7), Burns (6)
-7: Scheffler (17), Reed (7)
-6: Cantlay (F), Henley (F), Clark (8), Rose (7)
Well, this is a quite sublime up and down by Rory McIlroy. He’s at the bottom of the bank to the left of the 6th, near a walkway for the patrons. He pings his chip into the face of the slope, getting his ball to dink up and roll softly to three feet. He tidies up to remain at -12. All good, though for the moment, Rory and Tommy Fleetwood (7) are the only players in the current top 20 positions not under par for their round today.
So much for Scottie Scheffler losing momentum! He fires his tee shot at 16 to ten feet, and in goes the putt. The birdie nudges the world number one further up the Leader Board, and with Rory having just yanked his tee shot into an extremely unpromising position down a large swale to the left of the par-three 6th, it’s perfectly possible that Scheffler could be within four shots in a few minutes. He started the day 12 adrift of McIlroy!
-12: McIlroy (5)
-9: Li (8)
-8: Young (9), Lowry (7), Burns (5)
-7: Scheffler (16), Reed (6)
-6: Cantlay (F), Henley (F), Clark (7), Rose (6)
Haotong Li eats into Rory’s lead with eagle on 8! He creams a fairway wood from 240 yards into the heart of the green, a gentle fade that rolls up to 18 inches. In goes the putt, and the two-time Open nearly man is five under for his round already! He’s -9. Meanwhile Russell Henley, who tied for fourth here in 2023, finishes with birdies at 15, 16 and 18 for a blemish-free 66. He joins Patrick Cantlay in the clubhouse lead at -6.
You’ll have noticed Patrick Reed slipping back down the Leader Board. Bogey at 5, and he’s not made a par today yet. He’s -7. Meanwhile for the third day running, Scottie Scheffler fails to birdie either 13 or 15. He finds the bunker back-left of the former, then bounds his approach through the green at the latter. Just pars, and the world number one is two over on these holes so far this week. Very strange. All of which has stalled his momentum rather. He remains -6. Better news in the following group, as Collin Morikawa holes out from 94 yards, one hop, spin and in. The eagle takes the two-time major winner up to -3.
Let’s get back down to earth, where Lowry’s compatriot Rory McIlroy does extremely well to get up and down from the bunker where he’s shortsided himself at 4. Cameron Young meanwhile makes his fourth birdie of the day, at the par-five 8th. And Patrick Cantlay birdies 18 to sign for his second bogey-free round in a row: 66 to follow yesterday’s 67. Curse that opening day’s 77, which, sure enough, contained five bogeys and no birdies. Strange old game, huh. Cantlay is the new clubhouse leader at -6.
-12: McIlroy (4)
-8: Young (8), Lowry (6), Burns (4)
-7: Li (7), Reed (5)
-6: Cantlay (F), Scheffler (15), Clark (6), Rose (5)
… meanwhile over on the nearby 16th green, Harris English, lining up a putt, theatrically waves his arms up and down, light-heartedly demanding the gallery at the 6th stop screaming. Quiet! Quiet! A huge smile playing across his face. A lovely moment of wit and warmth. Lowry joins Leland Gibson and Billy Joe Patton (1954), Charles Coody (1972), Chris DiMarco (2004), Jamie Donaldson (2013) and Corey Conners (2021) in acing the 6th. He’s already got one at the Masters, holing out on 16 in 2016. The glee on Lowry’s face: it never gets old!
Shane Lowry aces 6!
Lowry with a 7-iron at the 190-yard par-three 6th. A graceful whip. Straight at the flag. One big bounce. Two little skips. Then a serene roll straight into the cup! Lowry spins round, punches the air, and hugs his playing partner and pal Tommy Fleetwood as the gallery goes wild! That’s only the seventh hole-in-one at 6 in Masters history!
… and now that lead is back to four strokes. Patrick Reed dumps his tee shot at the par-three 4th into the bunker guarding the front right, and fails to get up and down. Bogey; he’s -8. Though I’ll hold off on updating the Leader Board for just a minute, because in the final match that follows, Rory clips the back-edge of the bunker on the left and might not have a whole lot of green to work with coming out. Moving Day is beginning to Viciously Oscillate.
McIlroy’s eagle effort on 3, a left-to-right curler from 20 feet, stops one inch short. But that’s a birdie to stem the bleeding. The lead, which stood at six shots just over half an hour ago, but was reduced to two barely ten minutes back, is now three again. Moving Day, ladies and gentlemen!
-12: McIlroy (3)
-9: Reed (3)
-8: Burns (3)
-7: Young (7), Li (6)
-6: Scheffler (13), Clark (5), Lowry (4), Rose (3)
Patrick Cantlay is another player who will be cursing his cold start on Thursday. An opening round of 77 put him behind the eight-ball from the get-go, but he carded a blemish-free 67 yesterday, and he’s not dropped a stroke today either. He’s birdied 2, 8, 12, 13 and now 16 to rise all the way up to -5 overall. Winning is probably beyond him, simply due to the amount of traffic ahead of him on the Leader Board, but improving on his best finish of tied-ninth in 2019 – when he briefly led on Sunday after eagle at 15 - is a live prospect now.
… so Rory being Rory, he responds to those two errant drives by clattering his tee shot at the 350-yard par-four 3rd up onto the green. He’ll have a look at eagle from 22 feet.
McIlroy's lead cut to two in short order
The craziest stat of the week? Rory McIlroy, six shots clear of the field after 36 holes, coming in 90th of 91 for driving accuracy! The big stick’s not behaving any better today, and having missed the fairway on 1, he finds the trees down the right of 2. He carves his second towards the patrons to the left of the green, and doesn’t get his chip in close. He’s left with two putts for par from 37 feet. He does well to cosy the first one close enough to tap in for the saver. But that’s a shaky 5-5 start. Not quite was wild as the 6-5 he started with on Sunday last year, but still. His partner Sam Burns meanwhile makes another birdie, while Patrick Reed makes it three in a row at 3. Rory at the Masters, eh?
-11: McIlroy (2)
-9: Reed (3)
-8: Burns (2)
-7: Li (5)
-6: Scheffler (13), Young (6), Clark (4), Lowry (4), Rose (3)
A third birdie in four holes for Haotong Li. The 30-year-old Chinese star was paired in the final round at the Open with Scottie Scheffler last year; what odds a repeat of that last-day pairing tomorrow? He’s -7. Meanwhile the aforementioned Brian Harman birdied 17 on his way home to a 67. The 2023 Open champ is the new clubhouse leader at -1.
You will have worked out from that updated Leader Board that Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood both made eagle at 2. No birdie on that hole in the following match from Justin Rose … but Patrick Reed made one, and he’s closing in Rory McIlroy, who lest we forget he bested in the final pairing in 2018. It’s not taken long for six to become three!
-11: McIlroy (1)
-8: Reed (2)
-7: Burns (1)
Wyndham Clark takes a shy at the 3rd green from the tee. His ball bounds up onto the putting surface, rolls towards the cup and … dies to the left, four feet short. So, so, so close to a hole-in-one albatross! The 2023 US Open champion tidies up for eagle – only the 20th on this hole in Masters history - and he takes up his place in the chasing pack … which is given further encouragement by Rory, whose wedge into 1 from 90 yards topples over the back. The champion leaves a putt up from the fringe short, and that’s an opening bogey for the leader. Sam Burns makes birdie, and just like that, a six-shot lead has been reduced to four!
-11: McIlroy (1)
-7: Reed (1), Burns (1)
-6: Scheffler (12), Young (5), Li (4), Clark (3), Lowry (2), Fleetwood (2)
Scottie Scheffler isn’t the only big name looming in Rory’s rear-view mirror. The local lad Patrick Reed has some record around Augusta National. That win in 2018, of course, but also four subsequent top-ten finishes, the latest coming just last year, when he holed out from the 17th fairway for eagle and a third-place finish. He’s continued that form into this week seamlessly, with a pair of 69s, and now he cracks his approach at Tea Olive from 165 yards to five feet. In goes the birdie putt, he moves to -7, and McIlroy’s lead is cut to just (!) five in the blink of an eye.
Rory McIlroy begins his third round
Rory on the tee. A few “Oh wow!”s as he batters his opening shot over the bunkers on the right of the fairway. His ball ends up in the second cut, but he should have a route to the green. He’s going round in this final pairing with Sam Burns, who splits the fairway. McIlroy goes into this round with the largest 36-hole lead in Masters history: his mark of six bests the five set by Harry Cooper (1936), Herman Keiser (1946), Jack Nicklaus (1975), Raymond Floyd (1976), Jordan Spieth (2015) and Scottie Scheffler (2022). All but Cooper went on to win.
… and now Young chips in from the back of the par-three 4th! That’s a huge bonus, and reward for a 25-yard wedge that bumps up the slope before travelling along a huge left-to-right swing and dropping. Meanwhile the Scottie charge continues apace. He sends a gentle draw into the 11th from 191 yards, setting up an eight-footer for birdie. He’s just missed one from similar range, so this could either kick-start another low-scoring blitz, or sour his mood severely. Ah, it’s the latter! In it goes, into the centre of the cup. And with back-to-back birdies for Haotong Li, it’s safe to announce that the cream is rising.
-12: McIlroy
-6: Scheffler (11), Young (4), Li (3), Burns, Reed
-5: Matsuyama (8), Lowry (1), Fleetwood (1), Rose
Cameron Young lashes his tee shot all the way up onto the hi-rise green at the short par-four 3rd. He’s rewarded with birdie. The new Players champion will be utterly cursing his sorry opening salvo on Thursday: without those bogeys at 1, 5, 6 and 7, he’d be just three off the lead now. Just the one bogey since that cold start, incidentally, 32 holes and ten birdies later. A major champion in waiting, surely.
-12: McIlroy
-6: Burns, Reed
-5: Scheffler (10), Young (3), Li (2), Lowry (1), Fleetwood (1), Rose
Scottie Scheffler sends a lovely approach into the 10th. From 151 yards, he uses the bank guarding the bunker on the right of the green to bring his ball around to eight feet. A huge birdie chance, but he uncharacteristically lets it dribble apologetically on the low side. Just a par, although given 10 has only given up five birdies today, that “just” is doing a lot of work.
Tyrrell Hatton found every single green in regulation yesterday as he made his 66. Only Jim Furyk and Kevin Na have managed to achieve that in the last 30 years. So what happens at the very first hole today? Well, he lands his second onto the front portion of the green … but the spin takes him back off it. So that’s snapped that sequence. But he wedges up elegantly to six feet, and tidies up for his par. He’s -4.
Scheffler out in 31
Scottie Scheffler is on the charge! A no-fuss birdie at the par-five 8th. Then from 160 yards on 9, he lands his approach 15 feet front-left of the pin and uses the camber of the green to gather his ball towards the hole. The ball rolls serenely towards the cup, and looks like dropping. Indeed it does, a little bit, taking a quick peek inside as it slingshots round the back, left, down, right, up again and out! So close to holing out for eagle! The ball stops four feet away. Birdie, and the world number one has traversed the front nine in 31 of your golf shots. This Masters ain’t over yet!
-12: McIlroy
-6: Burns, Reed
-5: Scheffler (9), Matsuyama (5), Gotterup (3), Rose, Lowry, Fleetwood
Chris Gotterup, who came third at last year’s Open, a week after winning the Scottish, looks the real deal. The 26-year-old from Oklahoma already has two wins on Tour this season, in Hawaii and Phoenix, and is looking good to make another big statement of intent on his Masters debut. Eagle at 2, after cracking his second from 227 yards to eight feet, and he’s -5 overall. He’s alongside Hideki Matsuyama, who has just carded his third consecutive birdie at 5, and you can be sure Rory McIlroy has clocked that the chasing pack haven’t given up hope yet. Plenty of movement beneath him on the Leader Board now.
-12: McIlroy
-6: Burns, Reed
-5: Matsuyama (5), Gotterup (2), Rose, Lowry, Fleetwood
-4: Scheffler (8), Knapp (4), Homa (3), Young (1), Clark, Hatton, Li, Reitan
-3: Fitzpatrick (6), Griffin (3), Day (1)
Max Homa led at this stage two years ago, ending the week in third spot after falling away over the weekend with a pair of 73s. Undaunted, he came back last year, and tied for 12th. The 35-year-old Californian has fallen in love with Augusta National late in life, and he’s going well again this week. Birdies at 1 and 2 have whisked him up the standings to -4.
While we’re waiting for the leading players to take to the course, we’ve got time to indulge in a wee spot of Masters nostalgia. This episode of This Golfing Life, a wonderful new golf podcast hosted by the award-winning journalist and author Dan Davies, dives deep into the career of the 1980 and 1983 champion, the legendary Seve Ballesteros, and comes much recommended. (Fans of Paddington and Maurice Flitcroft may enjoy this episode too.) Get on it!
Back-to-back birdies for the 2021 champion Hideki Matsuyama at 3 and 4. Meanwhile Matt Fitzpatrick pours in a downhill left-to-right 30-footer on 4. It’s the 2022 US Open champion’s second birdie of the day, and he moves to -3 … where he’s joined by Scottie Scheffler, who after a string of pars, adds to his eagle on 2 with birdie at 7. Scheffler’s drive at 7 toyed with the pines down the left, but from 130 yards, he wedges to seven feet and tidies up to regain that upward momentum. And there’s the inviting par-five 8th coming up.
-12: McIlroy
-6: Burns, Reed
-5: Rose, Lowry, Fleetwood
-4: Matsuyama (4), Clark, Hatton, Li, Reitan, Day, Young
-3: Scheffler (7), Fitzpatrick (4), Griffin (2), Homa (1), Gotterup (1)
Brian Harman hasn’t been in great form of late. Even so, he was mentioned in dispatches before the Tournament began as a dark horse, with the fiery conditions negating his length disadvantage, and his short game so sweet. However, form trumped hipster punditry as he opened with a dismal 79. However the 2023 Open champion bounced back spectacularly with a 69 yesterday, and he’s in even better nick this afternoon, with birdies at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 14. Just the one dropped shot at 7, and he’s level par overall.
Alex Noren was out in the first group this morning. The veteran Swede has absolutely no history at Augusta National to speak of – a tie for 62nd in 2019 is his best return – but he’s looking to amend that record this year. A round of 69 today to follow yesterday’s 71; how he’ll be ruing his opening 77. But as things stand he’s in the top 40 at +1 overall and very much trending in the right direction. Ladies and gentlemen, your very early clubhouse leader.
In terms of importance and sheer breathtaking drama, Rory McIlroy’s run of six birdies in the last seven holes last night is unlikely to be matched this week. If it is, we’re in for an era-defining treat. But the course does seem to be offering opportunities. The 2011 PGA champion Keegan Bradley reached the turn a wee bit earlier with four consecutive birdies, 6 through 9; he’s level par for the Tournament. And now Rasmus Højgaard has matched that feat with birdies at 13, 14, 15 and 16. The run’s unlikely to continue, as he’s just whistled his tee shot at 17 into the trees down the right, although that’s what Rory did yesterday and look what ended up happening there. Anyway, Højgaard is +3 overall for now.
There have only been three aces in Masters history at the famous short par-three 12th Golden Bell. Claude Harmon (1948 champion and father of Butch) in 1947; the amateur William Hyndman in 1959; and two-time US Open champion Curtis Strange in 1988. Three in 89 years … then nearly two in two days. Yesterday afternoon, the 18-year-old amateur Mason Howell landed his tee shot a couple of inches away from the hole; today the 2011 winner Charl Schwartzel smacked his wedge flush onto the base of the flagstick, a couple of feet up, and away. So close, but yet so far. Howell’s ball stopped near enough to tap in for birdie; Schwartzel’s nearly twanged back off the green but at least he saved his par.
The world number one Scottie Scheffler, twice a winner here, started the day 12 shots off the lead. But he’s only six off second spot, and you can be darn sure he won’t have given up the ghost just yet. To this end, he creams a high fade into the 2nd green from 265 yards to six feet, and makes no mistake with the eagle putt. That’s his second eagle at Pink Dogwood of the week, and it whisks him up the standings to -2. He followed up the first on day one with birdie at 3, but he can’t repeat that today, missing a relatively straight seven-footer on the next green. But there’s an early reminder for Rory that there’s plenty of trouble lurking in the pack should he slip up.
-12: McIlroy
-6: Burns, Reed
-5: Rose, Lowry, Fleetwood
-4: Clark, Hatton, Li, Reitan, Day, Young
-3: Gotterup, Koepka, Griffin
-2: Gerard (4), Scheffler (4), Homa, Knapp, Schauffele, Matsuyama
Welcome, patrons, to another sunny day in Augusta, Georgia. Temperatures are expected to make the mid-80s this afternoon, and the wind shouldn’t get up too much. So expect the course to get harder and faster as the day progresses … though the early signs suggest the greens might have been treated to a sprinkle of water overnight or early this morning, because they’ve been fairly receptive and agreeable so far. That seems a fairly logical thing to do if you’re hoping to keep this Tournament competitive: more birdies, more chance of someone taking a run at Rory McIlroy and making a game of this tomorrow. Then again, that also gives Rory the chance to attack the pins, and look what happened with relatively agreeable greens yesterday afternoon. Who’d run a professional golf tournament?
Preamble
It’s Moving Day! Here’s what the top of the leaderboard looked like after 36 holes …
-12: McIlroy
-6: Burns, Reed
-5: Rose, Lowry, Fleetwood
-4: Clark, Hatton, Li, Reitan, Day, Young
-3: Gotterup, Koepka, Griffin
-2: Homa, Knapp, Schauffele, Matsuyama
-1: Brennan, Taylor, Fitzpatrick, Morikawa
E: Campbell, Åberg, Scheffler, English, Gerard, D Johnson, Henley, Cantlay
… here are some big names who have missed the cut …
Danny Willett, JJ Spaun, Bubba Watson, Zach Johnson, Nicolai Højgaard, Akshay Bhatia, Robert MacIntyre, Cameron Smith, Fred Couples, Jose Maria Olazabal, Mike Weir, Vijay Singh, Angel Cabrera and perhaps most shockingly of all Bryson DeChambeau …
… and today’s tee times can be found here. We’ll get going at 6pm BST. It’s on!
