{"id":59662,"date":"2026-09-02T03:10:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T03:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/59662\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T03:10:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T03:10:40","slug":"masters-the-stage-is-set-at-augusta-after-mcilroys-lead-erased","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/59662\/","title":{"rendered":"Masters: The stage is set at Augusta after McIlroy\u2019s lead erased"},"content":{"rendered":"

Augusta, Georgia\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n There\u2019s no such thing as a sure thing at the Masters \u2013 just ask Rory McIlroy.\n <\/p>\n

\n In 2011, his 4-stroke lead imploded during an excruciating final round that scarred him until he finally won the tournament in 2025. On Saturday, his record-breaking six-stroke advantage<\/a> completely evaporated.\n <\/p>\n

\n The defending champion, seemingly coasting to another green jacket, ended his day in a worse position than he had started, and he\u2019s now the only player in the top 14 who heads into the final round going backward.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cDidn\u2019t quite have it today,\u201d he said to a gaggle of reporters outside of the clubhouse. \u201cThis golf course has a way of \u2013 you know, when you\u2019re not quite feeling it, you struggle. I know I\u2019m going to have to be better if I want to have a chance to win.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n It was a highly stressful afternoon for McIlroy. All week, he had been wild off the tee, but on Thursday and Friday, he had managed to turn water into wine, making birdie after birdie to take control of the tournament.\n <\/p>\n

\n He was excelling despite himself; through 36 holes, his driving accuracy was worse than all bar one player in the field. He had missed over half of the fairways, and yet he still managed to shoot 12-under par, a vindication of his prodigious short game and the liberating knowledge that he was no longer burdened by the pursuit of an elusive green jacket.\n <\/p>\n

\n On Friday after his round, he told CNN Sports that on Saturday, he planned to keep his foot on the gas, that he would resist the temptation to defend his yawning advantage. But as the chasing pack kept biting chunks out of his lead, he found that the best he could hope for was simply keeping his head above water.\n <\/p>\n

\n Again, he struggled to keep his ball on the fairway, missing another six, but this time his irons and putter went cold. McIlroy managed to hang on through his first nine holes before coming unstuck at Amen Corner.\n <\/p>\n

\n He found water at 11 and limped away with a double bogey, he then dropped another stroke on 12 after duffing his chip from the back of the green. On Azaelea, the iconic 13th hole, McIlroy was again way offline, punching out from the pine straw and hitting a security rope on the ground. He escaped with a par and, although he seemed to recover with back-to-back birdies, he was in the pine straw again at 17, where he dropped back to 11 under par.\n <\/p>\n

\"Patrons<\/p>\n

\n A day that had started with the promise of a procession towards another green jacket had descended into a scenic \u2013 and unwelcome \u2013 navigation of the Augusta National course.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019m still tied for the best score going into tomorrow, so I can\u2019t forget that,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019d like to think that I\u2019ll play a little bit freer and I\u2019ll play, you know, like I\u2019ve already got a green jacket, which I do. Sometimes I maybe just have to remind myself of that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n When McIlroy romped to the clubhouse on Friday night with an unprecedented lead, it seemed as though history was on his side. Nobody had ever been so far ahead at the halfway stage, and, of the six players who had held five-shot leads previously, only one had failed to see it through to Sunday.\n <\/p>\n

\n Now, McIlroy finds himself looking over his shoulder. He\u2019s tied for the lead with Cameron Young and no fewer than eight players are within just four strokes of the top of the leaderboard.\n <\/p>\n

\n Young, who will accompany McIlroy in Sunday\u2019s final pairing, is looking to continue a two-year trend of Players Championship winners who went on to claim the green jacket, and he\u2019s red hot after shooting a 7-under par 65.\n <\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt would be an incredible day,\u201d he told CNN of the potential to end it with a green jacket. \u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve dreamed of doing for a long time. If you had said on Thursday at about noon that I was going to be within a couple of the lead going into Sunday, I would have taken it in a heartbeat, especially given the fact that I was watching Rory play.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The two-time champion Scottie Scheffler is also in the hunt thanks to a 65. He\u2019s looking for a third Masters title in just 5 years.\n <\/p>\n

\"Masters<\/p>\n

This video is no longer available\n <\/p>\n

This video is no longer available. We apologize for the inconvenience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This video is no longer available<\/p>\n

2:06<\/p>\n

\n As the sun set on Saturday, McIlroy declined the invitation to speak with reporters in an extended media session, preferring instead to return to the range. He knows that another historic accomplishment is within his grasp \u2013 only Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods have ever successfully defended their titles at Augusta \u2013 but he will likely have to deliver an even bigger performance than his epic Sunday from 12 months ago.\n <\/p>\n

\n The patrons were hoping for a competitive final round Sunday, although they didn\u2019t want to see McIlroy suffer a tragic collapse.\n <\/p>\n

\n They\u2019ve already got one of their wishes. It may be too much to ask that they will get both.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Augusta, Georgia\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 There\u2019s no such thing as a sure thing at the Masters \u2013 just ask Rory McIlroy.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[685],"class_list":["post-59662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cameron-young","tag-cameron-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}