“In Augusta you have to take a lot of streets and build from there,” say Jon Rahm and other orthodox players. The rule is applied on Saturday, moving day, by Scottie Scheffler, the world number one, and especially Cameron Young, the number three, still without majors in his showcase, but an exceptional player. They both delivered 65s at Augusta National, which is beginning to show brown tones on the greens due to the severe heat, a sign of extreme hardness, but on the third day it set flags for the brave to try to squeeze Rory McIlroy. The Northern Irishman regained the lead at the end, although with many bruises. He played over par (73), the only one among the top 17 in the tournament to do so. Disastrous for his interests. There will be Masters until the last 9 holes on Sunday.
Rory is challenging the maxim that is proclaimed about how Augusta National is played. He was six strokes ahead and second to last in the fairways hit statistic after two rounds. He is now last in this section. Because on Saturday he went down similar paths, without finding the same result. While they were charging everywhere, he went through continuous moments of doubt, so much so that Young even passed him when the outstanding merit of a player who signed seven under par, despite falling into the lake on the 15th hole, linked with a similar short circuit in the Amen Corner of the defending champion. (Results)Rory had not played well until the most symbolic corner of world golf. He had started with a bogey and had wasted the two par 5s on the first nine holes. Yes, it is true, he had hit a dream shot on the 3rd (par 4) when he hit the green with the driver in a single stroke. 350 yards almost in flight. He almost made an eagle.
He still faced the last nine holes with a lead, the ones from Friday’s exhibition, where he had reaped the rewards in both rounds. Six under par on the previous afternoon. He holed a birdie on the 10th and moved to -13. It coincided with Young’s water shot, which seemed to abort the insurrection he had fueled with his erratic play. But he is such a great player that sometimes he makes inexplicable decisions.
On the 11th hole, the entrance to Amen Corner, was filled with ambition. “I’m going to keep attacking,” he had warned. He chose the worst moment not to measure the strategy. The flag was very close to Rae’s Creek, a pond that protects that hole on the left, and he pushed the shot so much that it bounced on the green and slanted to the fatal side. He dropped and made a very short putt. A double bogey that reduced the lead from three to one with the American, an exceptional competitor, who also had luck on his side. Three balls bounced off trees and returned to the fairway during his round
Young responded at the 16th (par 3) with another fine putt to move to 11 under par and Rory, on the 12th, the par 3 in the heart of Amen Corner, almost sent it into the flowers. It cost him another bogey that knocked him out of the lead. To top it all off, his tee shot at the sacred place, a par-5, the 13th, which was reachable in two, went into the deepest pine forest. He has played 12 par-5s and has only hit one fairway on these stretches. It’s amazing that he has played them in eight under par.
McIlroy has worked harder than anyone else at this Masters. Since he pulled out of the Arnold Palmer in mid-March with a back problem, he has traveled several times each week from Jupiter, Florida, to Augusta by plane – an hour’s flight – to train for the defense. He did not tense his face when things went wrong. He faced the 14th and holed a four-meter putt to raise his fist and return to the co-lead. On the next hole, the last of the par 5s, which in his memory holds because there on Sunday in 2025 he made the great shot of his life, he added another birdie and returned to 12 under par with which he had started the day. Another visit to the woods on 17 put him back alongside Young.
Now, in the end, the fight for the green jacket is very open. Burns is one stroke behind and Shane Lowry, who made a hole-in-one on the 6th and is already the only player in history with two aces (the other in 2016) at the National, is three strokes behind. Even the door is open for Scheffler, who could copy the sequence that Arnold Palmer played in even years in the 1960s. The King won four that way. The world number one has two (2022 and 2024). References such as Nicklaus and Tiger needed eight Masters to have three jackets. This is the Texan’s seventh participation in Augusta. It is clear that the outcome will be historic.
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