Rory McIlroy delivered a dynamic finish to the Masters on Friday, looking every bit like someone who has done this before. Six birdies over the last seven holes gave him a 7-under 65 and a six-shot lead that set a Masters record through 36 holes.
The final hour of a fascinating day started to look like a victory lap.
McIlroy, who made three straight birdies early in his round, found himself locked in a duel with old nemesis Patrick Reed, the 2018 champion who birdied the par-3 12th to tie for the lead. McIlroy was coming off a few loose swings when he reached the heart of Amen Corner.
“Standing on the 12th tee, I didn’t imagine being six shots ahead,” McIlroy said.
Before long, he was all alone.
His tee shot over Rae’s Creek on the dangerous 12th hole landed 7 feet behind the flag. He birdied both par 5s after having to lay up from the trees. He took advantage of the lower pin at the par-3 16th for what amounted to a tap-in birdie.
And then he really sent the gallery into a frenzy when he chipped in from 30 yards on the 17th. McIlroy couldn’t see the hole over the crest of the hill on the green, but he knew it was good because “I could see everyone in the grandstand start to stand up.”
“That’s a bonus,” he said.
And there was one more to go — another perfect approach that came down the slope to 6 feet for one last birdie.
That put him at 12-under 132, six shots clear of Reed (69) and Sam Burns (71). The previous record for the largest 36-hole lead at Augusta National was five shots by six players, most recently Scottie Scheffler in 2022. The first was Harry “Lighthorse” Cooper in 1936, the only player in that position who did not win the Masters.
If McIlroy holds on, he would become the fourth player to win back-to-back at the Masters, joining Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods.
He had a two-shot lead after 36 holes in 2011 and stretched it to four shots going into the final round before he famously imploded with an 80. That was the start of his Masters heartache that lasted until a year ago, when he triumphed in a playoff to finally prove he could win at Augusta National.
Maybe he should start thinking about next year’s menu for the Masters Club dinner.
“I know what can happen around here, good and bad,” McIlroy said with a smile. “You don’t have to remind me not to get ahead of myself. There’s a long way to go. I got off to an amazing start.”
Augusta allowed for that. It was warmer, brighter, drier. The wind wasn’t quite as strong and the gusts didn’t swirl as much. And there was much better scoring in part because of more generous pin positions, including on 16 and 18, where cleanly struck shots could feed toward the hole.
The scores were nearly two shots lower than Thursday.
That didn’t help everyone, least of all Bryson DeChambeau. He fought back from an opening 76 and was one shot below the cut line when it took him two shots to get out of a greenside bunker on the 18th, the second shot rolling off the false front back down to the fairway. He made triple bogey and missed the cut.
Reed was bogey-free until failing to save par on the final hole. That also cost him a spot in the final group Saturday with McIlroy. They were paired together in the last group in 2018, with seemingly all of Augusta on McIlroy’s side, only for Reed to win handily.
Burns birdied his last two holes to salvage a 71 and will be paired with McIlroy.
Justin Rose, the playoff loser to McIlroy a year ago, had a rough day with the putter and still shot 69 to be part of the group at 5-under 139 — now seven shots behind — along with Shane Lowry (69) and Tommy Fleetwood, who had two eagles in his round of 68.
McIlroy took three weeks off heading into the Masters — no one since Adam Scott in 2013 won the Masters coming off a break that long — and felt it was to his advantage.
He took multiple trips to Augusta — sometimes day trips to get home for dinner — and spent most of his time working on his short game, which has been superb even without that bonus birdie on the 17th.
“I felt like I was part of the furniture,” McIlroy said of all his visits to the course.
Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player who has won two of the last four Masters, is now 12 shots behind. Scheffler twice hit into the water on the par 5s on the back nine, made bogey on both, and shot 74 for his first round over par at the Masters in three years.
The players in what looked to be the B-flight had all finished before McIlroy went on his astonishing run of birdies. Cameron Young and U.S. Amateur champion Mason Howell had a front-row seat to McIlroy in full flight at the Masters.
“You’ve got to stay in your own lane, but it’s hard not to watch that,” Howell said after missing the cut. “That chip-in on 17 was unreal. That was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in sports, and I got to witness it in person. So that was awesome.”
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