The relationship between six-time Masters winner Jack Nicklaus and defending Masters champion Rory McIlroy is close enough that, earlier this week, just before Nicklaus took his tee shot as the honorary starter, the 86-year-old felt fit to dispense some advice to the Ulsterman on how to join the very select group of golfers to defend their title at Augusta.
“No f***ing double bogeys.”
Two days of impeccable golf had given McIlroy the greatest 36-hole lead in Masters history in pursuit of back-to-back green jackets and an exclusive club alongside Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Sir Nick Faldo. The defending champion sputtered through the front nine on Saturday before coughing up a double-bogey on 11 that saw his overnight lead finally, unbelievably evaporate. Possibly a historic turning point in this Masters tournament.
In truth, it had been coming for at least an hour. A high-quality chasing pack had been making gains as McIlroy stumbled out of the gates in what seemed to be perfect conditions. The new leader was Cam Young, the winner at last month’s Players Championship at Sawgrass and someone who began the day as barely a speck in McIlroy’s rear-view mirror, but will join McIlroy in Sunday’s final group. His 65, which tied Scottie Scheffler’s round on Saturday as the best score of the tournament, pulled him from eight shots back at the start of the day to become, fleetingly, sole leader.
That was when the 2026 Masters, which until now had become something of a procession, became an all-out battle.
Some of those who had laid in wait overnight fell off, but others, going out ahead of Rory, had the freedom to just play their game and hope for a crack of light to appear.
At the end of this wild Saturday, we were left with co-leaders in the shape of McIlroy and Young (-11), with Sam Burns one back, Shane Lowry a further shot behind him and then Jason Day and Justin Rose lurking on -8.
Perhaps you’d usually end the list of contenders there, but one shot further back is the world number one, Scottie Scheffler, as well as Haotong Li, who showed himself capable of both the ridiculous and the sublime and might even be closer to the leaders if he hadn’t nearly had to withdraw with food poisoning on Friday.
So the defending champion held onto the lead, just about, but must share it overnight as he heads home for the evening. Or, rather, to the driving range, where he went to try and fix his wild tee shots that threatened to plunge him even further down the leaderboard.
Over the first two days, McIlroy’s lead in spite of consistently failing to find fairways was a testament to how dialled in he had been around the greens and with putter in hand.
On Saturday, his inability to find those fairways put him in positions he couldn’t salvage and he goes into the final round with the worst driving accuracy (50%) of anyone at Augusta. The other co-leader, Young, while retaining the seventh best driving distance, with McIlroy top, the American is also tied-second for accuracy (88.10%).
If there was a moment that seemed to sum up the day, it was McIlroy splaying yet another tee shot wide of the fairway, this time on Amen Corner’s 13th hole, leading an exasperated Irishman to call out “get lucky” in hope more than expectation. He didn’t. All the fortune at Augusta had appeared to abandon him and was instead buoying Young’s championship charge, with the American twice clattering into trees but both times ending up safely in the middle of the fairway. Those were the breaks that encapsulated Saturday’s movements and set up a box office Sunday.
“I knew today wasn’t going to be easy, the quality of the chasing pack was very obvious,” conceded McIlroy after a tough day at the office.
“A lot of the guys went out and played superb golf, starting with Scottie and then Cam and everyone else.”
“I would have liked to have been in a better position going into tomorrow, starting out with a six-shot lead, but I still have a great chance. I’m in the final group, which is exactly where you want to be. I wish I had a bit more of a cushion, but I’m going to go to the range now and try to figure it out. I’ll need to be better tomorrow.”
Rory might go into the final day as favourite – just about – but there is a cavalcade of world-class golfers waiting and ready should he slip up.
