AUGUSTA, Ga. \u2014 Rory McIlroy never seems to make anything easy at the Masters.<\/p>\n
Year after year, for more than a decade, the Northern Irishman threw away chances at completing the career grand slam. And when he finally accomplished the feat last year, McIlroy did it only after recovering from a ball put in the water on the back nine and a bogey at the 18th hole in regulation, and beating Justin Rose in a playoff for the green jacket.<\/p>\n
In other words, that record 36-hole lead of six that McIlroy carried into the third round Saturday? It meant nothing.<\/p>\n
And nothing is exactly what it was shortly after he made the turn.<\/p>\n
McIlroy’s roller coaster round included three bogeys, four birdies and a double-bogey for a 73, which dropped him to 11 under for the tournament. More importantly, hot rounds by just about everyone else on the leaderboard put the pressure on, and Cameron Young’s third-round 65 put him at 11 under as well, leaving McIlroy paired with him for the final round on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, there\u2019s a lot of guys in with a chance tomorrow,\u201d McIlory said. \u201cI\u2019m still tied for the best score going into tomorrow, so I can\u2019t forget that, but I do know I\u2019m going to have to be better if I want to have a chance to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, McIlroy and Young will have to worry about a lot more than just each other.<\/p>\n
Sam Burns is one shot back, while Shane Lowry rode his second career Masters ace to a 68 that left him at 9 under. Rose and Jason Day are another shot back, while Scottie Scheffler’s round of 65 put him at 7 under and in the hunt for a third green jacket.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s certainly no lead that\u2019s safe out here,\u201d Young said, “but at the same time, Rory loves it here, and he\u2019s obviously playing some great golf. I don\u2019t think anybody would have been surprised if he went out there and shot 65 today. It\u2019s one of those things where if he does open the door, you have to take advantage of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy tried to take all of the drama out of this edition of the Masters when he paired an opening 67 with a 65 on Friday.<\/p>\n
But drama is exactly what he brings to Augusta National every year.<\/p>\n
There was 2011, when McIlroy led by three making the turn, pulled his tee shot left of No. 10 into the cabins, made triple bogey and went on to shoot 80. There was 2016, when he played in the final round with Jordan Spieth but shot 77 and finished tied for 10th. And there was 2018, when he was in the final pairing with Patrick Reed and wound up finishing six shots back.<\/p>\n
Last year, it seemed that McIlroy had finally buried his Masters demons with his playoff victory.<\/p>\n
They surfaced yet again on Saturday.<\/p>\n
It started with an inauspicious bogey at the first, but McIlroy recovered from that with a couple of birdies to reach 13 under. The real trouble began at the 11th, when he was standing in the middle of the fairway with momentum on his side. His approach shot bounced in front of the green, took a left turn and plopped into the pond, leaving quiet ripples across the water.<\/p>\n
McIlroy’s eventual bogey putt did a 90-degree lip-out, and the double bogey sent him falling back to the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah,\u201d he said later, \u201cthis golf course has a way of \u2014 you know, when you\u2019re not quite feeling it, you struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy followed with another bogey at the par-3 12th, when he pulled his tee shot left of the green and was unable to save par. And when it looked as if he’d regained his composure with back-to-back birdies at Nos. 14 and 15, he proceeded to pull his tee shot at the 17th into a stand of pine trees, leading to another bogey and dropping him into a tie with Young at 11 under.<\/p>\n
That’s where he ended up after a wild third round on Saturday at Augusta National.<\/p>\n
It’s where he’ll start the final round on Sunday, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to look at the positives, even though there isn’t that many to take today,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cYou know, I did bounce back. I hit some good shots coming in. But yeah, I’m in great position. I just know I need to be better tomorrow to have a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUGUSTA, Ga. \u2014 Rory McIlroy never seems to make anything easy at the Masters. Year after year, for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-598345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}