{"id":394231,"date":"2026-04-12T04:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T04:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/394231\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T04:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T04:41:08","slug":"rory-mcilroy-hits-series-of-speedbumps-to-surrender-advantage-at-the-masters-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/394231\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy hits series of speedbumps to surrender advantage at the Masters \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winning isn\u2019t ever easy, and Rory McIlroy<\/a>\u2019s seemingly smooth journey to back-to-back green jackets hit a series of speedbumps in a mesmerising third round of the Masters tournament at Augusta National as his fallibility combined with the brilliance of his pursuers ensured a six-stroke lead was wiped out.<\/p>\n

McIlroy\u2019s rollercoaster 73 ultimately saw him finish on 11-under-par 205 in a share of the lead alongside American Cameron Young, while Shane Lowry \u2013 with another hole-in-one to add to his remarkable collection, this time on the sixth \u2013 made a move of his own, a 68 for 207 putting him in solo fourth place two shots behind the co-leaders.<\/p>\n

Amen Corner may hint at angelic connotations but the stretch of holes from the 11th can inflict devilish wounds, as McIlroy discovered: the Northern Irishman followed a double-bogey on the 11th, where he hit his approach shot into the water left of the green, with a bogey on the par 3 12th. That loss of three strokes to the field enabled his pursuers to close in, ensuring a tantalising Sunday final round ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t quite have it today … I\u2019m in a great position, I just know I have to be better [in the final round] to have a chance,\u201d said McIlroy, who had four birdies, three bogeys and one double-bogey in an up-and-down round that enabled the chasers to close in on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I made the double on 11 I probably got a little uneasy on 12 and 13,\u201d said McIlroy, who bounced back with birdies on 14 and 15 to ensure a present atop the leaderboard, although he headed to the practice range to work on a left miss.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I can just get my lower body moving through impact, that should fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CameronCameron Young of the United States reacts on the 18th green. Photograph: Hector Vivas\/Getty <\/p>\n

The two most significant moves of the third round came from Young and world number one Scottie Scheffler, who each posted 65s. For Young, it meant a leapfrogging act of defiance to join McIlroy in a share of the 54-holes lead, while Scheffler\u2019s move saw him finish in tied-seventh, four behind, and with all to play for headed into the final round.<\/p>\n

Lowry became the first player in Masters history to claim two holes-in-one. His first came on the 16th in the final round of 2016 but his latest, at the sixth, contrived to propel him into a prime challenging position. \u201cWild,\u201d said Lowry of the reception that greeted his ace. \u201cI just couldn\u2019t believe it. You\u2019re in the hunt at the Masters and you\u2019re making a hole-in-one, it\u2019s pretty cool. The walk down the sixth hole with everyone around 16 and the 6th was very special.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a curriculum vitae of holes-in-one that includes two at Augusta National and also the 17th at TPC Sawgrass and the seventh at Pebble Beach, Lowry has made a habit of acing iconic holes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives you obviously a huge kind of boost. You go from six-under to eight-under, and then all of a sudden you\u2019re only four back. It\u2019s getting real now. I felt like I did a great job of calming myself down afterwards. Myself and [coach] Neil [Manchip] have talked during the week about the only shot that matters is the next one. I hit a great tee shot on seven, and I was very happy and proud of that one, because it\u2019s easy to get a bit flustered in areas like that. Your adrenaline is pumping.\u201d<\/p>\n

For sure, Lowry did a fine job of sticking to the task to the point that the 2019 Open champion \u2013 who will play with Sam Burns in the penultimate pairing in the final round \u2013 has the opportunity to add a green jacket to the claret jug, having started the day seven behind McIlroy and just two behind through 54 holes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought if Rory could shoot a 68 today he might run away with the tournament. But the thing is, it\u2019s not easy to go out and go after it when you\u2019re at the top of the leaderboard. Not that it\u2019s easy to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when you\u2019re down the field and you\u2019re just having a go at it, it makes it a little bit easier and you can play a bit more freely. When you are out there in the hunt you need to be a little bit more protective of what you are doing. When we get to tomorrow, that\u2019s when, you know, we\u2019ll see what everyone is made of,\u201d said Lowry.<\/p>\n

Young, who was four-over through 11 holes of his first round, has shown great resilience of working his way to a share of the lead in his quest to emulate McIlroy\u2019s achievement of a year ago in adding the Masters to The Players championship he won last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll try to run much the same process, same mindset as I did that day [at The Players],\u201d said Young of his thought process, adding:<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember I did a great job of just staying where I was, knowing that everybody\u2019s going to do some different things throughout the day. At some point most people are going to go on a run and most people are going to make a bogey or two.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no saying when that will be for me, but at the end of the day, you just have to stay kind of in your lane and play the best golf you can and see where you are with a couple holes to go. There\u2019s not really much you can change before then.\u201d<\/p>\n

All to play for, in truth.<\/p>\n

Sunday tee times:<\/p>\n

6.52pm: Scottie Scheffler, Haotong Li<\/p>\n

7.03pm: Jason Day, Justin Rose<\/p>\n

7.14pm: Sam Burns, Shane Lowry<\/p>\n

7.25pm: Cameron Young, Rory McIlroy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winning isn\u2019t ever easy, and Rory McIlroy\u2019s seemingly smooth journey to back-to-back green jackets hit a series of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,1394,33774,1395,112,160609],"class_list":{"0":"post-394231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-rory-mcilroy","11":"tag-scottie-scheffler","12":"tag-shane-lowry","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-the-masters"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}