{"id":394511,"date":"2026-04-12T09:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T09:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/394511\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T09:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T09:29:07","slug":"mcilroy-refuses-to-panic-lowry-beginning-to-dream-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/394511\/","title":{"rendered":"McIlroy refuses to panic, Lowry beginning to dream big"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy headed straight to the practice ground range to iron out his problems after surrendering a six-shot lead to leave the defence of his Masters title<\/a> in the balance.<\/p>\n

Twenty-four hours earlier, the Northern Irishman had looked poised to blow the field away after opening up a significant advantage with the biggest 36-hole lead in the tournament’s history.<\/p>\n

While all of his rivals were going under par – the nine players immediately below him all shot sub-70 rounds – the world number two could record only a one-over 71 having come unstuck at Amen Corner.<\/p>\n

The troubles off the tee which he has been successfully managing all week cost him dearly and he immediately retired to the range to find a fix ahead of his final-group pairing with Cameron Young, who shot a Masters-best 65, on 11 under.<\/p>\n

“I mean, the course was obviously gettable, there was a lot of good scores out there, and the quality of the chasing pack is obvious,” McIlroy told RT\u00c9 Sport’s Greg Allen.<\/p>\n

“There was a lot of good scores out there and the quality of the chasing pack is obvious, you know, there was a lot of guys that shot good scores.<\/p>\n

“This golf course has a way of, you know, when you’re not quite feeling it, you struggle and you have to dig deep and I felt like I did that on the front nine and made a lot of good par saves.<\/p>\n

“It would have been nice to play those last few holes and not make that bogey on 17 but, you know, I still have a great chance.<\/p>\n

“I’m in the final group and I just need to go to the range and try to try to figure it out a little bit.”<\/p>\n

\"Rory
\nRory McIlroy is in a share of the lead<\/p>\n

McIlroy entered Augusta National’s famously tricky Amen Corner stretch at 13 under, three ahead but clinging on.<\/p>\n

He exited it one behind Young after playing it double bogey-bogey-par having pulled a seven iron into the water at the 11th, missing the green at the next and driving into the trees at the 13th.<\/p>\n

“I have to look at the positives even though there isn’t that many to take today but I did bounce back,” he added.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Shane Lowry, just two shots off the joint leaders, is feeling good.<\/p>\n

The Offaly man’s 69 – which included a hole in one at the sixth – hoisted him into contention.<\/p>\n

“I’m in a good place,” he said. “Look, there’s no doubt, I felt a bit nervy down the back nine there, but you’re going to feel like that. I felt pretty controlled and calm most of the day, felt like I was hitting really good shots. Obviously, a huge highlight of my day was the sixth hole, but I think even after that, I felt like I did a good job.<\/p>\n

“I’m pretty happy with how it all went. How could you not be happy? You’re out there playing the Masters with one of your best friends, making a hole in one, contending in a tournament. What’s not to be happy about?<\/p>\n

“All in all, it was a good, solid round of golf and when I got out of position, I think I did a good job. Seven behind at the start of the day, I’d have taken your hand off for this position.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy headed straight to the practice ground range to iron out his problems after surrendering a six-shot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-394511","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-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394511","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=394511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}