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Scottie Scheffler plays a shot on the first hole during the third round of the 2026 Masters. (Andrew Redington\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
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Written by Associated Press<\/p>\n
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) \u2014 Scottie Scheffler matched the lowest round of this year’s Masters with a third-round 65 on Saturday as the field began the tall task of trying to chase down leader Rory McIlroy.<\/p>\n
It could have been even better, although Scheffler didn’t want to hear that when asked a question to that effect afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just a terrible question,\u201d he said. \u201cNext question. Awful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scheffler’s 31 was the best first nine of his seven Masters appearances, which includes two victories. After adding another birdie on No. 11, the world No. 1 had cut his 12-stroke deficit behind McIlroy in half. But he made only one birdie the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess to answer your question \u2013 it wasn\u2019t maybe that bad \u2013 but it definitely could have been lower,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cBut like I said, I did what I needed to do. Went out and executed to give myself some opportunities, and more of that tomorrow, and I think I\u2019ll be in a good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy shot 65 on Friday to move to 12 under par, with a record six-shot lead through 36 holes over Patrick Reed and Sam Burns. Scheffler was 12 back at even par, but then he knocked his second shot to 6 feet on the par-5 second and eagled it.<\/p>\n
His approach shots on Saturday were clinical, even if he didn’t always convert his opportunities on the green. Scheffler missed a 7-foot birdie putt on No. 3, then made par after hitting his tee shot into a bunker on the par-4 fifth.<\/p>\n
He finished his first nine with birdies on Nos. 7, 8 and 9. His second shot on the par-4 ninth \u2013 from 160 yards \u2013 rolled off the lip of the hole.<\/p>\n
Scheffler continued to give himself chances on the back. He had birdie putts from 8 feet on No. 11, 18 feet on No. 12, 15 feet on No. 13 and 13 feet on No. 14 \u2013 but only one of those went in. His birdie putt from just off the green on No. 15 stopped maybe one ball length from dropping.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hit it really nice today. I felt like I was very sharp with the irons,\u201d he said. \u201cGot it up there. Gave myself a lot of opportunities. I felt like I took advantage of those on the front nine, and then back nine I did a lot of good things. Was really, really close to seeing a lot go in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, Scheffler made one more birdie on the par-3 16th before missing an 8-footer for birdie on the 17th. His tee shot on the final hole wound up near a tree and some bushes, but he still ended up with a tap-in par.<\/p>\n
A great round \u2013 but perhaps not great enough. He was still five strokes back of McIlroy, with a handful of others in between.<\/p>\n
Scheffler is 2 over on Nos. 13 and 15 \u2013 the two par 5s on the back nine. McIlroy, meanwhile, birdied both those holes in each of his first two rounds.<\/p>\n
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Apr 11, 2026<\/p>\n
McIlroy pulls away with birdie binge, sets Masters record with six-shot lead<\/a>Daily Wrap Up<\/a>![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/rory_scottie_2.jpg\"\/)
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/masters_htw2.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1H AGO 3 Min Read Latest *:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-g2vo12>img,.css-g2vo12>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-g2vo12::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:66.66666666666666%;}@media screen and (min-width: 768px){.css-g2vo12::before{padding-bottom:56.25%;}}]]> Scottie Scheffler plays a shot on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-387412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}