Yes, this could be Cameron Young\u2019s year all right. He carves a wild drive into the trees down the right of 3 \u2026 but the ball clanks off a tree trunk and back out into the fairway! He wedges on in two. The golfing gods continue to smile down on him. Unless they\u2019re storing up one heck of a sucker punch on the back nine. Meanwhile Rory finds the Scheffler-Burns bunker, and whips one of those hard-yet-somehow-soft splashes up and over the ten-foot face, to ten feet.<\/p>\n
Share<\/a><\/p>\n Sam Burns drives into the bunker front-left of 3. Scottie got up and down from it; Burns leaves his ball in. He gets out with his second attempt, but can\u2019t make the six-footer he\u2019s got for par. That fast start didn\u2019t last long. He\u2019s -8. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen Rory hit the fairway on 2,\u201d writes Simon Farnaby, perhaps stretching a point for comic effect, then following with some words which Family Website Editor tells me I\u2019m not allowed to publish.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Cameron Young, having been slightly fortunate to see his ball squirting over the bunker, rolls in the left-to-right putt. He had a couple of big breaks from the trees yesterday, at 13 and 17; perhaps this is destined to be his year. Then it\u2019s Rory McIlroy\u2019s turn \u2026 and he gives his putt a little bit too much on the left. Cameron Young leads the Masters by himself!<\/p>\n -12: Young (2) Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a015.00 EDT<\/p>\n Rory takes his medicine from the fairway bunker at 2. He\u2019s got no option really. He wedges out to the centre of the fairway, then sends his third into the green to 15 feet. He\u2019ll have a chance for birdie. As will Cameron Young, who only just gets his chip over the bunker guarding front right, but gets away with it, and will have a similar putt to Rory.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Bounce-back birdie for Shane Lowry at 2! The reward for a lovely wedge bundled into the front of the green, the camber taking his ball round to four feet. He\u2019s back where he started at -9. But his partner Sam Burns ends up running up a double, little short of a disaster on one of the few gimme-birdie holes around this grand old place. And a backwards step for Justin Rose, who fails to lob a chip up from the bottom of the bank at the par-four 3rd. That\u2019s cost him a shot.<\/p>\n -11: Young (1), McIlroy (1) Share<\/a><\/p>\n Trouble for the joint leader Sam Burns on 2. He finds the trees down the right. He\u2019s forced into a penalty drop, then a hack out \u2026 and then he flies the green with a wedge. Straight into the gallery sitting behind. Meanwhile back on the tee, Rory McIlroy\u2019s driving travails continue apace, as he sends his ball into the fairway bunker on the right. He won\u2019t be able to take a shy for the green from there.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a015.05 EDT<\/p>\n Rory McIlroy is left with a pretty straight birdie putt on 1, certainly by the standards of Augusta National. But he doesn\u2019t hit it at all. An early disappointment, though nothing on last year. Par for Cameron Young as well. Up on 3, Scottie Scheffler responds to his failure to birdie 2 with an up-and-down from greenside sand on 3. His playing partner Haotong Li makes birdie too.<\/p>\n -11: Burns (1), Young (1), McIlroy (1) Share<\/a><\/p>\n Some admin \/ recognition of notable final rounds. Keegan Bradley is in with a 66, equalling Gary Woodland\u2019s best-of-day; he\u2019s -3 overall. A 69 for the 2020 champ Dustin Johnson; he ends the week at level par. Maverick McNealy joins Viktor Hovland in the clubhouse lead at -4 after equalling his 67.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>The leaders are out<\/p>\n The final group takes to the tee \u2026 and both Cameron Young and Rory McIlroy<\/a> take 3-woods for safety. The way Rory has been driving all week, this could be a tactic we\u2019ll see more than once. Time will tell. It\u2019s not as though he\u2019s giving up too much distance, and he\u2019s just wedging in from 155 yards. He very nearly slam-dunks it, too, a couple of feet to the left. He\u2019ll have a good look at birdie from 11 feet. That\u2019ll hopefully put him on an even keel: remember he bogeyed Tea Olive yesterday, and infamously doubled it on Sunday last year. That, it is fair to say, is a marked improvement. Young, having found the fairway bunker on the right, finds the heart of the green and will have a putt from 20 feet or so.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n An opening birdie for Sam Burns in the penultimate group. A lovely downhill putt from 30 feet, and he joins the leaders at -11. His playing partner Shane Lowry however takes a heavy-handed chip from the front of 1, and bogey takes him the other way. No birdie for Scheffler on 2, meanwhile, but Tyrrell Hatton follows up his spectacular eagle on 7 with birdie at 8.<\/p>\n -11: Burns (1), Young, McIlroy Share<\/a><\/p>\n Scottie takes putter from the back of 2. He only just gets his putt through the fringe, though the margins are small, and it still dribbles down to six feet. But he\u2019s not 100 percent happy with that. A thin-lipped smile as he considers his birdie putt. Meanwhile a bogey for Viktor Hovland on 18, and he ends the week with a 67 at -4. That round promised more. He\u2019s the new clubhouse leader, though.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Justin Rose isn\u2019t wasting time either! He chips in from the swale to the right of Tea Olive, and the three-time runner-up moves to within a couple of the lead at -9. The gallery, who wouldn\u2019t say no to the genial Rose getting his flowers at last, erupt in delight. Meanwhile over on 2, Scottie Scheffler fires his second into the green, but over the back. Still a decent opportunity to get up and down from close-ish range, though. A sense that this Masters is about to catch fire, and the leaders aren\u2019t even out yet. Fingers crossed for an all-time classic. Another all-time classic. Two in two years too much to ask?<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n You\u2019ll have noticed Tyrrell Hatton popping up at the bottom of that updated Leader Board at -6. That\u2019s because he\u2019s just holed out for eagle on 7 from 131 yards, landing his ball 15 feet over the flag and spinning it back into the cup! Earlier on today, Aaron Rai did the exact same thing, from 137 yards, so it\u2019s been a good day on Pampas for the English. Rai ended his week at +5 after a round of 70.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Scottie Scheffler isn\u2019t wasting time. A high cut around the branches from the pine straw down the left of 1 into the heart of the green. A mirror-image version of the wedge Bubba Watson played from the trees at 10 to win the play-off in 2012. He\u2019s seven feet away. In goes the birdie putt, and if the leaders weren\u2019t already worried\u2020, they are now\u2020\u2020. Bogey for his playing-partner Haotong Li, though, the cost of leaving his approach short.<\/p>\n -11: Young, McIlroy \u2020: They were Share<\/a><\/p>\n Jake Knapp doesn\u2019t have much of a record in the majors. A tie for 55th at the 2024 Masters, a couple of missed cuts at the PGA, another missed cut at the US Open. But the 31-year-old Californian did tie for 12th at the Players last year, and is poised to build on that here. An opening round of 73 followed by a pair of 69s, and with birdies at 1 and 3 he\u2019s moved up the standings to -7.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Viktor Hovland responds magnificently to that double-bogey blow on 15. The pin on the famous par-three 16th is in its traditional Sunday position, front left, very accessible thanks to the downward camber of the green. Hovland finds the sweet spot that gathers his ball to six feet, then tidies up for birdie. He\u2019s back to -5, and that\u2019s the eighth birdie at 16 this afternoon already, with only 14 players having gone through so far.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Scottie Scheffler isn\u2019t the only player looming large in the leaders\u2019 rear-view mirrors. But you can bet your last shiny cent that Cameron Young and Rory McIlroy<\/a> will consider him the most dangerous one. A world number-one ranking and two Green Jackets kind of add to the aura. Starting the day four behind at -7, it\u2019ll take some effort from Scheffler, but if anyone can, Scottie\u2019s the man. So having teed him up thus, he sends his opening drive wide of the bunker on the right-hand side of the fairway. He might have to punch under some branches from there. We\u2019ll see. He\u2019s going around today with Haotong Li, who he played with on the final day of last year\u2019s Open at Portrush. A good omen for the big man? We\u2019ll see about that as well. Li launches long down the left-hand side of the track.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Turns out Viktor Hovland\u2019s momentum-saving efforts on 14 were all for nought. Hitting his second into 15, he air-mails the green, sending an absurdly overhit iron onto the bank behind and into the pond near the 16th. He can\u2019t find the green with his chip back up, and that\u2019s a double-bogey seven. Again, he isn\u2019t the first, he won\u2019t be the last, and it\u2019s a reminder that the carpet can be whipped from underneath your feet at Augusta National in an instant. He\u2019s -4.<\/p>\n Viktor Hovland of Norway during the final round. Photograph: Petter Arvidson\/BILDBYR\u00c5N\/ShutterstockShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a014.20 EDT<\/p>\n Marco Penge was making a good fist of his Masters debut. Especially as the 27-year-old from Crawley, the reigning Spanish Open champion, took a triple-bogey eight at the 2nd on Thursday. Not the most auspicious start to his Augusta National career, but he limited the first-round damage to 76, then shot 69 and 71. Sadly his final round isn\u2019t going so well, and he\u2019s just dumped two balls in the water at the iconic par-three 12th, the first spinning back off the bank, the second from the dropzone not even getting over to dry land before dunking into the drink. A quadruple-bogey seven. He isn\u2019t the first, he won\u2019t be the last, and things could have gotten a whole lot worse, just ask the Towering Inferno \u2026<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Bogey at the last for Jon Rahm. A diminuendo end to a fine round of 68. You have to wonder how much buyer\u2019s remorse Rahmbo has for joining the LIV tour: the 2021 US Open champion and 2023 Masters winner has never been the same player since. Still, his recovery this week from an opening round of 78 will give him a little succour. He ends his week at +1, one shy of the current clubhouse leader Gary Woodland.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n We\u2019re in that little major-championship sweet spot, the brief period of calm before the whipping up of a Sunday storm. So while we\u2019re waiting for the leading players to take to the course, there\u2019s time to indulge in a wee spot of Masters nostalgia. This episode of This Golfing Life, a wonderful new golf podcast hosted by the award-winning journalist and author Dan Davies, dives deep into the career of the 1980 and 1983 champion, the legendary Seve Ballesteros, and comes much recommended. (Fans of Paddington and Maurice Flitcroft may enjoy this episode too.<\/a>) Get on it!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n \u2026 so it\u2019s probably time to update the Leader Board for the first time today. This is where we\u2019re at for the moment. Meanwhile Viktor Hovland whips his second at 14 over the trees and into the heart of the green, and despite knocking his 25-foot birdie putt six past, tidies up to maintain his upward momentum. Quite a few of these lads, The Hov included, will be rueing their slow starts this week.<\/p>\n -11: Young, McIlroy Share<\/a>Gary Woodland shoots 66<\/p>\n The chasing pack will be very much buoyed by the work of the early starters. Because is there a score out there? Oh yes, there\u2019s a score out there. With the huge caveat that the fairways and greens will dry out and harden up as the afternoon sun beats down – Augusta National getting fast, fast, fast \u2013 the signs are very promising. Consider:<\/p>\n Ludvig \u00c5berg has started out with three straight birdies; he\u2019s -6 overall<\/p>\n Jon Rahm, who started the week with a LIV-shaming 78, is five under for his round today through 17; he\u2019s level par<\/p>\n Gary Woodland has just got back to the clubhouse with a 66; he\u2019s the early clubhouse leader at level par<\/p>\n Viktor Hovland is seven under through 13, though he\u2019s just Roryed his drive into the trees at 14; he\u2019s -6 for the Tournament<\/p>\n Is a low score on? Oh, it\u2019s on. It\u2019s already been on.<\/p>\n Sweden’s Ludvig makes a birdie on the 3rd hole. Photograph: Kylie Cooper\/ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a013.24 EDT<\/p>\n Garcia given code of conduct warning<\/p>\n Today\u2019s weather bulletin: clear, dry and the hottest it\u2019s been all week, with temperatures climbing into the mid-80s. Wind picking up a little during the day, but not in any intrusive manner. Meanwhile in other temperature-related news, the 2017 champion Sergio Garcia has been getting very hot under the collar, reacting to an errant drive on 2 by battering his driver into the ground a couple of times, before whacking it across a nearby cooler, snapping it in two. He\u2019s been given an official code of conduct warning by Augusta National officials<\/a>, while the tanty registers C++ on the Guardian\u2019s Official Masters Meltdown-o-Meter\u2122, which older and more jaded readers may remember from hole-by-hole reports passim<\/a>.<\/p>\n Welcome, patrons, it\u2019s time to clamber aboard the rollercoaster. Now then, if the wild and wonderful scenes of Moving Day are anything to go by, many things are possible today. The most likely is that either Rory McIlroy<\/a> or Cameron Young will win: that\u2019s because the last nine winners have come from the final pairing on Sunday. But there is precedent of a win from as far as eight shots back after 54 holes: Jack Burke Jr. pulled off that particular trick in 1956. Admittedly he only had three players ahead of him on the Leader Board, and it was blowing a field-scattering hoolie, but an eight-stroke comeback is an eight-stroke comeback, whichever way you spin it. Therefore anyone starting the day as low as -3 is technically in with a chance. At least according to the historical data. Even if they have 17 more players ahead of them than Burke did. And today\u2019s conditions are benign. So let\u2019s be realistic. But those are the facts, flat on the page.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Preamble<\/p>\n Exactly 30 years ago, give or take two days, this happened \u2026<\/p>\n
-11: McIlroy (2)
-9: Scheffler (4), Burns (2), Lowry (2)
-8: Henley (5), Li (4), Day (3), Rose (3)
-7: Cantlay (5)<\/p>\n
-9: Scheffler (4), Burns (2), Lowry (2)
-8: Henley (5), Li (4), Day (3), Rose (3)
-7: Hatton (9), Cantlay (5)
-6: Matsuyama (14), \u00c5berg (10), Knapp (7)<\/p>\n
-9: Scheffler (3), Rose (2)
-8: Henley (4), Li (3), Day (2), Lowry (1)
-7: Hatton (8), Cantlay (4)<\/p>\n
-9: Rose (1)
-8: Scheffler (2), Day (1), Lowry (1)
-7: Hatton (8), Cantlay (3), Henley (3), Li (2)<\/p>\n
-10: Burns
-9: Lowry
-8: Scheffler (1), Day, Rose
-7: Knapp (4), Henley (1)
-6: \u00c5berg (7), Hatton (7), Schauffele (5), Reed (2), Cantlay (1), Li (1)<\/p>\n
\u2020\u2020: They already were<\/p>\n
-10: Burns
-9: Lowry
-8: Day, Rose
-7: Scheffler, Li
-6: Hovland (14), \u00c5berg (4), Knapp (1), Cantlay, Henley, Reed<\/p>\n![\"Sergio\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/460.jpg\")
Sergio\u2019s meltdown-o-meter Composite: Scott MurrayShare<\/a><\/p>\n