{"id":577889,"date":"2026-04-11T12:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T12:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/577889\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T12:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T12:31:11","slug":"rory-mcilroy-surges-to-record-masters-lead-with-65-in-round-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/577889\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy surges to record Masters lead with 65 in Round 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 Masters third round<\/a>.<\/p>\n

AUGUSTA, Ga. \u2014 Back when each Masters week was a series of why-nots and how-comes, when all Rory McIlroy could be asked was what the problem was, golf\u2019s greatest luminaries offered messages of support that only made it worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo question, he\u2019ll do it at some point,\u201d Tiger Woods said two days before the 2024 Masters. \u201cHe\u2019s just \u2014 Rory\u2019s too talented, too good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no golf course that suits a man better than it does for Rory,\u201d said Gary Player a year later.<\/p>\n

It turns out, all the expectations on McIlroy were absolutely right. It just happened later than everybody planned. The loose, pressure-free version of McIlroy is taking over Augusta National this week, bending the most iconic venue in golf to his will at 12 under par, six shots ahead of Sam Burns and Patrick Reed. It\u2019s a record for the largest 36-hole lead.<\/p>\n

A year removed from his epic, demon-exorcising victory to complete the career Grand Slam, McIlroy shot a tournament-best 65 on Friday with nine birdies, including a 31 on the back. He is seeking to become the fourth man to win back-to-back Masters, joining Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods.<\/p>\n

Through all of the pain and torment, through 16 years of missed chances and the rollercoaster Sunday that pushed his sanity to the brink, perhaps McIlroy compiled a singular understanding of Augusta National. While we \u2014 and he \u2014 saw each year through the lens of defeat, maybe a database was being built that cannot be compared.<\/p>\n

\u201cRory might win every year,\u201d Fred Couples said Friday. \u201cI said that yesterday. I mean, he really could win five more of these.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Rory McIlroy slaps hands with caddie Harry Diamond during the second round. (Jared C. Tilton \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It warrants the reminder that McIlroy went to a playoff last year at 11-under despite four double bogeys, something nobody has ever done. So he played the other 68 holes at Augusta National at 19 under par, just one shy of Dustin Johnson\u2019s scoring record at the fall 2020 Masters during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was getting past myself,\u201d McIlroy said Friday. \u201cIt was staying aggressive. Like my little mantra to myself today was \u2018keep swinging. Keep swinging hard at it even if you\u2019re not hitting fairways, just keep swinging.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

A week before the 2025 Masters, McIlroy sat down with six-time winner Nicklaus and went through the course shot by shot to determine how he planned to play it. It clearly worked. Before the first round this year, Nicklaus whispered in his ear, \u201cNo f\u2014ing double bogeys.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy said he also spent more time than ever at Augusta National this year, including playing practice rounds, filming for his Amazon Prime documentary, and attending last weekend\u2019s Augusta National Women\u2019s Amateur. He said that on multiple occasions, he took his daughter Poppy to school, hopped on a plane, played a round, flew back home and still had dinner with his wife, Erica, and Poppy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve prepared as well for this Masters as any other that I\u2019ve played,\u201d he said. \u201cI think all that work around the greens over the last three weeks has certainly paid off over the last two days.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy entered Friday with a share of the lead, but he quickly birdied No. 2 with a perfect iron shot, hit a spinny chip up onto 3, and hit a 22-foot putt on 4 to immediately take a solo three-shot lead.<\/p>\n

While he dipped back with bogeys on 5 and 10, he swiftly conquered Amen Corner. His approach to the famous No. 12 went to seven feet for birdie. Despite missing the fairway on 13, he laid up and pitched close for another birdie. A winding 10-foot putt on 15 brought another, before his dart on 16 was the third closest of the week.<\/p>\n

But perhaps it was his 29-yard chip-in on 17 that sealed the notion that this is his week. Everything is coming up McIlroy right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 Masters third round. AUGUSTA, Ga. \u2014 Back when each Masters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-577889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}