built a tournament-record six-shot, 36-hole lead<\/a> that had him poised to run away and hide with his second consecutive green jacket.<\/p>\nThe day ended, after a dramatic action under abundant sunshine that firmed up the golf course to British Open bounciness, with Sunday\u2019s final round poised to be an epic shootout among some of the world\u2019s top players.<\/p>\n
McIlroy and Cam Young are tied for the lead at 11 under par entering the final round.<\/p>\n
Sam Burns, who\u2019s hovered around the top of the leaderboard all week, is one shot back at 10 under after shooting 68.<\/p>\n
Shane Lowry, boosted by a hole-in-one on the sixth hole, is two shots back at 9 under after he shot 68 on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Jason Day, who was paired with Young, shot 68 and is three off the lead at 8 under along with Justin Rose, last year\u2019s runner-up to McIlroy.<\/p>\n
Cameron Young of the United States looks on from the 18th green during the third round of the 2026 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 11, 2026 in Augusta, Georgia. Getty Images<\/p>\n
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who led the way shaking things up Saturday posting an early 65, is 7 under, as is Haotong Li.<\/p>\n
Young, shooting a 7-under-par 65, made up eight shots on McIlroy, who stalled with a 1-over-par 73.<\/p>\n
A native of Scarborough, in Westchester County, where learned the game growing up on the grounds of Sleepy Hollow Country Club, Young is trying to become the third consecutive Players Championship winner to capture the Masters in the same year. Scottie Scheffler did it in 2024 and McIlroy did it last year.<\/p>\n
Young said a Masters win Sunday \u201cwould be an incredible day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve dreamed of doing for a long time,\u201d he said. \u201cI like the position I\u2019m in. If you had said on Thursday at about noon that I was going to be within a couple of the lead going into Sunday, I would have taken it in a heartbeat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young was 4 over par through seven holes in the first round with a missed cut not out of the question.<\/p>\n
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland reacts on the 18th green during the third round of the 2026 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 11, 2026 in Augusta, Georgia. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime you\u2019re around the lead in a major, especially here, anything can happen,\u201d Young said. \u201cWe saw today a slow start [McIlroy] and a hot start [Young] can erase a lot. It\u2019s just kind of a matter of keeping myself in it [Sunday] and doing the best I can to stay around the lead for as long as possible, and you see what happens at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy conceded he \u201cdidn\u2019t quite have it\u201d Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis golf course has a way of \u2026 when you\u2019re not quite feeling it, you struggle,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to dig deep. There are a lot of guys with a chance [Sunday]. I\u2019m still tied for the best score \u2026 so I can\u2019t forget that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still have a great chance. I\u2019m in the final group. But I do know I\u2019m going to have to be better if I want to have a chance to win. There\u2019s a long way to go. I\u2019d like to think that I\u2019ll play a little bit freer and I\u2019ll play like I\u2019ve already got a green jacket, which I do.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, I maybe just have to remind myself of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young needs to remind himself of the way he outdueled Matt Fitzpatrick in the final round at TPC Sawgrass last month.<\/p>\n
Scottie Scheffler walks to green on the 18th hole during the third round of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Saturday, April 11, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. AP<\/p>\n
Cameron Young waves after his putt on the 13th hole during the third round of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Saturday, April 11, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. AP<\/p>\n
\u201cReally, what I was trying to do was get ready to be playing late on Sunday at Augusta,\u201d Young said of his final round last month at TPC Sawgrass. \u201cNow, I\u2019m here with what will be a late tee time on Sunday at Augusta, and that\u2019s the best prep I could have asked for.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll try to run much the same process, same mindset as I did that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy and Young were grouped together in the first two rounds and they\u2019ll be together again in the final pairing Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t get the sense I\u2019ll be the fan favorite, but I feel like the support, some fans that cheer for me have gotten louder over the last year,\u201d Young said. \u201cIt will still be lopsided, I think. Rory\u2019s kind of a world favorite in the golf world. [But] a year ago, if I\u2019d been in the same situation, there would have been very little [support], and now there\u2019s probably a little more. So, I\u2019ll take what I can get, and I\u2019ll be happy with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy called it \u201ca comfortable group for both of us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUGUSTA, Ga. \u2014 This was a Masters moving day for the ages. The day began with Rory McIlroy,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[134878,427,6082,99,51195],"class_list":{"0":"post-579139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-augusta-national","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-rory-mcilroy","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-the-masters"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579139","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=579139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}