the most wide-open final rounds<\/a> in years as 11 players started the afternoon within five shots of the lead. The first nine holes of Sunday hardly narrowed the field \u2013 five top competitors are within three strokes of Rose\u2019s lead as the tournament heads toward a dramatic conclusion.\n <\/p>\n\n Given Augusta National\u2019s penchant for giving up low scores this week, and its historic habit of devouring potential champions on the final day, a potentially classic day is taking place in eastern Georgia.\n <\/p>\n
\n So far, four different men have had at least a share of the lead with Augusta\u2019s intimidating back nine looming in the late afternoon.\n <\/p>\n
\n McIlroy has spoke all week about the comfort he feels knowing that the weight on his shoulders \u2014 the career grand slam and a first Masters title \u2014 was removed last year. But the erasure of his six-shot lead on Saturday brought back some difficult memories in the minds of his fans, if not in the Northern Irishman himself.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019d like to think that I\u2019ll play a little bit freer and I\u2019ll play, you know, like I\u2019ve already got a green jacket, which I do. Sometimes I maybe just have to remind myself of that, but I think as well that the stakes in terms of, like, the pairing will be just a little bit easier. You know, the atmosphere out there will be a little bit easier,\u201d McIlroy said Saturday of what he expects from the final round.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cYeah, I\u2019m not worried about that at all. I wish I was a few shots better off, but I\u2019m comfortable.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The difference between feeling comfortable and being comfortable on the scoreboard is often what defines the mindset of a Masters champion.\n <\/p>\n
\n The pressure of the final round at Augusta is legendary. The roars of the patrons echo around course and it\u2019s hard to ignore what other players are doing when the big charges come. The leaders will not be in any doubt if one of their competitors is suddenly nipping at their heels \u2014 or grabbing the lead themselves.\n <\/p>\n
![\"Shane](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ap26101735238502.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s not easy to go out and go after it when you\u2019re at the top of the leaderboard,\u201d Lowry said Saturday. \u201cNot that it\u2019s easy to do it. But when you\u2019re down the field and you\u2019re just having a go at it, it makes it a little bit easier and you can play a bit more freely. When you are out there in the hunt you need to be a little bit more protective of what you are doing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The best players find another level on these kinds of days, Scheffler said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThat\u2019s what great players and great competitors do is they\u2019re able to rise to the occasion. I think when you look at the biggest tournaments, you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find another tournament that\u2019s bigger than this one, especially for myself,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhen you come here, I think that\u2019s why it\u2019s such a great test too, because not only do you have to conquer this golf course, you have to conquer changing conditions, a difficult country club golf course, but you also have to conquer your nerves as well to get it done around here.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n This is a breaking story and is being updated.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The old saying about the Masters is that the tournament doesn\u2019t truly begin until the back nine on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-580380","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\/580380","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=580380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}