AUGUSTA, Ga. — The slumped shoulders, the frustrated sighs, the hands through the hair and the listless glances skyward returned Saturday behind Augusta’s 12th green as Rory McIlroy suddenly looked like he had seen a ghost he thought he’d left behind.
In a few hours the six-shot lead he had built over 36 holes — the largest at this tournament — dissipated into the Georgia heat. What had threatened to be a runaway at Augusta National became a wide-open spectacle.
“I didn’t quite have it today,” McIlroy said.
Augusta is unforgiving, and a six-shot edge was historic but never comfortable for a player and a course prone to sudden swings. McIlroy’s 2025 playoff win had seemed to exorcise demons, and many arrived this week ready to watch him parade a green jacket. For two rounds he showed a calm, confident version of himself, swaggering through the course and repeating his mantra: just keep swinging.
Saturday, that swing failed him. He overdrew an approach on 11 and found the water, missed a short putt for bogey; at 12 an uncommitted sawed-off swing left him off the green; at 13 he again hit right into the trees and had to scramble for par. Earlier in his career, leads rarely rattled him. Here, at Augusta, the pattern persists.
“I kept committing to trying to make good swings,” McIlroy said. “But yeah, there was probably a little — when I made the double at 11, I probably got a little bit uneasy on 12 and 13.”
He birdied 14, went for 15 in two and set up another birdie, reclaimed the lead briefly, parred 16, then found the trees on 17 and left a par putt short. On a day when the scoring average was 70.63 — the second-lowest of any Masters round — McIlroy was the only player inside the top 12 to shoot over par. His game can produce dramatic highs and sudden lows, often contrasting with the rest of the field.
When asked if he’d rather win in style or in a rout, McIlroy answered with a grin: “What do you think?” He prefers a blowout, but that comfort has been elusive. At 11 under he now finds himself tied with Cameron Young, and six players at 7 under or better are chasing, including Scottie Scheffler, Justin Rose and Shane Lowry — all who have reminders from last year that McIlroy can unravel.
“I was aware that he wasn’t kind of stretching it out,” Rose said. “So it kind of made it feel like, yeah, all to play for.”
“I thought if Rory could shoot a 68 today he might run away with the tournament,” Lowry said. “It’s not easy to go out and go after it when you’re at the top of the leaderboard. It obviously wasn’t going to be an easy day for Rory to shoot a score.”
Scheffler, after a 65 Saturday, said: “I don’t feel like I’m out of the tournament.”
McIlroy acknowledged the flip side of blowing a big lead: a clean slate on Sunday. “I’d like to think that I’ll play a little bit freer and I’ll play, you know, like I’ve already got a green jacket, which I do. Sometimes I just have to remind myself of that,” he said. “I wish I was a few shots better off, but I’m comfortable. … I just know I need to be better tomorrow to have a chance.”
After addressing the media he headed to the practice facility under the lights, hitting shots into the night searching for a fix. Sunday will be another lap around Augusta, and whether McIlroy can convert or whether his 36-hole advantage becomes the biggest blown lead in Masters history remains to be seen.
“We all know it’s all about tomorrow,” Lowry said. “Obviously, it matters today, but when we get to tomorrow, that’s when we’ll see what everyone is made of.”
