It's Rory McIlroy at Augusta National: Of course it wasn't going to be a casual stroll to a second green jacket.
It took the defending champion 36 holes to build a record-setting six-shot lead at the Masters and just 11 to see that lead washed away Saturday by a combination of some loose iron play and a brilliant display from Cameron Young.
McIlroy made three bogeys and a double en route to a puzzling 73, while Young poured in eight birdies to put up a sizzling 65 and grab a share of the lead heading to Sunday.
While those two will form the final group, the season's first major is far from a two-man race. Sam Burns sits just one off the pace, with Shane Lowry two back thanks to an ace on the par-3 seventh hole. Justin Rose, Jason Day, and Scottie Scheffler are also firmly in the mix.
| Position | Player | Round 3 score | Total to par |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | Rory McIlroy | 73 | -11 |
| T1 | Cameron Young | 65 | -11 |
| 3 | Sam Burns | 68 | -10 |
| 4 | Shane Lowry | 68 | -9 |
| T5 | Jason Day | 68 | -8 |
| T5 | Justin Rose | 69 | -8 |
| T7 | Scottie Scheffler | 65 | -7 |
| T7 | Haotong Li | 69 | -7 |
Ideal scoring conditions at Augusta yielded plenty of low scoring early, but McIlroy initially had no part in the birdie fest. He bogeyed his opening hole, and his lead shrank to two shots heading to the closing stretch. After righting the ship momentarily with a birdie on No. 10, McIlroy brought all the drama back to the tournament with a stunning decision on the par-4 11th.
The 36-year-old tried to draw a 7-iron into a tucked left pin - even though that side of the green is framed by water and marks the final resting place of many Masters dreams over the years. McIlroy over-hooked his approach and helplessly watched it slip into the water while the patrons groaned. He failed to get up-and-down from the drop zone and walked to the 12th tee tied for the lead as Young laid waste to Augusta with a birdie barrage.
"I felt like I hit a pretty good second shot on 11," McIlroy said after the round. "It just drifted on the wind a little bit and went in the water. Those two holes weren't great."
The share didn't last long. McIlroy bogeyed the 12th, and Young's eighth birdie of the day on 16 gave him the outright lead. But, again, this is Rory McIlroy at Augusta National: For all the bad, there's always going to be some quality golf.
Birdies on 14 and 15 put McIlroy back in front. However, a wayward drive doomed him to another bogey on 17 and left him in a tie with Young heading to Sunday.
It will be a familiar final pairing as the pair played together in the opening two rounds this week, something Young talked about after his day.
"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, especially given the fact that I was watching Rory play," Young said. "We saw today a slow start and a hot start can erase a lot. It's just a matter of keeping myself in it tomorrow and doing the best I can to stay around the lead for as long as possible."
