Rory McIlroy's monstrous lead disappears, surprise contender surges as Masters comes down to final day

In lawsuit you thought the Masters was implicit aft Rory McIlroy's electrifying 2nd round, here's your reminder that thing gets started successful Augusta until the backmost 9 connected Sunday.

And those last 9 holes are definite to beryllium breathtaking aft Saturday's third-round enactment that saw McIlroy's six-shot lead, the largest ever done 36 holes, wholly evaporate.

New York autochthonal Cameron Young and the reigning champion McIlroy volition beryllium paired unneurotic arsenic the last grouping of the 90th playing of the Masters, with some golfers astatine 11 under.

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Rory McIlroy and Cameron Young are tied for the Masters pb going into Sunday. (Katie Goodale/Imagn Images, Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

McIlroy started his time astatine 12 under, but a bogey connected the archetypal combined with 3 birdies by Patrick Reed saw his pb shrink rapidly. When McIlroy birdied the third, and Reed bogeyed No. 4, McIlroy’s pb was backmost to a comfy four. Reed yet fell down the leaderboard, but Young changeable up it.

Young, who was 4 implicit aft his archetypal round, began the time 8 shots backmost of McIlroy, birdied the 16th to necktie McIlroy, conscionable seconds earlier McIlroy bogeyed 12 to autumn to 2nd place. He changeable a 7-under 65 to leap to the apical of the leaderboard, portion McIlroy went 1 implicit with a 73. Young birdied 8 holes to spell on with a bogey connected the par-5 15th aft going water.

But McIlroy struggled connected the backmost nine, going successful the h2o connected 11 for a treble bogey, portion besides bogeying 12 and 18.

Rory McIlroy reacts aft a putt connected the 18th greenish during the 3rd circular of the Masters Tournament astatine Augusta National Golf Club successful Augusta, Georgia, connected April 11, 2026. (Michael Madrid/Imagn Images)

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This tournament, though, present stretches acold beyond the leaders, arsenic determination are 20 players wrong 7 strokes, and 14 wrong six. McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood were the lone golfers wrong the apical 20 entering Saturday to people implicit par successful the 3rd round, making Saturday's moving time rather the preview for an electrical Sunday.

Sam Burns is unsocial astatine 10 nether successful solo third, portion Shane Lowry, who benefited from a hole-in-one, is 2 back. Jason Day and Justin Rose are astatine 8 under, with Scottie Scheffler and Haotong Li astatine 7 nether (Scheffler, too, changeable a 65 aft starting Saturday adjacent for the tournament).

Other notables successful the premix see Patrick Cantlay, Russell Henley, and Reed astatine 6 under, Collin Morikawa astatine 5 under, and Xander Schauffele and Brooks Koepka astatine 4 under.

Masters champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland greets Cameron Young of the United States connected the No. 18 greenish during the archetypal circular of the Masters astatine Augusta National Golf Club connected April 9, 2026. (Logan Whitton/Augusta National/Getty Images)

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After being paired unneurotic successful the archetypal 2 rounds, McIlroy and Young volition tee disconnected unneurotic again astatine 2:25 p.m. ET, arsenic McIlroy looks to marque up for mislaid clip and go the archetypal golfer since Tiger Woods to triumph back-to-back greenish jackets.

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