1 week Ago
AUGUSTA — The Masters Tournament isn’t supposed to begin until the second nine on Sunday afternoon. History, however, says that the third round might be even more important if a golfer is going to don the green jacket on Sunday evening. Since 2017, the winner of the Masters has been no worse than tied for second after 54 holes.
That bodes well for Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau. After the dust of moving day had settled, they stood atop the leaderboard through three rounds. McIlroy, who only needs the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam, provided the early afternoon fireworks.
He started the third round with six consecutive 3s – that’s an eagle, three birdies and two pars if you’re scoring at home – to seize a two-shot lead over DeChambeau. After some mid-round lapses, McIlroy tamed Augusta’s par-5s coming in with a birdie and an eagle to polish off his 66. “It was such a great way to start, and you know, just to come out of the blocks like that, I think, as well, from finishing yesterday afternoon to teeing off today, it's quite a long time,” McIlroy said.
“You know, there's a lot of anticipation and sort of anxious energy that builds up. You just want to get out there and play.” Recent history is against Corey Conners, who is four back and in solo third.
It’s also against Patrick Reed and Ludvig Åberg, who are tied for fourth and six off the lead. In 2016, Danny Willett started the day in a tie for fifth. He won largely because of Jordan Spieth’s implosion at No.
12 in the final round. Go back even further, and you have to visit 1989 to find a golfer who was worse than fifth who wound up winning the tournament. That was Nick Faldo, who fired a final-round 65 to force a sudden-death playoff that he won against Scott Hoch.
He started that day tied for ninth. Even seven years later, when Faldo famously tracked down Greg Norman’s six-shot lead, he was in solo second going into the final round. Augusta National was ripe for scoring on the third round on a mostly benign day.
Zach Johnson made the biggest move of the early starters, shooting 6-under 66 to move up to a tie for 10th place. The 2007 Masters champion made an eagle at No. 2, plus six birdies, for the low round of the day.
He said the course setup allowed players to go low. “I think the beauty of what they've done the last three days, if you will, has been some pins where you're like, OK, I can get after this,” Johnson said. “There's some pins where you're like, if I get out of shape here, I'm in trouble.
And then there's some where it's like, hold on, I just want to get out of here and put a par down.” Scottie Scheffler, who has won two out of the last three Masters, was among those who failed to make a charge on moving day. His even-par 72 left him at 5-under and seven shots behind McIlroy.
“I got off to a good start today, but after that I didn't really feel like I gave myself enough opportunities, and the opportunities that I did have, I didn't really quite take advantage of,” Scheffler said..
