Gavin Cooney
reports from Augusta National Golf Club
SATURDAY AT THE 2026 Masters can sue its Moving Day nickname for a misrepresentation of character.
Moving implies some inherent, ordered logic to the direction of everyone’s travel, whereas this was eddying, omnidirectional chaos, at the end of which Rory McIlroy surrendered every piece of his overnight lead.
McIlroy’s six-shot buffer was the biggest at the midway point of any Masters tournament, but across a scorching, dramatic Saturday his driving troubles endured and his irons wobbled on the way to a one-over par 73, plunging him back to the pack. He ended the day in a tie for the lead with Cameron Young, with Shane Lowry loitering only two shots further back in solo third. Sam Burns is a shot behind the leaders at 10-under.
But tomorrow is a democratic contest, and who can you say with any conviction is fully out of contention? Justin Rose is four shots back and well-versed in Sunday charges; Jason Day is in the same ballpark and ticking along quietly. And, ominously for all, Scottie Scheffler is at seven-under and only four shots from the lead after a storming 65.
Shane Lowry teed off in the third to last group with Tommy Fleetwood, and so he loped off the driving range as Rory McIlroy was busy flighting irons into the clear blue sky. He passed on his well messages via Harry Diamond, with McIlroy spinning his head and catching Lowry to reciprocate just as his friend headed for the first tee.
Lowry started as he has done all week: striping his drive down the fairway and then stitching the ball to the flag. Alas, this was the first day of the week he didn’t convert for birdie. He nonetheless found a birdie from a fairway bunker on the par-five second, and then got up and down for par on three. The crowds dawdled at the green to assess the changing scoreboard in front of them, and then arose a mingling of groans and gasps when the board showed McIlroy drop to 11-under having bogeyed the first. Those crowds then spun around to find McIlroy standing in the pinestraw beside them, having flown his tee shot right on the second hole. McIlroy could only get up and down for par, while another roar rumbled and erupted from the third green: Patrick Reed had made a third-straight birdie and suddenly – remarkably – McIlroy’s historic over night lead had been slashed to only two.
McIlroy needed to find something with his driver and so he did: unleashing a 337-yard rocket that rolled to a halt on the green. Rafael Nadal was among the patrons who rushed to the ropeline to see where the ball came to a halt, turning reporter for the latecomers. Para eagle! Para eagle!
McIlroy didn’t make the putt but did collect his birdie to get back to 12-under.
Lowry meanwhile made par on four and the treacherous fifth before teeing it up on the elevated, par-three sixth. He attacked the pin and his coach Neil Manchip, standing behind him, foretold the glory by with a mutter, Right at it. The ball took one kick, a second, and then scuttled to the hole. Lowry roared and pumped his arms; his playing partner Tommy Fleetwood swallowing him in a generous embrace. It was the first hole-in-one of the week and Lowry’s second at Augusta National, adding the sixth to the 16th from a decade ago to become the only golfer in history with multiple holes-in-one at the Masters.
Lowry was now kindling giddy Irish dreams of playing alongside McIlroy in Sunday’s final group, saving par on seven and picking up another shot on the par-five eighth. Alas he finally erred with his putter in failing to clean up on nine.
McIlroy was meanwhile in cling-on mode. He got up and down from the sand for a par on four, and then was unlucky to see a birdie effort slide by on five having finally found a fairway. He spoke yesterday of relying on his work around the green and leaned upon it again on six. Where Shane went into the hole, Rory went miles left, but another brilliant chip meant another par save. He then missed fairways on seven and eight, getting down for par on seven and then hitting his first tentative putt of the day when looking at birdie on the par-five eight.
Lowry meanwhile made the turn and got baroque. A towering approach to the 10th gave him a surefire birdie, but he the handed back the shot at 11 when he went left off the tee and into the trees. He made his par on 12 and while he couldn’t profit on the par-five 13th, he knocked in a tremendously aggressive putt for birdie on 14.
At this point, incredibly, Lowry wasn’t chasing only McIlroy. The defending champion made birdie on 10 but Amen Corner was the moment at which his game – now held together with little more than sellotape and twine – came apart. With acres of green to the right of the flag on 11, he turned over his approach and saw it kick off the front of the green and roll into the water. A steely chip back across the water from a bewilderingly tough drop zone gave him a chance to salvage bogey, but he saw the putt roll through his shadow and lip out. He sent his shot to the 12th with a sigh of Oh No, hooking another iron left. It was at this point he was finally let down by his short game, leaving himself too long to escape without a bogey.
And so Rory McIlroy left the Masters’ signature hole one shot off the lead.
Cameron Young, who was four-over through his first nine holes on Thursday and eight shots behind McIlroy at the start of the day’s play, was now one shot clear. Nothing better summed up the wacky lurches of the day than the fact Cam Young sent his approach to 15 in the water a few minutes before he read that he had the solo lead. Young came out hot, making the turn at four-under for his round, while profiting from absurd favour.
Cam Young. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
He flew the green on nine only to see the ball kick off a patron’s chair and bounce back onto the green, and then duck-hooked his drive on 13 before his ball kicked back into the fairway to allow him get down for birdie. Young walked off with a one-shot lead and signed for a phenomenal seven-under 64.
The Rory trials continued. He flared another tee shot right on 13, and then saw his shot out of the pinestraw kick up off a mound that would otherwise have held a rope-post and come to a premature end. His approach shot through the back of the green like it was late for mass, and so he had to get up and down for par. At this point McIlroy was leaking so much oil around Augusta that were lads in Whitegate wondering whether the course was worth a blockade.
Lowry’s dramas were not relenting. From the 15th fairway he sought to bail out right into the bunker but saw it come up agonisingly short and kick toward the slope from where it slithered agonisingly into the water. And yet he got up and down for his par, and matched with a steely putt on 16. He came home cleanly, seeing a birdie putt on the final hole slide painfully by.
He signed for a four-under 68, one shot better than Friday, which itself was a shot better than Thursday. In third place and two from the leaders, if Lowry continues trending in this direction then the vision of McIlroy slipping the jacket on his shoulders will be tantalisingly plausible.
“I thought if Rory could shoot a 68 today he might run away with the tournament”, he said after his round. “The course, they made it a bit more gettable today. It’s not easy to go out and go after it when you’re at the top of the leaderboard. Not that it’s easy to do it. But when you’re down the field and you’re 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.
“It obviously wasn’t going to be an easy day for Rory to shoot a score. But we all know it’s all about tomorrow. You know what I mean? Obviously it matters, today, but when we get to tomorrow, that’s when we’ll see what everyone is made of.”
McIlroy made a very belated return to the fairways off the 14th tee and then gave himself a needless amount of work for birdie with his wedge in. But, suddenly, from nowhere, he slammed his putt in for birdie. Then on 15 he finally – finally – found a fairway on a par-five for the first time this week, which allowed him echo the very recent past, whipping a seven-iron into eagle range as he did on Sunday last year.
And, like Sunday last year, he had to settle for birdie. It was a fragile lead and it did not last: he went left from the 17th tee to make bogey and end the day without a lead at all, tied atop the leaderboard with Young.
“I didn’t quite have it today”, said McIlroy. “I’m still tied for the best score going into tomorrow, so I can’t forget that, but I do know I’m going to have to be better if I want to have a chance to win.
“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 maybe just have to remind myself of that.”
Here follows a ferocious fight for that green jacket. Rory? Shane? Young? Burns? Rose? Day? Scheffler? Who knows. Bring it on.
Sunday Tee Times (all times Irish)
Shane Lowry and Sam Burns at 7.14pm Irish time
Rory McIlroy and Cameron Young at 7.25pm Irish time
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McIlroy clings on while Lowry stakes his claim on epic, chaotic moving day
SATURDAY AT THE 2026 Masters can sue its Moving Day nickname for a misrepresentation of character.
Moving implies some inherent, ordered logic to the direction of everyone’s travel, whereas this was eddying, omnidirectional chaos, at the end of which Rory McIlroy surrendered every piece of his overnight lead.
McIlroy’s six-shot buffer was the biggest at the midway point of any Masters tournament, but across a scorching, dramatic Saturday his driving troubles endured and his irons wobbled on the way to a one-over par 73, plunging him back to the pack. He ended the day in a tie for the lead with Cameron Young, with Shane Lowry loitering only two shots further back in solo third. Sam Burns is a shot behind the leaders at 10-under.
But tomorrow is a democratic contest, and who can you say with any conviction is fully out of contention? Justin Rose is four shots back and well-versed in Sunday charges; Jason Day is in the same ballpark and ticking along quietly. And, ominously for all, Scottie Scheffler is at seven-under and only four shots from the lead after a storming 65.
Shane Lowry teed off in the third to last group with Tommy Fleetwood, and so he loped off the driving range as Rory McIlroy was busy flighting irons into the clear blue sky. He passed on his well messages via Harry Diamond, with McIlroy spinning his head and catching Lowry to reciprocate just as his friend headed for the first tee.
Lowry started as he has done all week: striping his drive down the fairway and then stitching the ball to the flag. Alas, this was the first day of the week he didn’t convert for birdie. He nonetheless found a birdie from a fairway bunker on the par-five second, and then got up and down for par on three. The crowds dawdled at the green to assess the changing scoreboard in front of them, and then arose a mingling of groans and gasps when the board showed McIlroy drop to 11-under having bogeyed the first. Those crowds then spun around to find McIlroy standing in the pinestraw beside them, having flown his tee shot right on the second hole. McIlroy could only get up and down for par, while another roar rumbled and erupted from the third green: Patrick Reed had made a third-straight birdie and suddenly – remarkably – McIlroy’s historic over night lead had been slashed to only two.
McIlroy needed to find something with his driver and so he did: unleashing a 337-yard rocket that rolled to a halt on the green. Rafael Nadal was among the patrons who rushed to the ropeline to see where the ball came to a halt, turning reporter for the latecomers. Para eagle! Para eagle!
McIlroy didn’t make the putt but did collect his birdie to get back to 12-under.
Lowry meanwhile made par on four and the treacherous fifth before teeing it up on the elevated, par-three sixth. He attacked the pin and his coach Neil Manchip, standing behind him, foretold the glory by with a mutter, Right at it. The ball took one kick, a second, and then scuttled to the hole. Lowry roared and pumped his arms; his playing partner Tommy Fleetwood swallowing him in a generous embrace. It was the first hole-in-one of the week and Lowry’s second at Augusta National, adding the sixth to the 16th from a decade ago to become the only golfer in history with multiple holes-in-one at the Masters.
Lowry was now kindling giddy Irish dreams of playing alongside McIlroy in Sunday’s final group, saving par on seven and picking up another shot on the par-five eighth. Alas he finally erred with his putter in failing to clean up on nine.
McIlroy was meanwhile in cling-on mode. He got up and down from the sand for a par on four, and then was unlucky to see a birdie effort slide by on five having finally found a fairway. He spoke yesterday of relying on his work around the green and leaned upon it again on six. Where Shane went into the hole, Rory went miles left, but another brilliant chip meant another par save. He then missed fairways on seven and eight, getting down for par on seven and then hitting his first tentative putt of the day when looking at birdie on the par-five eight.
Lowry meanwhile made the turn and got baroque. A towering approach to the 10th gave him a surefire birdie, but he the handed back the shot at 11 when he went left off the tee and into the trees. He made his par on 12 and while he couldn’t profit on the par-five 13th, he knocked in a tremendously aggressive putt for birdie on 14.
At this point, incredibly, Lowry wasn’t chasing only McIlroy. The defending champion made birdie on 10 but Amen Corner was the moment at which his game – now held together with little more than sellotape and twine – came apart. With acres of green to the right of the flag on 11, he turned over his approach and saw it kick off the front of the green and roll into the water. A steely chip back across the water from a bewilderingly tough drop zone gave him a chance to salvage bogey, but he saw the putt roll through his shadow and lip out. He sent his shot to the 12th with a sigh of Oh No, hooking another iron left. It was at this point he was finally let down by his short game, leaving himself too long to escape without a bogey.
And so Rory McIlroy left the Masters’ signature hole one shot off the lead.
Cameron Young, who was four-over through his first nine holes on Thursday and eight shots behind McIlroy at the start of the day’s play, was now one shot clear. Nothing better summed up the wacky lurches of the day than the fact Cam Young sent his approach to 15 in the water a few minutes before he read that he had the solo lead. Young came out hot, making the turn at four-under for his round, while profiting from absurd favour.
He flew the green on nine only to see the ball kick off a patron’s chair and bounce back onto the green, and then duck-hooked his drive on 13 before his ball kicked back into the fairway to allow him get down for birdie. Young walked off with a one-shot lead and signed for a phenomenal seven-under 64.
The Rory trials continued. He flared another tee shot right on 13, and then saw his shot out of the pinestraw kick up off a mound that would otherwise have held a rope-post and come to a premature end. His approach shot through the back of the green like it was late for mass, and so he had to get up and down for par. At this point McIlroy was leaking so much oil around Augusta that were lads in Whitegate wondering whether the course was worth a blockade.
Lowry’s dramas were not relenting. From the 15th fairway he sought to bail out right into the bunker but saw it come up agonisingly short and kick toward the slope from where it slithered agonisingly into the water. And yet he got up and down for his par, and matched with a steely putt on 16. He came home cleanly, seeing a birdie putt on the final hole slide painfully by.
He signed for a four-under 68, one shot better than Friday, which itself was a shot better than Thursday. In third place and two from the leaders, if Lowry continues trending in this direction then the vision of McIlroy slipping the jacket on his shoulders will be tantalisingly plausible.
“I thought if Rory could shoot a 68 today he might run away with the tournament”, he said after his round. “The course, they made it a bit more gettable today. It’s not easy to go out and go after it when you’re at the top of the leaderboard. Not that it’s easy to do it. But when you’re down the field and you’re 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.
“It obviously wasn’t going to be an easy day for Rory to shoot a score. But we all know it’s all about tomorrow. You know what I mean? Obviously it matters, today, but when we get to tomorrow, that’s when we’ll see what everyone is made of.”
McIlroy made a very belated return to the fairways off the 14th tee and then gave himself a needless amount of work for birdie with his wedge in. But, suddenly, from nowhere, he slammed his putt in for birdie. Then on 15 he finally – finally – found a fairway on a par-five for the first time this week, which allowed him echo the very recent past, whipping a seven-iron into eagle range as he did on Sunday last year.
And, like Sunday last year, he had to settle for birdie. It was a fragile lead and it did not last: he went left from the 17th tee to make bogey and end the day without a lead at all, tied atop the leaderboard with Young.
“I didn’t quite have it today”, said McIlroy. “I’m still tied for the best score going into tomorrow, so I can’t forget that, but I do know I’m going to have to be better if I want to have a chance to win.
“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 maybe just have to remind myself of that.”
Here follows a ferocious fight for that green jacket. Rory? Shane? Young? Burns? Rose? Day? Scheffler? Who knows. Bring it on.
Sunday Tee Times (all times Irish)
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2026 Masters Golf Rory McIlroy Shane Lowry walking the fairways