Rory McIlroy has always been the hunter at Augusta National. Nobody knows more than him that chasing the eventual winners on the coattails of their Green Jackets never works.
In 2022, he was one shot from the course record after making Augusta explode with a birdie from the bunker on the 72nd hole. He only finished second, and he has never finished better.
He stormed to a 66 in the final round in 2015, too. That was good for outright fourth.
He was destined to be searching for prey from too great a distance again after his 72 on Thursday at the 89th Masters, but the Northern Irishman forgot his usual gloom of the dreaded second day down Magnolia Lane to plant himself in the mind of clubhouse leader Justin Rose.
His last four Fridays at Augusta have been largely miserable: 77, 77, 73, 74. But like the local weather forecast here in Augusta, the fears subsided, and there were no clouds on McIlroy’s scorecard. A bogey-free 66 is just what he needed.
For much of the morning, the sun-kissed white leaderboards featured Rose, Bryson DeChambeau, Corey Conners and Scottie Scheffler. McIlroy was 1-under for the day through the front nine and tore the back nine to shreds in 31 shots. He took 13 shots on Thursday just to complete holes 15 and 17.
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Rory McIlroy Masters Friday: Can the hunter finally become the hunted?
“Golf tournaments are so long, and there’s so much that can happen, even in the next 36 holes,” McIlroy said to the media here in Georgia.
“My mindset was, I shot even par yesterday. I probably need to get to somewhere between 12-under and 15-under to win this tournament. You know, there was plenty of time to do that. So yeah, again, just about staying patient.”
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McIlroy is correct. Around Augusta National especially, golf tournaments are long and much can happen. McIlroy’s second-round 6-under scorecard could go some way to defeating the rather startling statistic that 18 of the last 19 Masters winners were at least within four shots off the leader after round one.
Only twice have players won the Masters when being seven shots behind through 18 holes, where McIlroy was. The first Masters was played in 1934.
Perhaps the valuable ground that ties into these facts has already been lost. Every mistake moving forward will be placed in the context of his water ball on 15 and his three-putt on 16 in round one that led to two double-bogeys and a disappointing round of level-par.
He was calling himself an idiot when watching his ball sail in the sky towards the par-5 13th green, flirting with Rae’s Creek where many have succumbed. But his ball finished between pin and hazard, and a welcome eagle kickstarted his Masters charge.
“Usually the ball comes out spinnier out of the pine straw. So I hit a 4-iron, and the follow-through, definitely I saved it, and I was glad that I hit 4-iron. I covered that little corner there.”
Them’s the breaks. It didn’t break for the 35-year-old on the 15th, 24 hours earlier after what he believed to be a good chip shot steered into the water on the other side of the green, as if someone was pulling it from down below. His effort on Friday was crucial in painting the target he so often has to aim for on his own back.
Masters leaderboard when Rory McIlroy finished the second round
| Justin Rose | -8 |
| Bryson DeChambeau | -7 |
| Rory McIlroy | -6 |
| Corey Conners | -6 (thru 13) |
| Tyrrell Hatton | -6 (thru 10) |
| Matt McCarty | -5 |
| Shane Lowry | -5 |
| Jason Day | -5 (thru 10) |
| Scottie Scheffler | -5 (10) |
There were no errors to compound on day two. McIlroy’s pair of contrasting rounds placed him in the mix with Rose, Scheffler, and DeChambeau – the man who ripped his heart out and fed it to him at the 2024 US Open at Pinehurst.
He hadn’t even been aware of amateur star-turned-PGA Tour history-maker Nick Dunlap’s rounds of 90, but went 3-under thru 14 holes on Friday. If McIlroy’s pair of cards were different, Dunlap’s were night and day.
“It reminds me of a story at Memorial the other way,” McIlroy commented. “I shot 63 the first round at Memorial in 2014 and backed it up with a 79. And I came in to have lunch, and I saw Jack there. And he said, “How the hell did you shoot 16 shots more today than yesterday?”
“So it’s just – championship golf, it can be volatile. The conditions can be tough. You can just start – and the momentum can start to go the wrong way on you.
“We’re all great players. We’re playing in the Masters. You know, we’re all capable of shooting good scores.”
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