Masters 2026: Rory McIlroy has built a monster lead in bid for a second green jacket
· Yahoo Sports
AUGUSTA, Ga. — There are automatic standing ovations reserved for a select few at the Masters. They are for those who have won a green jacket, and if you’re Nicklaus or Palmer or Player or Woods, you are greeted warmly by the patrons for as long as you walk these grounds.
Then you have what Rory McIlory experienced late on Friday afternoon at Augusta National. It was only the end of the second round. There were 36 holes still to play. And yet, as the 2025 Masters champion strode up the hill to the 18th green after lofting his approach for yet another birdie chance, the gallery rose and cheered so heartily that it already felt like a coronation walk. McIlroy removed his cap and waved it, something he didn’t really get to do with much gusto amid his playoff battle last year with Justin Rose. Even the long shadows striping the fairways on this cloudless evening made it feel like one of those very special Sundays here.
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The entire scene met the moment as McIlroy produced one of the greatest rounds of his career. The Ulsterman poured in nine birdies, including six over the last seven holes, and shot seven-under par 65 to separate himself from the field like no one before has done heading into the weekend of the Masters.
When McIlroy made a six-foot birdie putt at 18, preceded by a 29-yard pitch-in at 17 that produced a roar ‘heard round the course, he had forged the first six-shot halfway lead in 90 years of Masters history. Six other men had fashioned five-shot leads after 36 holes, and only one of them (Harry Cooper in 1936) did not end up winning.
So, a year after an emotional purge that saw McIlroy complete the career Grand Slam in his 17th Masters start, the 36-year-old has a chance to become only the fourth player—joining Nicklaus, Woods and Nick Faldo—to keep the green jacket for a second straight year. And with his wide lead, he is a prohibitive favorite to do so.
Adam Glanzman
Of course, McIlroy wants nothing to do with that chatter. While admitting he’s off to an “amazing” start, he said with a grin in his post-round TV interview, “I know what can happen around here. You don’t have to remind me not to get ahead of myself.”
That was his cheeky nod to his infamous Sunday back-nine collapse in 2011 when he shot 43. He led by one with nine holes to go; now it’s six with 36—which could certainly be looked at as tougher to defend.
“Don't protect it,” he said emphatically on Friday night. “Go out and play freely, keep swinging. That was a big part of the lesson from the 2011 Masters to the 2011 U.S. Open [which he won by eight shots] was don't get protective. Go out there and keep playing, keep trying to make birdies, stay as trusting and as committed as possible.”
McIlroy has needed all of the commitment he could muster considering how off he’s been in one of the strengths of his game—driving. He ranked 90th out of 91 players over the first two rounds in driving accuracy, which would seemingly spell disaster. But he’s been so sharp with his irons and wedges—he ranks fourth in SG/tee to green—and with the putter (10th) that he’s managed to make seven birdies out of eight tries on the par 5s without hitting a single fairway and regularly punching out from the trees.
Quite possibly helped by now owning a green jacket, he says his motto this week has been “Keep swinging.”
“Over the years this golf course is sometimes … my mindset hasn't been keep swinging,” McIlroy said. “It's been guided, tentative. I think the experience I've accrued over the years and obviously with what happened last year, it makes it a bit easier out there to keep swinging.”
Adam Glanzman
Here’s another advantage to being a Masters champion: They’re happy to welcome you at the gate … often. McIlroy joked that over the last three weeks, when he eschewed tournament play following a slight back issue at the Players Championship, he’d become “part of the furniture” at Augusta National. He said he visited the course more than a half-dozen times—and in a picture of the modern player, there were days when McIlroy dropped his daughter Poppy off at school on Florida, flew to Augusta on his private jet and was home for dinner.
“I've been on this golf course so much the last three weeks,” McIlroy said, “and that's been a combination of practice and chipping and putting around greens, and then just playing one ball and shooting scores and ending up in weird places that you maybe never find yourself and just trying to figure it out.
“I think just spending so much time up here has been a big part of it.”
Still, McIlroy surprised even himself with what he produced in the second round’s back nine. Past Masters champion Patrick Reed, playing several groups ahead, forged a tie at the top when he birdied the 12th and McIlroy suffered his only bogey at the day on the 10th. But from then on, Reed shot even par and McIlroy ran off six birdies—at the 12th, 13th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th.
“I've certainly had times where I felt like in the zone or in that flow state or whatever you want to call it,” McIlroy said. “Maybe this afternoon was one of those times. … The only way I can describe it is everything that you see or any situation that you come across, you can find a positive in it. And then you see birdies and you can see ways to make birdies. So hit it in the trees at 13, fine, I can make a birdie doing it this way. Hit it in the trees at 15, same thing.
“Then you get your spots where you can attack, like the 16th, and feed it in there. … You reel off some birdies, and even when you find yourself out of position, you can still somehow see yourself make a birdie some way.”
With the wind blowing and the course drying up well into Thursday’s first round, there were thoughts that a single-digit final score might win. McIlroy has blown that away and now there is a far more delicious morsel to chew on: Tiger Woods’ record runaway victory by 12 strokes in 1997.
Rory is no Tiger, though. Not speaking of Woods specifically, he refuses to see himself as someone who will intimidate his way to the top.
“That's not me. That's not what I want to do,” he said. “Honestly, I don't care. Golf is the most amazing game because it's you and your golf ball and the golf course and that's it. You shouldn't be affected by anyone else.”
That’s easy for him to say.
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