McIlroy’s runaway Masters

Rory McIlroy turned Friday at Augusta National into the opposite of a normal Masters: instead of 20 players bunching together by dinner, he shot 7-under 65, got to 12-under for the week, and built a six-shot lead that no one had ever held after 36 holes at this tournament. (pgatour.com) He did it with a burst that looked like someone skipping chapters in a book: six birdies in his last seven holes, including four straight to finish the round. That closing run turned a tied leaderboard into one where everyone else is suddenly playing defense. (espn.com) The chase group is not anonymous. Sam Burns and Patrick Reed both sit at 6-under, which means they are playing well enough to win many Masters weekends and still start Saturday six behind one player. (pgatour.com) That gap matters extra at Augusta because the course usually squeezes leaders rather than freeing them. A one-shot edge can vanish with one bad putt on the slick greens, but a six-shot edge forces the field to attack pins while McIlroy can spend two full rounds avoiding disasters. (sports.yahoo.com) McIlroy is also carrying a different kind of weight this year because he arrived as the defending champion. Since Tiger Woods won back-to-back in 2001 and 2002, only three defending Masters champions had finished better than 10th the next year, so just getting back into control this fast is unusual. (nytimes.com) (pgatour.com) The leaderboard also showed how violently this course can flip in one hole. Bryson DeChambeau came to the 18th needing only a bogey to survive the cut, made triple bogey 7 instead, finished at 6-over, and went home while 54 players at 4-over or better moved on. (cbssports.com) (golfweek.usatoday.com) That is the strange split-screen heading into Saturday: McIlroy has made Augusta look wide open, and DeChambeau just proved it can still bite hard enough to end a major on the last green. The same course that gave McIlroy four closing birdies gave DeChambeau a walk to the parking lot. (sports.yahoo.com) (cbssports.com) There is one small warning label on all this history. ESPN noted that McIlroy’s margin is tied for the third-largest 36-hole lead in major championship history, and golf has seen huge halfway leads shrink before, which is why his weekend job is less about chasing birdies than refusing to hand Augusta an opening. (espn.com)