AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Rory McIlroy planned to keep his mind off golf as much as possible while awaiting the third round of the Masters.
“There’s actually two really good semifinals at Monte Carlo in the tennis. So I’ll watch that,” he said. “We’ve been watching the tennis early in the mornings.”
The tennis matches might be more competitive than what’s taken place so far at Augusta National, where McIlroy led by a record six strokes after 36 holes. He birdied six of the last seven in a second-round 65 on Friday that left him at 12 under par for the tournament.
Now this could go a few different ways. McIlroy could cruise to victory and become the fourth player to win back-to-back Masters. He could maintain this level of domination and challenge Tiger Woods’ record for margin of victory (12) or Dustin Johnson’s for lowest score (20 under).
Or he could blow the lead and make history that way — 36 holes is a lot of golf still to play.
“Look, I’ve built up a nice cushion at this point,” McIlroy said. “I guess my mindset is just trying to keep playing well and keeping my foot on the gas.”
McIlroy nearly was paired in Saturday’s final group with Patrick Reed, his foil during a memorable Ryder Cup match in 2016 and in the final group of the 2018 Masters, won by Reed. But a bogey on the 18th hole Friday left Reed tied for second with Sam Burns, who will play with McIlroy on Saturday.
“Just have to wait and see what the weekend entails,” Reed said. “Hopefully I can go out and have a good day tomorrow and have a good shot going into Sunday.”
Justin Rose, Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood were another stroke back at 5 under.
Bryson DeChambeau won’t be playing this weekend after finishing at 6 over and missing the cut. He owed his exit to a pair of triple bogeys in which he needed multiple shots to get out of bunkers. The first was on No. 11 on Thursday. The second was on the 18th hole Friday, when he only needed a bogey to play on.
Before McIlroy finished his run of six birdies in the last seven holes Friday, the best round of the tournament was Tyrrell Hatton’s second-round 66. He was at 4 under along with Wyndham Clark, Haotong Li, Jason Day, Cameron Young and unheralded Norwegian Kristoffer Reitan.
The rest of the field shouldn’t give up. McIlroy, after all, shot 80 in the final round in 2011 after leading the Masters following the first three rounds.
He’s a different player now, though.
“Becoming a wily old veteran,” McIlroy said. “Even go back to the final round in 2011, hitting it in that bunker off the tee at the second hole and, like, not panicking, but thinking, ‘oh, this isn’t good.’ I can’t go for this in two. How am I — and I walk up there today, and it’s like, no, I lay it up to a good number, and I’ll have a good chance to make a birdie.”
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