Masters 2026: Rory McIlroy has built a monster lead in bid for a second green jacket

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 McIlroy experienced late on Friday afternoon at Augusta National. It was only the end of the second round. There are 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 a year ago 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.

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 91 editions of the Masters.