Rory McIlroy's big Masters lead disappears, tournament now wide open

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Rory McIlroy never makes it easy, especially at Augusta National. McIlroy’s six-stroke advantage, the largest 36-hole lead in Masters history was gone by the time he bogeyed the 12 th hole on Saturday, and while he stanched the bleeding with birdies at Nos.

14 and 15 to shoot 1-over 73, he has stiff competition for the title. More: Masters leaderboard, scores, pairings, stories, videos McIlroy shares the 54-hole lead with Cameron Young at 12-under 204, but the 90th Masters is wide open with 11 players within five strokes. That includes world No.

1 and two-time Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, who shot a bogey-free 65 on Saturday to climb within four strokes, McIlroy’s Irish pal Shane Lowry , who made an ace at No. 6 and is three back, and Justin Rose, the three-time nearly man at the Masters who is back in the thick of it after losing to McIlroy in a sudden-death playoff a year ago. Then there are American Ryder Cup teammates Young, who shot 65 , and Sam Burns, who posted 68 and sits one back.

McIlroy let them all back into it by shooting the worst score of anyone in the top 43 in the field. After McIlroy changed the complexion of the Masters with six birdies in his final seven holes on Friday to flip the script from a tightly-contested tournament to a six-stroke romp, the narrative shifted to talks of McIlroy pulling a Secretariat or Tiger Woods 1997-type cakewalk. But it was only halftime and McIlroy, who ranked 90 th out of 91 players in driving accuracy, couldn’t get by with the exquisite short game and hot putting that had carried him for two days.