Rory McIlroy criticised for unacceptable mistake during his third round at The Masters, ‘It is a little shocking’
Photo by Chris Condon/Augusta National/Getty Images In stark contrast to last year, Rory McIlroy appeared to be coasting towards his second Masters title over the first two days at Augusta National. It seemed that McIlroy’s victory 12 months ago had given him the freedom to play in a manner we have not seen from the Northern Irishman perhaps since 2011. He opened up a record six-shot lead at the halfway stage this week.
But just when many of us began to think of McIlroy going on to register a score comparable with Tiger Woods in 1997, Jordan Spieth in 2015, and Dustin Johnson in 2020, the 36-year-old decided to open the door for the rest of his rivals. McIlroy will begin the last round tied for the lead with Cameron Young . Meanwhile, there are 11 players within five shots of top spot heading into Sunday at Augusta National.
The strange week of Rory McIlroy so far at The Masters McIlroy made three bogeys and one double bogey on Saturday. It was somehow both surprising and entirely predictable when he found the water on the 11th hole. And speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast , Rex Hoggard admitted that he has been taken aback by so much of McIlroy’s performance so far this week.
“It’s a little shocking. We touched on this last night, the one thing that he wasn’t doing particularly well, and that’s relative to the rest of his game, was driving the ball. And it’s kind of shocking, it’s the one thing it seems like if he was doing well over the course of his career, yeah, he’s going to have a chance to win.
If he wasn’t, you kind of wrote him off. But through two rounds, he wasn’t,” he said. Photo by David Paul Morris/Augusta National/Getty Images “I will point out he actually drove the ball better today.