Rory McIlroy Held On Just Long Enough

For a little while there, it looked like Rory McIlroy was going to make it easy on himself for once. He held a six-stroke lead after the first two rounds of the 2026 Masters Tournament, granting himself the largest 36-hole lead in the tournament's history. That he built his lead with a back-nine blitz on Friday, birdying six of the last seven holes, seemed to be a good omen. Maintain the momentum, sink a couple birdies to start the third round, and he'd breeze to back-to-back Masters titles. Nothing's ever breezy for McIlroy, though. Moving day was not kind to the Northern Irishman. McIlroy followed up his second-round 65 with an ugly 73 on Saturday, and by the time he finished piling up bogeys, he'd fallen into a tie for the lead headed into Sunday. A birdie on the third hole seemed to steady things, but then came a double-bogey on the fourth and a bogey on the sixth, and suddenly McIlroy was two shots off the lead. Say this about Rory McIlroy: He might be prone to hurling himself off the top of the ladder, but he'll hold onto that last rung for dear life. Back-to-back birdies on the seventh and eighth hole got him back in the tournament, and another brace of birdies on holes 12 and 13 put him back in control. By that point, his path to victory was clear: Just get through the final five holes while protecting a two-shot lead over Scottie Scheffler, whose final-round 68 had him leading in the clubhouse.