Rory McIlroy is turning this Masters into a child’s playground for him. For over twenty years the “kid” from Northern Ireland has been both fan favorite and evil Vader. But since LIV started and Rory took a stand, golf fans all over the world have embraced the 36 year old husband and father as the heir apparent to Tiger Woods. Friday was a glorious case in point.
McIlroy leads the 2026 Masters by six shots, a Masters record, after a scintillating 65 with birdies on the last four hours, highlighted by this chip in on 17.
(Notice I won’t mention that ESPN did NOT show this live but made it APPEAR like it was live.)
Sam Burns and Patrick Reed (-6) and Justin Rose, Shane Lowry, and Tommy Fleetwood (-5) are in pursuit but might be playing for second as Saturday’s round commences.
Friday at the Masters-Rory and the rest
Friday saw scores lower than Thursday’s. The golfers averaged 72.846 which was almost two full strokes better than Thursday’s 74.648. Rory’s 65 was the best of the day as the wind died down and the course was “gettable,” as Justin Rose mentioned. Terrell Hatton carded a 66 and American’s Cameron Young and Patrick Cantlay finished at five under 67s to round out other top 18 round scores.
The leaderboard has a truly international feel with America, England, Ireland, China, Australia and Norway vying to unseat Northern Ireland’s, McIlroy. Yes, you read that correctly. Norway! Thanks to Norwegian Kristoffer Reitan, who, like America’s Chris Gotterup, are both playing in their FIRST Masters and both making the cut. Reitan sits at four under while Gotterup is at -3.
Early favorites who crashed
LIV Tour was excited at the possibility of both Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau positioning themselves as early betting favorites. But Rahm made the cut on the line at +4, while Bryson won’t be around. He missed the cut at +6. So both will not feature in the Sunday “the tournament starts on the second nine at the Masters.”
Scottie Scheffler struggled these past two days. He shot 70-74 to sit at even par for the tournament. He was seen late Friday night working on his driver. This ended his streak of 11 consecutive rounds at or better than par.
Low Amateur
Jackson Herrington is crowned the low amateur for the 2026 Masters. He did not make the cut but finished at +8 beating the other four. The University of Tennessee sophomore qualified by being the runner up to another amateur Mason Howell in the US Amateur in California. Howell, playing alongside Rory for Thursday and Friday said the following after his Friday round about his nerves:
“I mean, I wouldn’t say going into it I was nervous, but I was when I was on the first tee [Thursday]. I couldn’t feel my arms and hit it in nine fairway!”
Mason, I think we would love to hit it into nine fairway if we had made the Masters. I’m sure I would have thrown up then hit a patron!
Watch for some players to make major movements up the charts on Saturday.
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