Did you wake up early to catch Tiger’s first weekend round at The Masters this morning? Well, uh, now’s probably a bit of a bad time for a Masters Nap. Our moving day leaderboard at Augusta National is absolutely LOADED, and the sport’s second-biggest name is the story of the day on Saturday thus far.
Rory McIlroy’s on fire at a bonkers Saturday afternoon at The Masters
Think Tiger’s early morning round might lighten the afternoon? Nah. Moving day at Augusta is crazy as heck so far. Time to get set for your Hazeltine redux.
Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Rory McIlroy’s charging up the leaderboard with a en fuego start to Saturday’s round. He’s played his opening nine at 5-under-par 31, at one point equaling Patrick Reed’s 9-under-par lead at one point just a few minutes ago. One of the big highlights from that opening nine came on the par-3 6th, where we were juuuuuuuust a few inches of spin away from an ace that would’ve sent roars echoing all through the Georgia pines.
Then, two holes later, this MASSIVE greenside chip in for eagle on the par-5 8th drew him even with Reed at 9-under.
What’s kind of ridiculous is Rory’s not even quite to the point of the golf course where we see players typically go on a big run of birds and eagles, if it’s going to happen. Survive the stretch at Amen Corner, and holes 13-16 present plenty of birdie and eagle opportunities down the stretch. Heck, some sort of stupid number like 62 or 63 is possible! If we’re not going to get a Tiger-in-contention tomorrow, golf can’t do better than Rory trying to chase down his first ever Masters to complete his career Grand Slam in ridiculous fashion like this.
One problem: Rory’s hardly the only big name taking it deep under par today — and he’s not even leading. Patrick Reed’s now out to 11-under and screaming after putts like we’re back at Hazeltine. Tommy Fleetwood’s made five straight birdies as I write this to get to 7-under par total and 7-under on the day. Rickie Fowler and Jon Rahm are both 5-under for the day. Henrik Stenson, Dustin Johnson, and Justin Thomas are all still in contention. That’s a heck of a leaderboard, even though Jordan Spieth’s faded a bit. He’s 1-over for the day — backing up a total of four shots now since stepping onto the 18th tee at 7-under on Thursday evening.
But for now, it looks like we’re rolling toward a redux of the absolutely insane, scream-inducing, full-Wrestlemania Ryder Cup match between Rory and Pat Reed from 2016. If only we could be so lucky.
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