McIlroy riding wild Masters rollercoaster as Day soars

Day two may have been a record-breaker for Rory McIlroy but it was a rollercoaster of a third round for the defending champion.

A double bogey at 11 and bogey on 12 ate into his lead before back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15 helped him claw back to end the day joint leader with Cameron Young at 11-under.

“I knew today wasn’t going to be easy," McIlroy said. "The quality of the chasing pack was very obvious, and a lot of the guys went out and played superb golf, starting with Scottie, and then Cam, and everyone else.

“I didn’t quite have it today. Even from the first hole, making that sort of soft bogey. I was doing my best to hang on. I scrambled a lot on the front nine.

“I would have wanted to be in a better position going into tomorrow starting with a six-shot lead, but I still have a great chance.

“I’m in the final group, which is exactly where you want to be. I wish I had a little bit more of a cushion, but I’m going to go to the range here and try to figure it out.

“It’s amazing (to have the opportunity). That was the goal coming in here. I still have a great chance but if I’m going to win tomorrow, I’m going to have to be a little bit better than I was today.”

Australia's Jason Day surged up the leader board thanks to four consecutive birdies on the back nine to end the day tied in 5th, three shots off the leaders.

“Statistically I average around four to five birdies a round, so I just knew they were going to come,” Day said.

“I just didn’t know when they were going to come. It was nice to be able to have the chances from 12 to 15; hit a lot of good quality shots going into the greens.

“I also hit a lot of good drives to give myself the opportunities up near the greens on the par-5s.”

SATURDAY

Rory McIlroy is on fire at Augusta, setting new Masters records.

The Northern Irishman is -12 after two rounds following a magnificent second round of 65 (-7) which has him six strokes clear of the field.

His six-shot lead is a Masters record after 36 holes.

His score of 12 under is the best by a defending champ, surpassing the previous record of -9 by Ian Woosnam in 1992.

Remarkably, McIlroy ranks 90th of 91 players for driving accuracy.

McIlroy enters the third round six shots clear of Sam Burns and Patrick Reed who are tied in second on -6.

Shane Lowry is tied for fourth on -5 with Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose.

Jason Day leads the way for the Aussies tied in seventh on -4 while Adam Scott is T39 on +2.