AUGUSTA, Ga. — The roars that normally fill the weekend at Augusta National hid in the pines most of Saturday, replaced by demure, polite claps.
Pumped fists took much of the day off, and the third round of the Masters felt something like a traffic jam, with players merely wanting to steer clear of a pileup. Only a few succeeded.
Then, with his shadow cast across the 17th green, Rory McIlroy stood over a putt, one of those slick-as-soap offerings Augusta provides from the first hole to the last.
Nestling the ball close from 30 feet would have been nice. Saturday at the Masters, though, isn’t about nestling balls close, and McIlroy — all of 21 years old — isn’t about backing off anything.
The roar, then, followed. McIlroy swung the putt out to the right, and back it came to the left. The ensuing explosion fit McIlroy’s position: After Saturday’s 70, he sits at 12-underpar 204 for the week, and he’ll head into today with a four-shot lead at the Masters.
“I’ve been saying it all week,” McIlroy said. “I feel comfortable. I feel comfortable with my game, comfortable with the way I prepared, and all of a sudden I’m feeling comfortable on this golf course.”
No one else’s pillow could have felt quite as fluffy Saturday night. The pursuers, all at 8-under: Angel Cabrera, the 2009 Masters champion from Argentina who shot 67 and will play with McIlroy; South African Charl Schwartzel, an Ernie Els disciple who managed 68; K.J. Choi, the stout South Korean who suffered from back-to-back bogeys at 11 and 12 en route to 71; and 23-year-old Australian Jason Day, who at one point held the lead alone but looked a bit jittery over the final nine holes in shooting 72.
Notice an absence there? No Tiger Woods. He is, technically, still in the tournament at 5-under. But he hardly envisioned his third-round 74, and instead of moving closer to the top, he descended. Only once in his 15 Masters as a professional has Woods produced a higher score on Saturday.
Today, then, becomes one of two things: a validation of McIlroy’s enormous talent or a wait-he’s-not-ready moment.
“It’s natural to get nervous,” McIlroy said. “If I wasn’t nervous on the first tee tomorrow, there’d be something wrong.”
McIlroy carries with him an explosive, don’t-turn-your-head-because-I’ll-make-birdie feel, and that was only enhanced as he led the first two days. The Masters, more than any major, provides scoring opportunities, and McIlroy is just the type of swashbuckling player to excel here.
“Every time I play with him he shoots about 8- or 9-under,” said Geoff Ogilvy, who joined those moving backward Saturday with a 73. “He’s one of the most impressive players in the world, clearly. He seems to play with no fear. He’s very aggressive, goes at the ball hard. There’s not many pins he’s afraid to shoot at.”
Yet Saturday, McIlroy seemed to approach Augusta National as if at a U.S. Open, where plodding for pars is the proper mind-set.
“I stayed patient,” he said afterward.
Woods, too, never truly opened the throttle. His position after 54 holes of his four Masters titles: first, first, first and first. His average score on Saturday in those wins: 66. Had Woods shot 66 Saturday, he would have led McIlroy by a shot.
“I hit the ball well all day,” Woods said. “That wasn’t the problem. I just made nothing. It should have been a pretty good round.”
The key moment for Woods likely came at the 15th, when he had a putt for eagle. The result: three putts, a par that felt every bit like a bogey, snuffing out any hope of momentum. He worsened the situation with a bogey at the last, and if he is to win his 15th major championship, it will be his first from behind.
