AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | Of all the things Rory McIlroy did and did not do Saturday at Augusta National, perhaps the most unexpected was to bring to life the largely forgotten story of Abe Mitchell, who is the only player to lead a major championship by at least six strokes after 36 holes and fail to win.
It happened in the 1920 Open Championship at Royal Cinque Ports, and on a bone-dry Saturday at the Masters, McIlroy found himself desperately scrambling to salvage something from what had been a six-stroke lead when the summer-like day dawned.
While a collection of A-listers made their moves, McIlroy retreated in his attempt to become just the fourth player to win consecutive Masters, chasing his mercurial game around Augusta National like he was trying to corral an excited puppy.
McIlroy never caught the puppy on Saturday, and this Masters changed because of that while bringing Abe Mitchell’s name into the conversation.
Cameron Young, the stoic emerging star who won the Players Championship a month ago, rode his third-round 65 into a share of the overnight lead with McIlroy, whose inability to consistently find fairways had him playing defense on a day dominated by offense.
The lineup behind the leaders reads like a press release bragging about the stars coming to a tournament near you: Sam Burns, Shane Lowry (who aced the par-3 sixth hole Saturday), Jason Day, Justin Rose, Scottie Scheffler.
Twenty-four hours after plans were being hatched for a second McIlroy coronation, the run of show was being rewritten.
“There’s a lot of guys in with a chance tomorrow. I’m still tied for the best score going into tomorrow, so I can’t forget that, but I do know I’m going to have to be better if I want to have a chance to win,” McIlroy said after his Saturday 73 left him at 11-under-par 205 with Young.
If McIlroy has a magnetic presence atop the leaderboard, Young has a menacing aura in all of the right ways. He is powerful, and the slow build of his career – nine months ago he was still chasing his first PGA Tour victory – has the feel of a gathering tsunami.
Should he win his first major championship on Sunday, Young would join McIlroy, Scheffler and Tiger Woods as the only players to win both the Players and the green jacket in the same year.
Young won’t stray from what is familiar to him. He and his wife will take their three children to church Sunday morning, then he will turn up on the first tee at Augusta National understanding both the opportunity and the challenge of playing alongside the popular defending champion.
“I don’t get the sense I’ll be the fan favorite, but yeah, I feel like the support, some fans that cheer for me have gotten louder over the last year. It will still be lopsided, I think. Rory’s kind of a world favorite in the golf world,” Young said.
“A year ago, if I’d been in the same situation, there would have been very little [support], and now there’s probably a little more. So I’ll take what I can get, and I’ll be happy with that.”
After winning the Players Championship, Young said his primary goal at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass was to prepare himself to play late on Sunday at Augusta.
“That’s the best prep I could have asked for,” said Young, who made eight birdies on Saturday while hitting 16 of 18 greens.
If McIlroy has an advantage, it’s that he won here 12 months ago, but there has been a ragged edge to his game this week. He ranks last among the 54 players who made the cut in fairways hit in regulation, finding the short grass just 50 percent of the time, limiting his ability to be aggressive.
Of the 12 par-5 holes McIlroy has played, he’s driven it in the fairway only twice so far, one of those leading to a much-needed birdie at the 15th hole Saturday afternoon that briefly gave him a two-stroke lead.
McIlroy also battled an occasional left miss on some iron shots that added stress to his round. He does, however, have the comfort of having survived a turbulent Sunday a year ago to win the tournament he had been chasing for more than a decade.
“I’d like to think that I’ll play a little bit freer and I’ll play like I’ve already got a green jacket, which I do. Sometimes I maybe just have to remind myself of that, but I think as well that the stakes in terms of, like, the pairing will be just a little bit easier. The atmosphere out there will be a little bit easier,” said McIlroy, who played the first two rounds with Young.
“I’m not worried about that at all. I wish I was a few shots better off, but I’m comfortable.”
After two relatively flat days, Scheffler surged into the story early Saturday afternoon, putting together a 7-under-par 65 triggered by an eagle at the par-5 second hole.
It looked more like vintage Scheffler, taking advantage of the generous scoring conditions. To win his third green jacket, he will likely need another round like he had on Saturday. How possible that may be could be up to the tournament committee and how much water they put on the greens overnight.
“It depends on what the leadership here wants to do. It was crazy firm Thursday afternoon when we were coming in. There were virtually no birdie opportunities,” Scheffler said.
“Then today there was a little bit of opportunity early. … It really depends on what they decide to do with the greens.
“If they want to see some lower scores, they can make them softer if they want. I mean, they’re already pretty firm, so they can just go full Bay Hill and just let them die. It’s Augusta. They’ll figure it out after that.”
Which brings us back to Abe Mitchell. It’s his figure that sits atop the actual Ryder Cup because he was Samuel Ryder’s golf coach. Given McIlroy’s passion for the Ryder Cup, it could look slightly different to him forevermore should someone else win the green jacket Sunday.