McIlroy in command; Takes four stroke lead into Final Round of Masters

By Ray Bennett
Saturday April 9, 2011

Saturday was the time in which Rory McIlroy needed to assert his dominance at Augusta National. Everyone got their answer after he went to the clubhouse.

McIlroy shot a 70 on Saturday to bring his three day tournament total to -12. He holds the lead over four other golfers, 2009 Masters champion Angel Cabrera, South African Charl Schwartzel, K.J Choi, and young Australian Jason Day, by just four strokes, each at -8. McIlroy also became the second youngest at 21 to hold the lead after the first 54 holes of the tournament, a year behind Tiger Wood's performance in his first Masters championship at the age of 20 in 1997.

The young Northern Irishman started out his round in the last group with Day. After shooting an even 36 on the front nine, McIlroy ran into a little trouble with a bogey on the tenth hole. However, he managed to regain his composure on the remaining eight holes of the back nine by getting birdies on thirteen and fifteen. On what could be considered his defining moment of the tournament, McIlroy managed to sink a key birdie on the Par 4 seventeen hole to bring his score to -12.

His partner for the third round Jason Day got off to a fast start by putting in birdies on holes two, three and five, bringing his score to -11 and the tournament lead. After that, Day then hit the wall, by getting bogies on his next two holes. Another bogey on thirteen sunk Day's chances of catching McIlroy, finishing the third round where he started at -8.

Former Masters winner Angel Cabrera was the biggest mover up the leaderboard on Saturday by shooting a 67. Cabrera breezed right through the front nine, hitting birdies on holes two, seven and nine. His only hiccup of the day was a bogey on ten. Afterwards, he managed to stay in the hunt for his second green jacket with three more birdies on twelve, thirteen and fifteen. Cabrera will be paired with McIlroy in the last group on Sunday.

26-year-old South African Charl Schwartzel also moved into the four way tie for second after shooting a 68 on the course. After four birdies and two bogies on his first eleven holes, Schwartzel managed to hit a birdie putt on the Par 3 twelfth hole. He reached the tie for second after a birdie on fifteen.

K.J Choi shot a 71 on the Par 72 course on Saturday. He reached -9 after completing a consecutive string of birdies on eight and nine. After a par on ten, Choi bogied his next two holes. He could only manage to birdie thirteen to bring his score to -8 for Sunday.

Even though he's still in contention, Tiger Woods moved down to a tie for ninth place along with four others at -5. After a second round that saw Woods hit nine birdie putts, his short game hit another snag. Woods only birdied three and thirteen on the day, while he managed to bogey four holes in the third round. Tiger is tied for ninth place entering Sunday along with Ross Fisher, Bubba Watson, Fred Couples, and Geoff Ogilvy.

Last year's Masters winner Phil Mickelson could be out of the hunt for a fourth green jacket after only raising his score to -3 on Saturday. He is tied for eighteenth place with five others,which include Steve Stricker, Lee Westwood and Alvaro Quiros. Other notables on Saturday include Ricky Barnes (-2, T-24), Ryo Ishikawa (-1, T-30), Sergio Garcia (-1, T-30), Camilo Villegas (+2, T-42) and former Masters champions Miguel Angel Jimenez (-2, T-24) and Trevor Immelman (-1, T-30).

Kyung-Tae Kim will be the first to tee off in the final round on Sunday at 10:30 A.M. McIlroy and Cabrera will be the final pair to tee off at 2:40 P.M. Weather at Augusta National on Sunday will be very hot and humid for the golfers, with mostly sunny skies and a high of 90 degrees.