Source : ABC NEWS
A stumble on the final hole of the second round has seen Australian Jason Day lose ground as the Masters field chases red-hot defending champion Rory McIlroy.
McIlroy carded six birdies in his final seven holes, including a glorious chip-in on the 17th, to race to 12-under for the tournament and extend his lead as he looks to become the first back-to-back Masters winner since Tiger Woods in 2001 and 2002, and just the fourth man in history.
The six-time major winner wound up with the biggest 36-hole lead in Masters history, six strokes clear of the best of the rest despite failing to hit the fairway on any of Augusta’s par-fives thus far.
“Even when I am missing the fairway, I say to myself, just keep swinging,” he said.
McIlroy has admitted to playing with more freedom after completing the career Grand Slam with his win in Georgia last year while still being painfully aware of how quickly it can go wrong after more than a decade of near misses.
“I know what can happen around here, good and bad,” said the Northern Irishman who let a three-stroke lead slip on the back nine of the final round in 2011.
“You don’t have to remind me not to get ahead of myself around this place. We reset, and everybody goes back to even par tomorrow.”
In an alarming statistic for the chasing pack, the eventual champion has been within at least four shots of the lead at the past 14 editions of the showpiece event.
Patrick Reed, the 2018 winner at Augusta, and fellow American Sam Burns, who has never finished better than seventh at a major, are tied for second at 6-under.
Englishman Tommy Fleetwood is tied with compatriot Justin Rose and Irishman Shane Lowry a further stroke back before Day’s group of six on 4-under.
Jason Day slipped on the final hole of another solid round. (Getty Images: Jared C. Tilton)
Day was in touch with the leaders after a 2-under front nine and, after a bogey on 11 and birdie on 14, appeared to lament missing out on back-to-back birdies after the par-five 15th.
In the groups behind him, chief competitors McIlroy and Reed found the trees in what appeared to be a life saver for Day.
But McIlroy managed to find a second straight birdie on the 13th after punching out of the pine needles with his second shot, and Reed saved par, while Fleetwood leapfrogged Day with his second eagle of the day on 15.
Day would have been happy with his round had he managed to close it out, but a bogey on the par-four 18th after sending his tee shot wide right into the trees cost him.
He finished with a second round of 69 to sit 4-under in a tie for seventh, ultimately watching McIlroy streak eight strokes clear.
Aussie 2013 winner Adam Scott also stumbled on the last with a double bogey that pushed his round out to 2-over, but he did enough to make the cut, unlike 2025 runner-up Bryson DeChambeau, who slipped to 6-over with a double on the 18th.
Aussie number one misses the cut in ‘weird’ outing
Meanwhile, Australian number one Min Woo Lee endured a humbling reality check after missing the cut.
The world number 25 followed his opening-round 78 with a 77 to plummet to 11-over-par for the championship.
After an even-par front nine in the second round, things fell apart on the way back in with a double-bogey-bogey-bogey run from the 12th to 15th holes.
The 27-year-old entered the season’s first major brimming with confidence after a succession of top-10 showings at the PGA Tour’s Signature events in 2026, but confessed to completely flopping on golf’s grandest stage.
“Making two birdies out here in 36 holes is not going to cut it. Didn’t have my best at all,” Lee said.
“I don’t know. I mean, the preparation was unbelievable. You would think I would be winning the tournament the way I was playing leading up to the event.
“But it’s not like I was nervous or anything. I just kept hitting the same shot, which was weird.
“Yeah, I had a lot of support and had a lot of people supporting me to play well so a little bummed that I couldn’t get anything going.”
Lee was languishing in a tie for 86th spot when he signed his bogey-riddled scorecard and, while his ranking improved ever so slightly, he was still well outside the top half of the field.
He was joined on the outside looking in at the last two rounds by compatriot and 2022 British Open winner Cameron Smith, who endured a chaotic second round, mixing in two birdies with five bogeys and a double on 16.
Smith finished 7-over through two rounds.
AAP/ABC
