Masters Round 2: What to know about Rory McIlroy's history-making round

Rory McIlroy has the largest 36-hole lead in Masters history. Maddie Meyer / Getty Images Share full articleLast year, Rory McIlroy got the boulder off his major championship back. This year, he might be authoring the signature performance of a brilliant career. The reigning Masters champion doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to lose the title he waited so long to attain. McIlroy birdied six of his last seven holes Friday to build a six-shot lead, the largest entering the third round in Masters history. Here are the top numbers and notes to know from Round 2 of the 90th Masters Tournament. 1. McIlroy’s 7-under-par 65 on Friday gives him a lead that history suggests is close to insurmountable. Since the first Masters in 1934, this marks only the sixth time a player has led any men’s major championship by six strokes or more after 36 holes. Each of the previous five went on to win, most recently Brooks Koepka at the 2019 PGA Championship. There is only one instance in Masters history of a player leading by six strokes or more after any round and not winning: 30 years ago, Greg Norman led by six entering the final round before one of the most infamous collapses in championship sports history. Norman never won a green jacket. McIlroy already has his. McIlroy now has the most rounds of 65 or lower in Masters history (four), breaking a tie with Jack Nicklaus (three). It’s the lowest score ever shot by a defending Masters champion, bettering seven rounds of 66. And it’s his 10th round of 65 or better across all four majors, tying Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson for the most in the modern era of the game (Nicklaus and Tom Watson are tied for fourth now, with nine apiece). 2. McIlroy leads by a touchdown despite being woefully inaccurate off the tee. The only player to hit fewer fairways than McIlroy through 36 holes this week at Augusta National was Davis Riley. Riley shot 18 over and is in last. It’s especially interesting McIlroy has missed every fairway on par 5s this week (0-for-8), yet has played those holes in 7 under par. But when you dig a little deeper into the numbers, you see that, including this week, McIlroy has made 38 birdies or better in his Masters career on par-5 holes after missing the fairway. Since his debut in 2009, that is easily the most of any player under those circumstances. McIlroy’s seven birdies on par 5s through two rounds are the most of any player in the field. 3. McIlroy has an otherworldly ability to run away from championship fields shared by few in the history of this sport. McIlroy and Woods are the only two players in the last 100 years of men’s golf to win multiple professional majors by eight or more strokes. McIlroy has done it twice, at the 2011 U.S. Open and the PGA the next year. Woods has three such wins but might have company by Sunday evening. McIlroy can also set his sights on another seemingly unassailable Woods record: the largest 54-hole lead in Masters Tournament history. It’s nine strokes, the advantage Woods enjoyed before making history with his first major win in 1997. 4. McIlroy’s score of 12 under is three shots better than the previous record for lowest 36-hole total by a defending Masters champion (Ian Woosnam in 1992). This is the sixth time a player defending his Masters title has held the 36-hole lead or co-lead. Though none of the previous five went on to win, none of them had a larger lead at the halfway point than two strokes (Arnold Palmer in 1959). Only three men have won the Masters in consecutive years: Nicklaus in 1965-66, Sir Nick Faldo in 1989-90 and Woods in 2001-02. With a win this week, McIlroy would match Faldo with six majors, tying the lead for most by a European player over the last 100 years (Harry Vardon is credited with seven, his last coming in 1914). McIlroy, now 36, would be the first to win a major championship in back-to-back years at age 35 or older since Padraig Harrington did it in 2007 and 2008. He would also be the seventh player to win the Masters twice after turning 35, the last being Phil Mickelson in 2010. 5. For the second time in the last three majors, Sam Burns is in the final pairing Saturday. Last summer at Oakmont, Burns held the outright 36- and 54-hole leads before ultimately finishing five strokes behind J.J. Spaun. Saturday will be the third time McIlroy and Burns have been grouped at Augusta National: The two teed it up in rounds 1 and 2 in 2023. When it looked like Burns’ second round was spiraling, he rebounded impressively, birdieing three of his last four holes. He’s in unprecedented personal Masters territory, as he’s never finished better than tied for 28th place. In his four career weekend rounds at Augusta National, Burns is a combined 12 over par. 6. For a significant portion of Friday, it looked like Saturday at the Masters would be a reprise of the epic Ryder Cup singles match 10 years ago between McIlroy and Patrick Reed. Tied for second with Burns, Reed is in the top five entering the weekend at Augusta National for the second time in his career. The other instance came in 2018, when he was grouped with McIlroy on Sunday and won his green jacket. Through two days, Reed’s trademark short game has been excellent — he ranks ninth in strokes gained putting and tied for sixth in scrambling. There’s a problem, though: McIlroy is ahead of him in both of those metrics through two rounds. 7. Three of McIlroy’s European Ryder Cup teammates — none of whom has won the Masters — sit in a tie for fourth place, seven shots back. Justin Rose is in the top five after a round at the Masters for the 23rd time. Since 2000, only Mickelson and Woods have done that more often. Shane Lowry fired the first bogey-free round of his Masters career Friday and carded birdies at 16 and 18. Tommy Fleetwood — who won the Tour Championship the last time he played in Georgia — shot a sparkling 68 on Friday. These all seemed to be highly relevant developments Friday afternoon, dulled significantly by McIlroy’s history-making birdie barrage. 8. Another European Ryder Cup teammate of McIlroy’s — Tyrrell Hatton — hit every green in regulation Friday. It’s just the third time in the last 30 years a player went 18-for-18 in a round at the Masters. Kevin Na did it in the November edition of 2020, and Jim Furyk pulled it off in 2009. Hatton is part of a large group at 4 under, eight shots behind McIlroy. By the way, eight is the largest 36-hole deficit ever overcome by a Masters champion. Jack Burke Jr. is the only man to do it, coming from eight shots back in 1956. 9. World No. 1 and two-time Masters champion Scottie Scheffler shot 74 on Friday, the second-highest score of his Masters career. It snaps a streak of 10 Masters rounds with Scheffler in the top 10, the longest such streak since Jordan Spieth did it for 11 in a row from 2014 to 2016. Though Scheffler ranks in the top 10 from tee to green through two rounds, his putting has been dreadful. Scheffler was just 2-for-5 putting from 5 to 10 feet Friday. He did not make a putt from 10 to 20 feet (0-for-6), and through two rounds ranks No. 74 of 91 players in the field in strokes gained putting. 10. Bryson DeChambeau headlines the list of players to miss the cut. DeChambeau, who finished in the top 10 in each of the last two Masters, shot 76-74 and missed by two. Cameron Smith missed his sixth consecutive cut in a major (74-77). Before this active streak of dreadful form, he had missed just five major championship cuts in 32 appearances. For the fourth time in the last six years, no amateurs made the cut at the Masters. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Justin Ray is a contributor at The Athletic and the Head of Content for Twenty First Group, a sports intelligence agency that works with players, broadcasters, manufacturers and media. He has been in sports media for more than 10 years and was previously a senior researcher for ESPN and Golf Channel. Follow Justin on Twitter @JustinRayGolf