Live: McIlroy, Day stumble as players’ champion takes Masters lead

As Cameron Young makes a great par save on five to maintain his two-stroke lead, Rory McIlroy has been joined on 10-under by a couple of challengers.

Russell Henley joins him with a birdie on the eighth, his fourth of the day, and Englishman Justin Rose makes one at the seventh after his second shot out of the trees lands within a foot of the hole.

The seventh green funnels the ball towards the pin, so we’ve seen a lot of great fairway shots and birdies on this hole.

Cameron Young makes par on the fourth and then watches closely from off the green as Rory McIlroy sends his par putt left and then he lips out his bogey putt!

It’s a double for the defending champ as Young suddenly finds himself two strokes clear on 12-under.

And now the man who didn’t engage with the fans at all on his way to the first tee is ready for some high fives as he makes his way to the fifth.

As the birdies start to flow around Augusta, Australian Jason Day finds his first bogey of the day.

If the pars on the first four holes were frustrating, the bogey on the par-four fifth is agonising as he fails to hit another green in regulation and leaves a 13-foot par putt just left.

Day slips to 7-under, tied with Hideki Matsuyama, although I’d expect Shane Lowry to join them in a moment after blasting his second shot from the sand into the lip of the bunker on the fifth.

To make matters worse for Day, playing partner Justin Rose is on an absolute tear with his third birdie from the first five holes.

Rory McIlroy produces a sensational shot out of the greenside bunker and rolls in the birdie putt to join Cameron Young on 12-under in top spot on the leaderboard.

And both are now three shots clear of the nearest chasers.

Shane Lowry three putts the fourth to drop a stroke, leaving Scottie Scheffler looming ominously on 9-under.

He was briefly the only player on that score, but he’s been quickly joined by Justin Rose (birdie on five) and Russell Henley (birdie on seven).

On the 13th and the 17th yesterday, Cameron Young’s tee shots sailed into the trees, only to hit them and ricochet into gorgeous fairway lies.

AND NOW IT’S HAPPENED AGAIN!

Having just taken the outright lead with a birdie on the second, his tee shot was miles right but somehow has bounced back onto the fairway.

The Australian is even through four holes, but his birdie putts on two and three were within a couple of centimetres of the hole.

You could see his shoulders slump as the ball settled just off the lip.

He really needs some of those to start falling to get among the leaders.

Cameron Young improves on his overnight score with a birdie on the par-five second to move into the outright lead at 12-under.

Rory McIlroy has a birdie putt to join him, but it’s juuuuuust left of the hole and curls around the back for a par tap-in.

It’s Young’s second time in the outright lead after briefly moving ahead of McIlroy yesterday before the reigning champ reined him back in late.

It was a quick stay among the leaders on 11-under for Sam Burns as he comes unstuck on the par-five second.

He hit his tee shot so far right that he had to take a drop, then hacked out of the pine needles, then went over the green into the spectators and eventually settles for a double bogey to slip back to 9-under.

As Australian Jason Day kicks off with a pair of pars after missing a birdie putt on the second by millimetres, world number one Scottie Scheffler has continued his stellar form from yesterday.

The 2022 and 2024 Masters winner tied the low round of the tournament with 7-under yesterday and has started with birdies on the first …

… and third …

… to move to 9-under for the tournament, just two strokes behind the leaders.

If there’s anyone you don’t want chasing you down on Sunday at Augusta, it’s the ice cold Scheffler.

As Rory McIlroy prepares to tee off on the second, it’s worth a discussion.

Holes two, eight, 13 and 15 will be of particular interest today because those are the par fives at Augusta National.

McIlroy, historically one of the best drivers the game has seen, has hit the fairway off the tee on those holes exactly once in 12 attempts in this tournament.

He’s hit them into bunkers, into trees, into the spectators … pretty much every where except the short grass, but it hasn’t really mattered for the reigning champ.

McIlroy birdied seven of eight par fives in the first two rounds and even yesterday was 1-under with three pars and a birdie on 15 once he finally hit a fairway.

2008 winner Trevor Immelman said yesterday: “You can’t be relying on your short game and putting for four days in a row.”

The margins should be finer today with the pressure ratcheted all the way up, and the chasing pack nipping at his heels.

So, Rory McIlroy and Cameron Young have both sunk short putts for par at the first and that means everyone is on the board for the day’s play.

It’s taken just one hole and 29-yea-old American Sam Burns, who has never finished better than seventh at a major, has joined Rory McIlroy and Cameron Young on 11-under with a birdie on the first.

Meanwhile, playing partner Shane Lowry drops a shot on the first to slip back to 8-under.

And so we begin a day of shuffling and reshuffling the leaderboard.

Current leaders Rory McIlroy and Cameron Young have kicked off their final rounds in the last group — McIlroy landing his tee shot on the fairway, narrowly avoiding the bunker Young just found off to the right.

It was telling  to watch how they each made their way through the throngs of fans to the first tee box.

Reigning champion McIlroy admitted to struggling for motivation immediately after winning the career Grand Slam last year but has felt a weight off his shoulders at this year’s tournament. And he was high fiving spectators and seemed to allow himself a slight smile as he walked through.

Young, meanwhile, was head down and all business, staying very much within himself.

As Shane Lowry and Sam Burns start their rounds, 445-ish yards ahead, Jason Day and playing partner Justin Rose are completing their first hole.

Rose kicks off by holing out a superb short chip from just off the green for an unlikely birdie on the opening hole to immediately join Lowry within two shots of the leaders.

Meanwhile, Australian Day makes par with a tricky little three-foot putt after falling short of the green with his second shot from the fairway bunker.

After decades of pain and some of the most dramatic near misses in tournament history, Rory McIlroy won his first Masters title last year in a thrilling play-off with Justin Rose.

Check out how that final round played out in our live blog.

We’ve just seen Englishman Tyrrell Hatton hole out from the middle of the fairway on the par-four seventh hole, emulating countryman Aaron Rai who did it earlier today.

And, moments after Hatton’s shot, 2015 winner Jordan Spieth chipped in from the bunker for the first eagle of the day on the par-five 13th.

After five top-10 finishes at the Masters, including a share of eighth last year, Jason Day is kicking off his final round three strokes off the lead.

The Australian is trying to add to his only other major victory, at the 2015 PGA Championship, and end more than a decade of heartbreak at Augusta.

He’s found the sand on the right of the fairway off the first tee and falls short of his first green in regulation out of the deep bunker.

He is playing alongside Englishman Justin Rose, who lost a play-off to Rory McIlroy here just last year, so maybe they can bond over their Sunday pains.

For the real nuffies among you, here are the hole locations for this final round:

He may be four shots back to start the day, but world number one Scottie Scheffler will have the players ahead of him a little nervous.

His 7-under third round launched him into contention from effectively nowhere and we’ve seen plenty of final-round wobbles from leaders at Augusta, so if he can card another low score he will smell a chance to add to his 2022 and 2024 wins in Georgia.

He is playing with China’s Haotong Li, who went 5-under through the front nine in the third round thanks to an eagle on the eighth but three bogeys in the final six holes pushed him back into the pack a little.