Cameron Young
Rory McIlroy struggled with a 73 and saw his six stroke lead at the Masters golf championships disappear. He is now tied with Cameron Young atop the leaderboard as the championships is poised to a tantalising finish.
Young has flipped the Masters script after an opening round of 73 that saw him blow up with a 40 on his first nine. Staring at a poor run at T33 after the first round, Young rebounded with a 67 and with an even more polished third round.
Sitting eight strokes adrift of McIlroy after the second round, Young carded eight birdies against one bogey to move atop the leaderboard.
In contrast McIlroy, the defending champion, started off with a bogey that eventually ended with his record six-shot halfway lead gone by the time he reached the 10th.
Young is hoping to be only the third consecutive player to win championship and the Masters Tournament in the same year after Scottie Scheffler in 2024 and Rory McIlroy lat year.
It will be a remarkable turnaround for World No 3. The last player to win any major championship after shooting 40 or worse in his first nine holes was Tiger Woods in 1997.
Young had claimed his second PGA Tour title with a win at the Players Championship in March.
His 65 matched the Scottie Scheffler for low round of the day as well as low round of the tournament this week. The two-time Masters winner is tied seventh at 7-under. Scheffler carded an eagle at the second before rattling off three birdies in a row from Nos. 7-9. He turned at 5-under, and would quickly add three more birdies to be bag in the mix.
Sam Burns, who led after the first round with McIlroy, is in third spot, two-stroke behind the leading duo while Shane Lowry is a further stoke behind, helped by an ace on the the 190-yard 6th hole.
Jason Day and Justin Rose are tied at eight-under.
Several past champions in the field apart from McIlroy and Scheffler are further behind. Patrick Reed is at T9/-6 with Hideki Matsuyama (T29/-2), Jordan Spieth (T33/-1), Adam Scott (T36/E), Dustin Johnson (T44/+3), Jon Rahm (T48/+5), Sergio Garcia (T48/+5), Charl Schwartzel (54th/+9) all trailing further back.
Third-Round Leaderboard
T1: Cameron Young 73 67 65 205 (-11), Rory McIlroy 67 65 73 205 (-11)
3: Sam Burns 67 71 68 206 (-10)
4: Shane Lowry 70 69 68 207 (-9)
T5: Jason Day 69 71 68 208 (-8); T5 Justin Rose 70 69 68 208 (-8)
