Resilient Irish guy seeking a career-defining Masters win. No, not that guy

AUGUSTA, Ga. — The coronation was canceled on Saturday at the Masters.

Rory McIlroy probably expected shrinkage in the six-shot lead he'd slept on by the time he walked to the first tee at 2:50 p.m. Scores were clearly out there and a raft of talented guys were taking advantage, not least world number one, Scottie Scheffler, who stormed to center stage with a 65 after two days lingering in the wings. But McIlroy would also have anticipated keeping pace with the good scoring, retaining his position as the man out front.

On moving day, he was in neutral at best. His lead was halved within a couple of holes and gone entirely by the time he bogeyed the 12th on the heels of a double-bogey at the 11th. He was succeeded at the top of the leaderboard by the man who succeeded him as Players champion last month, and who aims to succeed him as Masters champion Sunday, Cameron Young. While the world No. 2 idled, the No. 3 matched the No. 1 with a 65, despite rinsing a ball on the 15th hole.

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Others crept closer too. Jason Day, more than a dozen years removed from contending for a green jacket, carded 68 to post 8-under. Sam Burns, playing with McIlroy, was good for 68. Patrick Cantlay and Russell Henley shot 66s, and last year’s runner-up Justin Rose a 69. Everyone was cashing in it seemed, except the two men expected to: McIlroy and Patrick Reed, whose early progress petered out.

McIlroy usually wields his driver like Thor’s hammer, but he’s bloodied his own thumb too often this week at Augusta National. He found less than half of the fairways in constructing that six-shot lead, which hinted that he’d be vulnerable to the chasing pack if things didn’t straighten out. Things didn’t, and the pack ran him down.

All of which sets up a Sunday shootout for the ages.

Shane Lowry reacts on the 18th green on Saturday at the 2026 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club.

The past is prologue at this 90th Masters though — a popular, resilient Irish golfer desperate for a career-defining win. Not the one from the 89th Masters, the other one. Shane Lowry, who added to his collection of aces on iconic holes at the sixth on his way to posting 68, leaving him a couple of strokes adrift.

Conventional wisdom would have you believe Lowry has already won the biggest event he can — the Open Championship contested a few hours from home in 2019 at Royal Portrush. It’s a parochial view. That meant a great deal to Lowry, but the Masters is the most elite stage in the sport. He wants that jacket at least as much as he wanted that Open.

“It's not easy to go out and go after it when you're at the top of the leaderboard,” he said. “But when you're down the field and you're just having a go at it, it makes it a little bit easier and you can play a bit more freely. When you are out there in the hunt you need to be a little bit more protective of what you are doing.”

Shane Lowry celebrates after hitting a hole-in-one on the sixth hole during the third round of the 2026 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club.

Lowry played his way into the mix a year ago before bogeys on 17 and 18 in the third round hobbled him. He wasn’t impressed by a gobshite question afterward when asked if he’d been paying attention to his pal McIlroy’s progress during the round. Unsurprisingly enough, he tartly noted that he was more focused on his own game. A Sunday 81 ended matters, but he was there with a bear hug when McIlroy completed the career grand slam a few hours later, and with a crate of wine when the champion finally arrived at his rental home that night.

Lowry and McIlroy are close, but are dissimilar personalities in many respects. Both are amiable company and quick to laugh, but Lowry runs hotter on the course. He’s also much more comfortable embracing his Irishness, in part because McIlroy’s origins in Northern Ireland make any expression of identity a fraught exercise. But like McIlroy a year ago, he has something to prove at the Masters in his own way.

He turned 39 last week and hasn’t won as much as his talent deserves. Just three times on the PGA Tour (one of those a team event with McIlroy) and four in Europe. In late February he was in command at the Cognizant Classic before hitting two woeful shots that cost him the tournament. “I beat myself today,” he said honestly afterward. “I wanted it so bad.”

He wants this one pretty badly too. His chance awaits, and he will have to tussle with McIlroy to get it done. “It's pretty good leaderboard, so it's going to be pretty hard to win this tournament tomorrow,” he said with admirable understatement. “But I'll give it my best.”

Eamon Lynch is a columnist for Golfweek and a contributor on Golf Channel.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Lynch: Resilient Irish guy seeking career-defining Masters: Shane Lowry