The third round of the 2026 Masters Tournament is in the books.
The winners today were the fans.
After it looked like Rory McIlroy might run away with the tournament, he fought back strongly on Saturday, which allowed a ton of players to return to the tournament. We are now set for an incredibly exciting final round.
Here are my five biggest picks from Saturday at the Masters.
1. Rory McIlroy was extremely bad
I was a little bummed yesterday about a potentially uninteresting Masters weekend. Thankfully, I was wrong.
I made a case why McIlroy could run into some issuesand it turned out to be true. The striker finally settled down on Saturday, missing the green by about a stroke as he shot a 73. But more importantly, the unfair drives and left errors on his approaches came back to bite him.
McIlroy beat just six players in the field in the third round. He missed 3.97 approach shots, which was second-worst in the field. If it wasn’t for a bigger scrum from the Northern Irishman, he probably would have shot even worse.
Now tied with Cameron Young and dangerous chasers like Scottie Scheffler and Justin Rose behind him, McIlroy is no longer in the driver’s seat and will need to be at his best on Sunday to repeat. After leading by six with a very accessible setup again, it’s a shocking turn of events.
2. Scottie Scheffler is still inevitable
What a round. What a player.
Scheffler shot a 65 on Saturday, and that felt kind of disappointing. After turning 31, he had an 8-footer for a birdie in 10, but he missed. He converted another 8-footer on 11 to get to 6-under. On the 12th, he missed a relatively fair birdie from 18 feet. On 13, he failed to make a birdie with an iron in his hands from the middle of the fairway, as was the case on 15. The world No. 1 added a missed birdie on 14 from about 10 feet and on 17 from inside 8 feet.
All in all, it was one of the best shots you’ll ever see at the Masters. He earned about 5.5 shots on approach down the field, two better than the next best on Saturday. And that was despite his driver and putter combining to be average in the field.
If he can bring that same iron game to Sunday, there’s no doubt Scheffler will be a contender, and we know he brings an intimidation factor when he’s high on the leaderboard. We’ve seen him win all of his titles from the front, so adding one with a back-load would be huge for his career (though it’s worth noting that he came from behind to win an Olympic medal two years ago).
3. Cameron Young was phenomenal, but could also face a regression
Young, the Players’ champion, matched Scheffler’s 65 in the third round and will go into joint-leadership with McIlroy on Sunday.
Ranked 21st in the world heading into Bay Hill in early March, Young finished T3 and then won at Sawgrass the following week, rocketing him up to No. 3 in the world heading into Augusta.
I’m not entirely convinced that Young is ready to back his round.
Much like McIlroy’s second round, Young did a ton of damage on Saturday with his putting and chipping. The driver was unruly at times, but he was freed by a few jumps from the trees. He also mismanaged some distances on approaches and bailed out with a jump from a long chair on the 9th.
He will have to take it on Sunday with the ball hitting what I would expect to be a tougher Augusta.
4. Augusta again played lightly, but may be ready to shine on Sunday
It’s time to let Augusta loose on Sunday.
The scoring average on Saturday was a remarkably easy 70.63. That’s more than two strokes easier than Friday, but a lot of that can be attributed to many of the worst players in the field not posting weekend scores.
I actually felt the course played a lot better in the third round. While the scores were there, we still saw a few bounces on the green and a lot of poor shots being penalized.
We will see some stronger pins in the final round as Augusta used a lot of feeder pins in the third round. Numbers 2, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14 and 15 were all placed in their easiest spots of the week.
On Sunday, I would only expect Nos. 7, 13 and (maybe) 16 to be in their easiest positions. For what it’s worth, we could see Augusta put the pin on 16 either back right or bowl back left.
Scheffler mentioned that Augusta could choose to do what Bay Hill does and let the greens die on Sunday. It is definitely possible. With how easy the course has played over the past two rounds, a proper test with firm and fast greens could await players looking to wear the green jacket. I think it would be a great viewing experience.
5. A pair of veterans can make a Sunday charge
The third-to-last pairing on Sunday features several veterans I’d like to see win a green jacket.
Justin Rose and Jason Day both sit at 8, three shots behind McIlroy and Young. They are right in the mix, and I think they will be a very popular group to watch tomorrow if they can catch some magic.
Day and Rose run nicely here. While they lack the firepower of the new guns in contention, the former world No.1s plot their way around Augusta and don’t make too many mistakes.
If the greens firm up and the conditions get tough, look out for either the 45-year-old Rose or the 38-year-old Day to charge.
What were your results from day three at the Masters?
Let me know below in the comments.
