Rory McIlroy is turning Augusta National into his own personal playground.
The 2026 Masters is unfolding like last year's event, with McIlroy again asserting his dominance over the field and the iconic course.
After claiming a green jacket and completing the career grand slam, McIlroy is doing his best to replicate his finish from 2025.
The five-time major champ rode one of the most absurd heaters in Masters history Friday, birdieing six of his final seven holes to turn a packed leaderboard into another emphatic chapter of the Rory story.
The blitz vaulted McIlroy to a Masters record six-shot lead after 36 holes, pulling one clear of a mark previously matched five times.
| Position | Player | Round 2 score | Total to par |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rory McIlroy | 65 | -12 |
| T2 | Patrick Reed | 69 | -6 |
| T2 | Sam Burns | 71 | -6 |
| T4 | Tommy Fleetwood | 68 | -5 |
| T4 | Justin Rose | 69 | -5 |
| T4 | Shane Lowry | 69 | -5 |
| T7 | Cameron Young | 67 | -4 |
| T7 | Wyndham Clark | 68 | -4 |
| T7 | Tyrrell Hatton | 66 | -4 |
| T7 | Jason Day | 71 | -4 |
| T7 | Haotong Li | 69 | -4 |
| T7 | Kristoffer Reitan | 68 | -4 |
The explosive end to the day took plenty of steam out of a valiant charge by several players, including 2018 winner Patrick Reed, who posted a 3-under 69. Reed tied the lead at one point on the second nine before McIlroy hit the gas and sped away from his former rival.
Reed sits alongside first-round co-leader Sam Burns, who utilized a strong finish to flip a negative day into a positive. Burns birdied three of his last four holes to scoot into the tie for second.
Tommy Fleetwood made two eagles during his push Friday, flying into a tie with Augusta stalwart Justin Rose. Both sit tied with Shane Lowry at 5-under.
But for all the quality golf played at Augusta, there were also plenty of shaky moments. Scottie Scheffler essentially dominated the leaderboard at Augusta the last three years, but he faltered Friday with shockingly poor play. Although the 29-year-old has struggled with putting before, his approach game used to be considered his biggest guarantee. However, Scheffler ranked 54th out of 91 players in the field in that area, finding the water with his second shot on both the par 5s on the second nine.
Add in a tough day on the greens in which he sits 81st in putting, and not even the World No. 1 can put up a solid score with that combo. By the time the dust cleared, Scheffler sat in 24th place and will see his streak of consecutive rounds in the top 10 at the Masters end at 10.
For as bad as Scheffler looked, his issues paled in comparison to Bryson DeChambeau. The LIV superstar crashed out of the event in dramatic fashion with a triple-bogey on the 18th hole to miss the cut by two. DeChambeau would've played the weekend with a bogey on the closer, but he left his third shot in the bunker and then missed the green with his fourth. It's his first missed cut at Augusta in three years after top-6 finishes in the past two Masters.
