AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tiger Woods chuckled at the idea that it might be considered a good sign that he will move into the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in more than three years.
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In honesty, Reed was a deserving victor of the event after mixing the bad with the brilliant to ultimately be resilient enough to scoop his first major win.
However, breathing down his neck is McIlroy, who made up two shots on the American after carding a error-free third-round score of 65 (seven-under par).
A look at the history books tells you this Masters is McIlroy’s to win.
McIlroy and Reed had separated themselves from the rest of the field through 54 holes, and their pairing on Sunday emanated a match-play vibe reminiscent of their singles duel at the 2016 Ryder Cup.
The final round began with Reed holding a three-shot advantage over Rory McIlroy, but while the Northern Irishman’s challenge faded Reed had to hold off his hard-charging U.S. Ryder Cup team mates to claim his first major championship.
Since then he has won four majors, but never a Masters.
Complementing his long game is a deft touch around the greens, a poised putting stroke and a bulldog tenacity that serves him well on the big stage.
A respectful McIlroy said the those players could still have a major say in today’s events.
By this time, the battle was joined by a few players, including Spieth, who kept pecking away at his deficit with one birdie after another.
‘He’s got that to deal with. “I had a chance on 17, too, but it wasn’t to be”.
“I wish I was a little closer to the lead or leading, but I’m in the final group and I’ve shot 65 on moving day at the Masters”. All the pressure is on him. When the former Augusta State golfer starts to get on a roll, he capitalizes on it.
“It has given me the opportunity to keep my legs and my core strong, to help me protect my back, but also to handle this grinding”.
The change atop the leaderboard drew a huge roar from fans surrounding the 18th green. It’s going to be good fun.
After three top-12 finishes this year, Woods had climbed to 103rd in the rankings heading into the Masters. Still, he played much more like the four-time Masters champion everyone remembers for the first time all week. “I’m not out there to play Rory”. “It’s just another day at the golf course”.
“I’m ready to go”.
“Oh yeah, 100 percent”, said McIlroy. “I was pretty far out there, I’m going to guess like over 1,400 or something”, Woods said. McIlroy (71) is off to his best 36-hole start in seven years and is looking as poised as ever to capture the fourth leg of the career Grand Slam.
“I knew it was going to be a dogfight, ” Reed said.
Reed did that marvelously Saturday.
Reed, the overnight leader, never flinched throughout a raucous afternoon at Augusta National. But he stumbled to a 74 and finished six shots behind Reed.
Will Reed be that resilient under the white-hot pressure of Sunday? There’s a lot of stuff you can do at a Ryder Cup that you can’t do at Augusta National. “You know, I just, I just couldn’t do it three days in a row”.
Both McIlroy and Reed did their best to insist this was not going to be a two-horse race Sunday, with Rickie Fowler (9-under), Jon Rahm (8-under), Henrik Stenson (7-under) and Bubba Watson, Tommy Fleetwood, Marc Leishman (6-under) and Justin Thomas and Spieth (5-under) within striking distance. “I played some great golf, but I just didn’t continue that into today”, added McIlroy, who admitted his putter had “let me down” throughout the final round.
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Both Reed and McIlroy, however, said it would be risky to go into Sunday with eyes only for each other.
