AUGUSTA, Ga. — It’s time to get down to business. While all 91 players in the field at the 2026 Masters had dreams of making the cut, only the low 50 and ties (54 total) are moving on the weekend at Augusta National—the prospect of slipping on a green jacket in Butler Cabin come Sunday becoming slightly more realistic for those near the top of the leaderboard.
This year’s cutline was four-over 148, which falls right in line with the tournament’s historic average of 148.41. Rory McIlroy, however, birdied six of the last seven holes Friday and the last four straight to shoot 65 and hold a six-shot lead, a record for the largest lead at the halfway point of the Masters.
"I know what can happen around here good and bad," McIlroy said. "You don't have to remind me what can happen around this place."
The defending champion actually made bogey on the 10th then caught fire starting on the par-3 12th hole. The highlight of the stretch was a 29-yard pitch shot that found the bottom of the cup on the 17th hole. He then closed it out with birdie on the home hole to lead at 12 under par. Sam Burns and Patrick Reed are tied for second place, six shots behind. McIlroy and Burns will be in the last pairing in Saturday's third round and go off at 2:50 p.m. ET.
Pairings are twosomes rather than the threesomes that played in the first and second rounds. All players will tee off the first hole and Kurt Kitayama and Alex Noren will get the party started at 9:31 a.m. ET. Reed and Justin Rose are the penultimate pairing that go at 2:38 p.m ET. Rose is at five under par. He lost to McIlroy in a playoff last year.
Here is the complete list of pairings and tee times for Day 3 at Augusta National.
Saturday's third-round tee times
9:31 a.m.: Kurt Kitayama, Alex Noren
9:42 a.m.: Charl Schwartzel, Rasmus Hojgaard
9:53 a.m.: Jon Rahm, Si Woo Kim
10:04 a.m.: Brian Harman, Corey Conners
10:15 a.m.: Sergio Garcia, Maverick McNealy
10:26 a.m.: Keegan Bradley, Viktor Hovland
10:37 a.m.: Justin Thomas, Gary Woodland
10:48 a.m.: Sam Stevens, Adam Scott
11:10 a.m.: Marco Penge, Matt McCarty
11:21 a.m.: Jordan Spieth, Sepp Straka
11:32 a.m.: Aaron Rai, Jacob Bridgeman
11:43 a.m.: Patrick Cantlay, Sungjae Im
11:54 a.m.: Dustin Johnson, Russell Henley
12:05 p.m.: Harris English, Ryan Gerard
12:16 p.m.: Ludvig Aberg, Scottie Scheffler
12:38 p.m.: Collin Morikawa, Brian Campbell
12:49 p.m.: Nick Taylor, Matt Fitzpatrick
1 p.m.: Hideki Matsuyama, Michael Brennan
1:11 p.m.: Jake Knapp, Xander Schauffele
1:22 p.m.: Ben Griffin, Max Homa
1:33 p.m.: Chris Gotterup, Brooks Koepka
1:55 p.m.: Jason Day, Cameron Young
2:06 p.m.: Haotong Li, Kristoffer Reitan
2:17 p.m.: Wyndham Clark, Tyrrell Hatton
2:28 p.m.: Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood
2:39 p.m.: Justin Rose, Patrick Reed
2:50 p.m.: Rory McIlroy, Sam Burns
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