The Masters 2026 LIVE: Leaderboard, scores and Augusta updates as Rory McIlroy faces fight for green jacket after blowing six-shot advantage

Hole-in-one specialist Shane Lowry recorded the first ace of this year’s Masters tournament at the sixth hole during yesterday’s third round.

The Irishman has quite the collection of ones on his CV and this was his second at Augusta National.

Lowry’s tee shot at the 190-yard hole catapulted him to within four of the lead held by close friend Rory McIlroy, having pitched below the hole and taken a couple of bounces before rolling in for only the seventh ace at that hole in the tournament’s history.

His previous hole-in-one here came at the 16th in the final round of 2016. It was also his second ace in a month after recording one at March’s Texas Children’s Houston Open.

He has also aced the 17th at Sawgrass, in 2022, and the short seventh at Pebble Beach, in January 2025, two of the most famous par threes in golf.

The last two winners of the Masters, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, won the Players Championship before arriving at Augusta.

Cameron Young, who will take a co-lead into Masters Sunday, won the Players at TPC Sawgrass a few weeks ago.

He went +4 on his front nine on Thursday, but is -15 since then. That’s despite finding the water on the 15th yesterday.

1. Rory McIlroy, 67-65-73; -12

2. Cameron Young; 73-67-65; -12

3. Sam Burns, 67-71-68; -10

4. Shane Lowry, 70-69-68; -9

5. Jason Day, 69-71-68; -8

6. Justin Rose, 70-69-69; -8

7. Hao-Tong Li, 71-69-69; -7

8. Scottie Scheffler, 70-74-65 -7

The Masters 2026 purse is $22.5m (£16.7m), up from $21m (£15.6m) last year.

The winner is getting $4.5m (£3.3m), up from $4.2m (£3.1m) in 2025.

Any player who missed the cut gets paid $25,000 (£18,580) too.

The relationship between six-time Masters winner Jack Nicklaus and defending Masters champion Rory McIlroy is close enough that, earlier this week, just before Nicklaus took his tee shot as the honorary starter, the 86-year-old felt fit to dispense some advice to the Ulsterman on how to join the very select group of golfers to defend their title at Augusta.

“No f***ing double bogeys.”

Two days of impeccable golf had given McIlroy the greatest 36-hole lead in Masters history in pursuit of back-to-back green jackets and an exclusive club alongside Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Sir Nick Faldo. The defending champion sputtered through the front nine on Saturday before coughing up a double-bogey on 11 that saw his overnight lead finally, unbelievably evaporate. Possibly a historic turning point in this Masters tournament.

Read Ed Malyon’s verdict from day three below:

5:13pm Nick Taylor (Canada); Matt Fitzpatrick (England)

5:24pm Ludvig Aberg (Sweden); Brian Campbell

5:35pm Tyrrell Hatton (England); Tommy Fleetwood (England)

5:46pm Brooks Koepka;Wyndham Clark

5:57pm Ryan Gerard; Xander Schauffele

6:08pm Jake Knapp; Ben Griffin

6:30pm Patrick Reed; Collin Morikawa

6:41pm Patrick Cantlay; Russell Henley

6:52pm Scottie Scheffler; Haotong Li (China)

7:03pm Jason Day (Australia); Justin Rose (England)

7:14pm Sam Burns; Shane Lowry (Ireland)

7:25pm Cameron Young; Rory McIlroy (N. Ireland)

2:06pm Aaron Rai (England); Charl Schwartzel (S. Africa)

2:17pm Gary Woodland; Kurt Kitayama

2:28pm Jon Rahm (Spain); Sergio Garcia (Spain)

2:39pm Si Woo Kim (Korea); Rasmus Hojgaard (Denmark)

2:50pm Keegan Bradley; Dustin Johnson

3:01pm Matt McCarty; Corey Conners (Canada)

3:12pm Viktor Hovland (Norway); Justin Thomas

3:23pm Alex Noren (Sweden); Maverick McNealy

3:45pm Adam Scott (Australia); Marco Penge (England)

3:56pm Harris English; Samuel Stevens

4:07pm Brian Harman; Jordan Spieth

4:18pm Sungjae Im (Korea); Hideki Matsuyama (Japan)

4:29pm Sepp Straka (Austria); Jacob Bridgeman

4:40pm Chris Gotterup; Kristoffer Reitan (Norway)

4:51pm Michael Brennan; Max Homa

Rory McIlroy heads into the final round of the Masters in a share of the lead with Cameron Young after blowing the six-shot advantage he took into the weekend on a dramatic moving day on Saturday.

At -12, McIlroy held an unprecedented lead heading into the third round, as the Northern Irishman bids to become just the fourth man to win the Masters back-to-back, but his healthy position at the top of the leaderboard was wiped out on a wild day at Augusta National.

After his driving woes, he will start on -11, along with Players champion Young, after the American caught fire and joined the defending champion at the top just as McIlroy found the water and made a double-bogey-six on the 12th, followed by another bogey on the 13th.

Young’s blazing round of -7 was matched by world No 1 Scottie Scheffler, who will start today four shots behind, with Shane Lowry and last year’s runner-up Justin Rose also in firm contention. Lowry produced the moment of the third round with a hole-in-one on the 6th.

Hello there and welcome to day four of the Masters as Rory McIlroy’s bid to retain his title reaches its climax.

We’ll have all the build-up and action from Augusta from this final round, right here!