It is incredibly tempting to suggest that Rory McIlroy already has one arm back in his Green Jacket after opening up a six-shot lead at the halfway stage of The Masters.
McIlroy has completely stolen the show over the first two days at Augusta National. The Northern Irishman has already broken the record for the largest lead heading into the third round.
The 36-year-old made six birdies in his final seven holes on Friday to leave all of his challengers wondering how exactly they are going to close the gap.
What Rory McIlroy needs to target doing over the weekend at The Masters
Of course, Rory McIlroy has not always been the most comfortable when he has boasted a sizeable lead at The Masters over his career.
Back in 2011, he was four shots clear going into the final round. Meanwhile, his performance on Sunday 12 months ago probably took several years off the lives of anyone who tuned in to watch.
But this is a different scenario for McIlroy, with the burden of finally winning at Augusta now removed from his shoulders.
Speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman suggested that McIlroy’s target should be to eclipse the winning totals of Tiger Woods in 1997 and Jordan Spieth 18 years later.
Only Dustin Johnson has previously finished The Masters on a better score, with the LIV star reaching 20 under par when the event was played in considerably softer conditions in November 2020.
“I think Rory still has another 67 in him. You know [beating -18] is top of mind for him. He needs to find a way to recalibrate a goal. ‘What is something that I can go and chase?’ Because it’s the only way to go out there this weekend and not think about not losing The Masters. If you go to try and chase something, then for him, he just stays in that aggressive mindset. Then he can always make decisions that are the correct ones to win this golf tournament. But if you want to go and try and chase history, that’s probably the mindset that he needs to get into,” he said.
“Even 19, we’re going to hand it to him [the scoring record].”
Kaufman predicts McIlroy’s lead heading into the final round at Augusta National
As a tournament, it would certainly not be awful if some of the chasing pack were able to make a real charge on Saturday and put some pressure on.
However, there should also be a desire to see what McIlroy can now accomplish given that he has the event within his grasp.
Kaufman believes that McIlroy is going to move even further ahead by the time Saturday’s third round concludes.
“I’m going to say that he extends his lead, by a shot. I’m going to say a seven shot lead heading into Sunday,” he said.
Woods famously won by 12 shots back in 1997. McIlroy would match that if he now replicated his performance over the first two days.
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