Jason Day jokingly confessed he wanted to “break every club in Rory McIlroy’s bag” to halt the Northern Irishman’s charge at the Masters, but concedes that even such drastic measures wouldn’t have stopped the Ulsterman.
The Aussie golfer quietly climbed the leaderboard at Augusta National, carding a solid 71 on Saturday to sit at 5-under par and tied for sixth place. He also scored par on the final day to finished tied eighth in the leaderboard. However, he remains seven shots adrift of McIlroy, who dazzled with a 6-under round to seize the solo lead.
McIlroy’s historic start on Saturday saw him become the first player to notch six threes across the first six holes of the Masters, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Yet, Day remarked that the excitement still didn’t compare to the electrifying atmosphere generated by Tiger Woods.
“It wasn’t a Tiger Woods cheer,” he recalled. “I mean, I remember just standing on 7 and Tiger holed a putt on 9 from four feet for par, and you would have thought he holed it from the fairway. It was unbelievable. I was standing there like, what happened.”
Despite his admiration for the cheers Woods receives, Day acknowledged feeling somewhat powerless as he watches McIlroy rack up birdies. “Can’t do anything,” he admitted.
“You want to go over there and break every club in his bag, but that’s just not going to work.”
Day reflected on past experiences where McIlroy had outplayed him significantly, such as at Congressional where he finished second to McIlroy by eight strokes. He said: “He’s clearly playing some good golf, so you’ve got to do the best job you can. I’ve been on the receiving end of a couple of those where he’s run away with it a little bit, Congressional when I finished second there and he beat me by eight.”
“I mean, he’s the best player of our generation for sure. He just makes things look so easy. You look at his score today (Saturday), he was, what, 4-under-ish through three holes, and then kind of faulted and then all of a sudden he makes three on the trot. It’s not easy out there.
“It’s very difficult out there. There’s a little bit of wind. The wind is moving around a little bit. The greens are starting to firm up and they’re getting a little bit quicker.
“But he’s explosive enough to be able to do that. There’s not many guys on this planet that are able to do something like that. That’s what’s impressive about him. Yeah, he’s got two holes left, obviously, and we’ll see where we’re at at the end of the day and then try and focus on tomorrow and see how it goes.”
