Pre-tournament favourite Rory McIlroy’s luckless week continued yesterday when he had to suffer being beaten over 18 holes by Jeff Knox, the non-competing marker playing alongside him.
Two-time Major champion McIlroy, the last of 51 players to make the cut, was the first man out in the third round and was assigned Knox, a veteran of such situations, as a playing partner to keep score and aid the pace of play.
McIlroy, who struggled to make the cut at four over on Friday, closed with back-to-back birdies to finish on one-under 71 but it was not good enough to beat Knox, a 48-year-old Augusta National member who fired a 70, one of his best-ever rounds off the club’s professionals tees.
McIlroy managed to keep his sense of humour saying: “Jeff is a great player. I thought he was going to be nice and 3-putt the last and we would have a halve, but he beat me by one.”
Knox, who played as a marker last year alongside Bubba Watson and Keegan Bradley, has the Augusta National club record of 61 off the members’ tees from 2002.
McIlroy sped through the front nine in 90 minutes at one-over 37 while Knox fired a 35 on the front side.
“He obviously knows this place so well and gets it round. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone putt the greens as well as he does around here,” McIlroy said.
“He was really impressive. I was thinking of maybe getting him to read a few of my putts out there. He played really well and he couldn’t have been more helpful. He was really nice all the way around.
“It would have been different, had it been someone that wasn’t up to Jeff’s calibre, but he played just like he should be playing in the Masters.
“He just told me to go out there and continue the birdie run tomorrow. I finished with two in a row. He said go out and make it two more in a row tomorrow and try to get up on the leaderboard.
“It was nice to birdie three of the last four and shoot something under par. Obviously, I wanted something a little better than that, but with the way these greens are and the way the golf course is set up, it's hard to go really low on this golf course like I needed to to try and get myself back in the tournament.”
McIlroy is now targeting a top-15 finish after giving up on anything more than trying to improve upon his best Masters finish, a share of 15th in 2011 after his now infamous meltdown.
