The second round of the 2026 Masters is in the books, and Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy is the 36 hole leader. The bigger story is you can basically present the world number two from Holywood the Green Jacket now.
McIlroy’s lead at Augusta at the moment is gigantic. It is six full strokes. McIlroy leads Americans Sam Burns and Patrick Reed by an uncoverted touchdown.
On Friday at Augusta, McIlroy posted the best score at the first major of the season for the second straight day. After his opening round 67, which was tied with Burns for the first round lead, McIlroy had a second round score of 65, and is now in a class by himself at -12. During Friday’s round, McIlroy had nine birdies and two bogeys. That is not a misprint. McIlroy literally birdied half of the holes, as he shot one-under-par on the second, third, fourth, 12th, 13th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th holes. His bogeys came at the fifth and 10th holes. The 10th hole bogey was self inflicted as it was a missed par putt from close range.
McIlroy’s six stroke lead is the largest 36 hole lead ever at the Masters. However, we have seen greatest from McIlroy before after round two at a major. At the 2011 United States Open in Congressional, McIlroy’s second round lead was also at six strokes. After 36 holes, he led South Korea’s Y.E. Yang by posting a score of -11. McIlroy went on to win his first career major with a score of -16 as he beat Australia’s Jason Day by eight strokes.
