Third round demons could haunt Rory McIlroy at Augusta

Until he wins the tournament, Rory McIlroy’s relationship with the Masters will always be dominated by the final day meltdown in 2011 which saw him throw away a four-shot lead to ultimately tie for 15th.

Before that though he’d carded his highest score of the week in the third round, and he followed that up with a Saturday slump last year.

Having started the third day four under, McIlroy dropped five shots to record a 77 and end the day one over par – losing his two ball against Sergio Garcia in the process.

Garcia only had to record a three over par 75 to emerge as the victor in the head-to-head contest with the Northern Irishman, who is 8/11 to win his two balls clash with Charl Schwartzel this time around.

The consistent South African was the key beneficiary of McIlroy’s 2011 slump given that he took advantage to record his first and so far only Major win. Schwartzel has carded two one under par 71s so far this week and a repeat of his 2011 third round score of 68 will give him every chance of defying his 11/8 odds to win the contest with McIlroy.

Elsewhere in the field, 2012’s third-place finisher Peter Hanson will need a score approaching his 65 on Saturday last year if he is to get back into contention following an opening two rounds which have left him three over.

Paired with John Huh in the two balls, Hanson can take advantage of the American’s slip in standards this week – he carded 70 in the first round but slipped to 77 in the second – to record a victory at odds of 4/6.

Huh, who is playing in his first Masters, is priced at 6/4 to beat the Swede.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing