\n<\/p>\n
When Rory McIlroy chatted to the great Jack Nicklaus for advice about the best way to defend his Masters title, he was given a succinct piece of advice.<\/b><\/p>\n
“He told me ‘no double bogeys’,” laughed McIlroy.<\/p>\n
An obvious tip maybe, but it is easier said than done at Augusta National. Just ask the 36-year-old from Northern Ireland, who has opened up a record six-shot lead at the halfway stage thanks to a stunning finish to Friday’s second round.<\/p>\n
On his way to golfing utopia last year, McIlroy carded four double bogeys over the week – a tally which nobody had ever recorded and still managed to don the Green Jacket.<\/p>\n
So far, with McIlroy holding a commanding advantage in his pursuit of a rare back-to-back Masters win, there haven’t been any.<\/p>\n
Instead of costly doubles threatening to derail his progress, there was a flurry of birdies late in a sensational second round which helped McIlroy accelerate away from the chasing pack.<\/p>\n
He converted six in the final seven holes of his second round – including a glorious chip in from 30 yards on the 17th – to finish 12-under par following a spell which ranks among the finest of his career.<\/p>\n
The run enabled the five-time major champion to set a record 36-hole lead going into the weekend, with American pair Sam Burns and Patrick Reed closest behind on six under.<\/p>\n
“I’ve always loved the tournament and loved this golf course, even when I felt it didn’t love me back,” said McIlroy, who is bidding to follow Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods as only the fourth player to win successive titles.<\/p>\n
“Now when I miss fairways it’s fine, when I miss greens it’s fine. I feel like I’m playing with the house’s money.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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When Rory McIlroy chatted to the great Jack Nicklaus for advice about the best way to defend his Masters title, he was given a succinct piece of advice. “He told me ‘no double bogeys’,” laughed McIlroy. An obvious tip maybe, but it is easier said than done at Augusta National. Just ask the 36-year-old from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}