Rory McIlroy’s Masters hopes dive but Justin Rose blooms amid azaleas

• Northern Irishman slips to 72 after finding water on 15th
• Rose shoots stunning 65 to race into three-shot lead

There continues to be an absence of dull moments when Rory McIlroy is around. Just when maybe, just maybe, his followers were daring to dream of Masters glory, Augusta National bit back at the 35-year-old. Plus ça change.

This was box office; the problem being that for McIlroy himself and all those desperate to see him sample Masters success, the reasons were all wrong. Nobody could have predicted this stumble, such was his earlier touch. He was four under par and within three of the leaderboard-topping Justin Rose. The finding of water with a chip from behind the 15th green cost McIlroy an ugly, double-bogey seven. It is precisely the kind of number that can fatally undermine a Masters bid.

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