McIlroy gets lost on the back nine

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- When you're 21, talented and chasing your first major championship, there are limits to the thrill of visiting whole new realms. Rory McIlroy discovered as much after his tee shot on the 10th hole.

"I don't think anyone has ever been over there in those cabins before," he said, doing his best to laugh when he had so much reason to cry.

McIlroy had wobbled a little on the front nine, and his four-shot overnight lead had completely evaporated within about 40 minutes. Still, he led the Masters after the front nine. And as for the bromide that says the Masters begins on the back nine on Sunday, McIlroy can attest that the Masters can end there, too.

He clearly was in trouble when he asked after watching his drive sail way left, "Is there out of bounds over there?" He might have been better off if there had been. His ball was found amid the cabins that members use when they come to visit. That started a bizarre sequence and severe dive that transformed McIlroy from the title-bound prodigy he had seemed all week back into a kid again.

"I just unraveled," he said. "Hit a bad tee shot on 10 and then never, never really recovered."

The young Northern Irishman punched out from between the cabins, then pulled his third shot into the pine straw. His fourth shot hit a tree. He chipped on in five and two-putted for a triple-bogey 7. Instead of being up one, he was down two -- and heading further south. He missed a three-foot putt on 11. He four-putted the 12th. He rested his arms on the top of his driver and put his head down on his arms after his tee shot on 13 found the water and he bogeyed the par-5 15th, eventually shooting a 43 on the back nine.

This was not the way the Masters seemed headed for someone who had held at least a share of the lead after each of the first three days. He shot 80 (as he did in the second round of the 2010 British Open) and finished 10 strokes behind the winner Charl Schwartzel.

"What do you say? He'll feel hurt," said Schwartzel, who shares an agent, Andrew "Chubby" Chandler, with McIlroy. "He's such a good player. The way he played the first three rounds, you have to think that a win is not far away."

McIlroy said: "I knew it was going to be very tough for me out there today and it was. You know, it's going to be hard to take for a few days, but I'll get over it. I'm fine."