Magic marker beats McIlroy over 18 at Masters

Augusta: Pre-tournament favorite Rory McIlroy`s luckless week at the Masters continued Saturday when he was beaten over 18 holes at Augusta National by Jeff Knox, the non-competing marker playing alongside him.

Two-time major champion McIlroy, the last of 51 players to make the cut, was the first man out in the third round and was assigned Knox, a veteran of such situations, as a playing partner to keep score and aid the pace of play. McIlroy, who struggled to a 77 Friday to make the cut on the number, closed with back-to-back birdies to finish on one-under 71 Saturday but it was not good enough to beat Knox, a 48-year-old Augusta National member who fired a 70, one off his best-ever round off the club`s professionals tees. "He beat me. I guess that was the funny story," McIlroy said. "Jeff is a great player. I thought he was going to be nice and 3-putt the last and we would have a halve, but he beat me by one." Knox, who played as a marker last year alongside Bubba Watson and Keegan Bradley, has the Augusta National club record of 61 off the members` tees from 2002. McIlroy sped through the front nine in 90 minutes at one-over 37 while Knox fired a 35 on the front side. "He obviously knows this place so well and gets it round. I don`t think I`ve ever seen anyone putt the greens as well as he does around here," McIlroy said. "He was really impressive. I was thinking of maybe getting him to read a few of my putts out there. He played really well and he couldn`t have been more helpful. He was really nice all the way around." McIlroy was fine with the experience of being accompanied by a marker in part because of the strength of Knox`s play. "It would have been different, had it been someone that wasn`t up to Jeff`s caliber, but he played just like he should be playing in the Masters," McIlroy said. "He just told me to go out there and continue the birdie run tomorrow. I finished with two in a row. He said go out and make it two more in a row tomorrow and try to get up on the leaderboard." But McIlroy has all-but given up on anything more than trying to improve upon his best Masters finish a share of 15th from 2011 after he collapsed on the back nine after leading for the first 3 1/2 days. "It was nice to birdie three of the last four and shoot something under par," McIlroy said. "Obviously I wanted something a little better than that, but with the way these greens are and the way the golf course is set up, it`s hard to go really low on this golf course like I needed to to try and get myself back in the tournament. "A good goal would be to have my best finish ever at Augusta and go from there. It wouldn`t be the week that I would have wanted from the start, but the way the last two days have went it wouldn`t be a bad way to finish." McIlroy has suffered at least one bad day every year at the Masters to thwart his green jacket dreams. "I seem to throw in a high number every year. Last year it was a 79, this year it was a 77. At least it`s getting a little better," McIlroy said. "It`s just turning those 77s and the high ones into 72s or 73s, that`s the real key for me around here. It`s just making sure that I don`t let a round get away from me, like it sort of did yesterday. I still haven`t figured out how to do it."