AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — The final round of the 90th Masters is underway, and it’s a tight race for the green jacket.
Rory McIlroy and Cameron Young opened the day tied at the top of the leaderboard after a dramatic Saturday, with a number of contenders close behind.
McIlroy and Young struck their opening tee shots at 2:25 p.m. on Tea Olive, the 445-yard par-4 first hole at Augusta National. Young took sole possession of the lead after McIlroy double-bogeyed the fourth hole. But McIlroy has since retaken the lead.
McIlroy is at 13 under and holds a two-shot lead over Scheffler and Rose with two holes left to play.
The pressure of the Masters might be starting to get to Rose.
He missed the green on No. 12 after his chip shot failed to reach the putting surface. It resulted in his second straight bogey, allowing McIlroy to regain the lead.
McIlroy is at 11 under while Rose dropped into a second-place tie with Tyrrell Hatton, Russell Henley and Cameron Young at 10 under.
McIlroy missed a makeable put on the ninth hole that would have tied him with Rose at 12 under.
He remains one back of the lead heading into the 10th.
The Masters leaderboard is changing at breakneck speed — and we’re not even to the back nine.
Rose made birdie at the eighth hole and now has sole possession of the lead after Young made bogey at the seventh.
Rose lost in a playoff to McIlroy last year.
Cameron Young holds a two-shot lead at the Masters after five holes as he seeks to become the third straight player to follow up a win at the Players Championship with a victory at Augusta National.
Scottie Scheffler won both tournaments in 2024 and Rory McIlroy matched that feat last year.
Young’s best finish at the Masters came in 2023 when he finished tied for seventh.
Young has taken sole possession of the lead at the Masters after McIlroy double-bogeyed the fourth hole. Young is at 12 under and leads by two.
McIlroy isn’t going to let Young run away with a green jacket.
The defending Masters champion birdied the par-5 third hole to reach 12 under on Sunday, while Young had to make a nervy 6-footer to save par on the same hole and remain tied with the Northern Irishman after briefly taking a one-shot lead.
They have a three-shot cushion on Scheffler, who has birdied two of his first six holes to reach 9 under. The world No. 1 is trying to become the first player since Danny Willett in 2016 to come from outside the final group and win the Masters.
▶ Here’s the leaderboard
McIlroy and Young have teed off at the Masters, which means everyone is out on the course for the final round.
McIlroy blew a record 36-hole lead of six shots on Saturday with a round of 73, which allowed Young to pull into a tie with him at 11 under following his 65 — tied for the low round of the tournament. They had a one-shot lead over Sam Burns, though Scottie Scheffler and a host of other big names were ready to give chase.
Scheffler began the day at 7 under and promptly birdied the difficult par-4 first hole to start his round in style.
The world’s No. 1 made up a lot of ground on Saturday, when his second-round 65 matched co-leader Young for the best of the day. It left Scheffler at 7 under for the tournament, four shots behind Young and McIlroy.
This would be the first time Scheffler has come from behind at Augusta National to win on Sunday. In 2022, he had a three-shot lead after the third round and won by the same margin. Two years ago, he led by one going into Sunday and won by four.
There’s reason to believe that Scheffler can make up the ground, though.
Through the first three rounds, the four-time major champion ranks first from tee-to-green and first in ballstriking. So, why isn’t he in the lead? Scheffler is nearly last in putting. If he can get a few to drop, watch out.
▶ Here’s the leaderboard
Rory McIlroy lost a six-shot lead during the third round of the Masters, so it makes sense that anyone within six shots of the lead has at least a shot at the green jacket.
Those at 5 under were scheduled to go off shortly after 1 p.m. EDT, beginning with Ben Griffin and Jake Knapp. They were followed at 1:30 p.m. by Collin Morikawa (-5) and Patrick Reed (-6), with Patrick Cantlay (-6) and Russell Henley (-6) going off at 1:41 p.m.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Haotong Li, both at 7 under, were paired together at 1:52 p.m.
Justin Rose, who lost in a playoff to McIlroy last year, was at 8 under along with Jason Day. They were due off at 2:03 p.m. Sam Burns (-10) and Shane Lowry (-9) were in the penultimate group at 2:14 p.m. before McIlroy and Cameron Young strike their opening tee shots at 2:25 p.m. on Tea Olive, the 445-yard par-4 first hole at Augusta National.
Sergio Garcia, the 2017 Masters champion, will be playing the remainder of the final round without his driver after snapping off the head of it following an angry outburst on the second tee box. After sending his tee shot into a bunker, Garcia took a swipe at a table with a green cooler on it and severed the head of the driver. It was left briefly dangling from the shaft before Garcia grabbed it and ripped it off completely. Geoff Yang, the chairman of the Masters competitions committee, met up with Garcia on the fourth tee box and issued him a code of conduct warning, according to club officials.
The forecast for the final round of the Masters is much like it has been all week at Augusta National: hot, dry and sunny.
That’s good news for the thousands of patrons. But it could be bad news for those trying to navigate 18 holes. The weather has been such that club officials can set up the course just about anyway they want. They seemed to give players a reprieve with easier hole locations and softer conditions on Friday and Saturday, but chances are they will want it difficult on Sunday.
That means hard, fast greens that reject wayward approach shots into difficult pin placements.
“When greens are firm and targets are tight, even a light wind can add another layer of difficulty,” said John Feerick, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather. “Players who manage launch, spin and landing spot most effectively may have the clearest edge.”
The Masters gnome has grown increasingly popular — and valuable — over the last 10 years. But this year’s gnome has become especially sought after on re-sale markets amid speculation this will be the final year they’ll be produced.
Masters chairman Fred Ridley has neither confirmed nor denied the rumors.
The 13 1/2-inch gnome features the traditional old man with a white beard dressed in golf attire and holding an umbrella and Masters-themed cup. It is only available for purchase at Augusta National (not online) and is selling for $59.50.
However, some are taking the gnome home and using it to help pay for their Masters expenses. The gnome is commanding more than $600 on eBay and Marketplace. With only 1,000 gnomes available per day and regularly selling out within an hour, fans are lining up early in the morning to get one.
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Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, waves after his putt on the 18th hole during the third round of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Saturday, April 11, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian voters on Sunday ousted long-serving Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power, rejecting the authoritarian policies and global far-right movement that he embodied in favor of a pro-European challenger in a bombshell election result with global repercussions.
It was a stunning blow for Orbán — a close ally of both U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin — who quickly conceded defeat after what he called a ″painful″ election result. U.S. Vice President JD Vance had made a visit to Hungary just days earlier, meant to help push Orbán over the finish line.
Election victor Péter Magyar, a former Orbán loyalist who campaigned against corruption and on everyday issues like health care and public transport, has pledged to rebuild Hungary's relationships with the European Union and NATO — ties that frayed under Orbán. European leaders quickly congratulated Magyar.
His victory was expected to transform political dynamics within the EU, where Orbán had upended the bloc by frequently vetoing key decisions, prompting concerns he sought to break it up from the inside.
It will also reverberate among far-right movements around the world, which have viewed Orbán as a beacon for how nationalist populism can be used to wage culture wars and leverage state power to undermine opponents.
It's not yet clear whether Magyar’s Tisza party will have the two-thirds majority in parliament, which would give it the numbers needed for major changes in legislation. With 93% of the vote counted, it had more than 53% support to 37% for Orbán’s governing Fidesz party and looked set to win 94 of Hungary's 106 voting districts.
“I congratulated the victorious party,″ Orban told followers. “We are going to serve the Hungarian nation and our homeland from opposition.″
In a speech to tens of thousands of jubilant supporters at a victory party along the Danube River, Magyar said his voters had rewritten Hungarian history.
“Tonight, truth prevailed over lies. Today, we won because Hungarians didn’t ask what their homeland could do for them — they asked what they could do for their homeland. You found the answer. And you followed through,” he said.
On the streets of Budapest, drivers blared car horns and cranked up anti-government songs while people marching in the streets chanted and screamed.
Many revelers chanted “Ruszkik haza!” or “Russians go home!” — a phrase used widely during Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet revolution, and which had gained increasing currency amid Orbán’s drift toward Moscow.
Turnout in the election was nearly 80%, according to the National Election Office, a record number in any vote in Hungary’s post-Communist history.
Orbán, the EU’s longest-serving leader and one of its biggest antagonists, traveled a long road from his early days as a liberal, anti-Soviet firebrand to the Russia-friendly nationalist admired today by the global far-right.
The EU will be waiting to see how Magyar changes Hungary's approach to Ukraine. Orbán repeatedly frustrated EU efforts to support the neighboring country in its war against Russia’s full-scale invasion, while cultivating close ties to Putin and refusing to end Hungary’s dependence on Russian energy imports.
Recent revelations have shown a top member of Orbán's government frequently shared the contents of EU discussions with Moscow, raising accusations that Hungary was acting on Russia’s behalf within the bloc.
Members of Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement are among those who see Orbán's government and his Fidesz political party as shining examples of conservative, anti-globalist politics in action, while he is reviled by advocates of liberal democracy and the rule of law.
In Budapest, Marcell Mehringer, 21, said he was voting “primarily so that Hungary will finally be a so-called European country, and so that young people, and really everyone, will do their fundamental civic duty to unite this nation a bit and to break down these boundaries borne of hatred.”
During his 16 years as prime minister, Orbán launched harsh crackdowns on minority rights and media freedoms, subverted many of Hungary's institutions and been accused of siphoning large sums of money into the coffers of his allied business elite, an allegation he denies.
He also heavily strained Hungary's relationship with the EU. Although Hungary is one of the smaller EU countries, with a population of 9.5 million, Orbán has repeatedly used his veto to block decisions that require unanimity.
Most recently, he blocked a 90-billion euro ($104 billion) EU loan to Ukraine, prompting his partners to accuse him of hijacking the critical aid.
Magyar, 45, rapidly rose to become Orbán's most serious challenger.
A former insider within Orbán's Fidesz, Magyar broke with the party in 2024 and quickly formed Tisza. Since then, he has toured Hungary relentlessly, holding rallies in settlements big and small in a campaign blitz that recently had him visiting up to six towns daily.
In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this month, Magyar said the election will be a “referendum” on whether Hungary continues on its drift toward Russia under Orbán, or can retake its place among the democratic societies of Europe.
Tisza is a member of the European People's Party, the mainstream, center-right political family with leaders governing 12 of the EU's 27 nations.
Magyar faced a tough fight. Orbán's control of Hungary's public media, which he has transformed into a mouthpiece for his party, and vast swaths of the private media market give him an advantage in spreading his message.
The unilateral transformation of Hungary's electoral system and gerrymandering of its 106 voting districts by Fidesz also will require Tisza to gain an estimated 5% more votes than Orbán’s party to achieve a simple majority.
Additionally, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Hungarians in neighboring countries had the right to vote in Hungarian elections and traditionally have voted overwhelmingly for Orbán's party.
Russian secret services have plotted to interfere and tip the election in Orbán's favor, according to numerous media reports including by The Washington Post. The prime minister, however, accused neighboring Ukraine, as well as Hungary's allies in the EU, of seeking to interfere in the vote to install a “pro-Ukraine” government.
Associated Press journalists Béla Szandelszky, Marko Drobnjakovic, Ivan L. Nagy, Florent Bajrami in Budapest, Hungary, and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
Supporters of Peter Magyar, the leader of the opposition Tisza party celebrate after a parliamentary election in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
A man waves a Hungarian flag as he celebrates in the streets after the announcement of partial results of the Hungarian parliamentary election in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Supporters of Peter Magyar, the leader of the opposition Tisza party celebrates after a parliamentary election in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, center, flanked by his team reacts after a parliamentary election in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Peter Magyar, leader of the opposition Tisza party, speaks to the media after polls closed, during the Hungarian parliamentary election in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
A woman takes ballots at a polling station during the Hungarian parliamentary election in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
A woman casts her ballot at a polling station during the Hungarian parliamentary election in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the junior ruling Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) Zsolt Semjen and his wife Gabriella Semjenne Menus cast their ballots during an election in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (Zsolt Szigetvary/MTI via AP)
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban prepares to cast his ballot at a polling station in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban addresses the media outside a polling station after voting in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Peter Magyar, leader of the opposition Tisza party, speaks to the media outside a polling station in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Peter Magyar, leader of the opposition Tisza party, casts his ballot at a polling station in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban casts his vote in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Officially sealed ballot boxes are seen at a local polling station during an election in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (Tamas Vasvari/MTI via AP)
A man casts his ballot at a polling station in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
A man prepares to cast his ballot at a polling station in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Supporters of Peter Magyar, the leader of the opposition Tisza party hold up their lit phones during a final election rally in Debrecen, Hungary, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Supporters of Peter Magyar, the leader of the opposition Tisza party hold up their lit phones during a final election rally in Debrecen, Hungary, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Peter Magyar, the leader of the opposition Tisza party attends a rally in Debrecen, Hungary, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Supporters attend electoral campaign closing rally of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the governing Fidesz in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban attends the electoral campaign closing rally of the governing Fidesz in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
