AUGUSTA, Ga. — Augusta National wanted a Rory McIlroy repeat.

It saw a Rory McIlroy repeat.

McIlroy has done it again. On Sunday, the Northern Irishman became the fourth player in Masters history to go back-to-back, joining Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods.

McIlroy further cemented his legacy in the tournament’s history not by blowing away the field or by producing a final-round score for the ages. After 36 holes, he had a record six-shot lead. But he sweated out this Masters Sunday, with two birdies in Amen Corner the difference.

While McIlroy faltered at the start, the other contenders did too — and ultimately, it was the 36-year-old career Grand Slam champion who was able to hold on, and for once, let the chaos unfold around him. A defending Masters champion has held the 54-hole lead or co-lead seven previous times, but only two of them went on to win. On Sunday, McIlroy’s final-round 71 to finish at 12 under par made him the third.

Scottie Scheffler, still ranked as the best player in the world, shot a bogey-free final-round 68 to get to 11 under par. It’s the third time he has finished second at a major championship.

McIlroy’s day began at 2:25 p.m. ET, tied for the lead at 11-under with Cameron Young, this year’s The Players champion, who had a one-shot lead after two holes. Young extended that lead to two shots when McIlroy three-putted from six feet on the par-3 4th. That was at 3:26 p.m. It took another hour and 23 minutes for McIlroy to wrest back control of this tournament, after Young had given Justin Rose a chance at the top.

But Rose felt the wrath of Amen Corner, and Young stalled out with a long string of pars, leaving an open door for McIlroy. McIlroy birdied Nos. 12 and 13, walking away from the infamously difficult three-hole stretch of the property in 2 under par.

After a tumultuous 48 hours in which McIlroy extended his lead to six strokes on Friday only to lose it entirely on Saturday, this tournament was McIlroy’s again. Only this time, he did not let it go.

“I thought it was so difficult to win last year because of trying to win the Masters and the Grand Slam, and then this year I realized it’s just really difficult to win the Masters,” McIlroy said.

McIlroy began this week at Augusta National with a weightlessness to him that was almost unrecognizable. For 14 years, McIlroy arrived here for Masters week and could perfectly predict what questions would be coming, what torments he would face. He felt physically uneasy when he set foot on the property.

“I think for the past 17 years I just could not wait for the tournament to start, and this year I wouldn’t care if the tournament never started,” he said, hours before a Champions Dinner that would draw raves from its attendees for the wine list, wagyu filet, and elk sliders.

That anxiety dated back to 2011, when McIlroy, a fresh-faced 21-year-old with a mop of curly hair, held a four-shot lead heading into the final round. But he collapsed, painfully so, and shot an 80. Charl Schwartzel slipped on the green jacket, and McIlroy tied for 15th place. He called his parents the next morning in tears. The memories would stay with him for more than a decade as he tried desperately to figure out how to win this golf tournament.

McIlroy teed off in a final pairing with Bryson DeChambeau last year on Sunday for what would become one of the most jarring and chaotic final rounds in Masters history. He started with the lead, lost it, regained it, and lost it again with a sloppy wedge shot into Rae’s Creek on No. 13, only to end up in a sudden-death playoff with Rose. McIlroy birdied the extra hole to not only win his first Masters but also to become the sixth to win the career Grand Slam.

So when McIlroy stepped foot onto the Augusta National grounds for tournament week, his relationship with the club had done a complete 180. No longer was this piece of property where McIlroy felt a sense of underlying stress and tension. It was suddenly a place with a fresh set of memories: The images of one of the most joyous, celebratory days of his golfing career flashed before his eyes at every corner. McIlroy’s looseness and positivity beamed from the inside out. Now, the new question: Was it his time to defend?

“I think the nice thing now is instead of it being come on, Rory, you know you can do this, it’s back to back. There’s a real positive connotation to it,” he said on Tuesday.

Swinging free and easy, McIlroy shot an opening round 67 to tie for the lead with Sam Burns. And on Friday, he remained aggressive — a 7-under 65 was proof that his plan to attack this golf course was working.

Since the first Masters in 1934, this was only the sixth time a player has led any of the four men’s majors by six or more strokes after two rounds. Each of the five previous players went on to win.

But this is McIlroy, and history suggests that sometimes, the statistics do not tell us everything. McIlroy’s scorecard appeared unflappable, but his driving accuracy painted a different picture: He was ranked 90th out of 91 players in fairways hit after two rounds, and that kind of scrambling never holds up for long. On Saturday, McIlroy was one of two players in the top 10 to post rounds over par, and he lost the entirety of his six-shot lead — a double bogey at No. 11 marking his most significant blunder of the day. But despite a third-round 73 and a six-shot lead erased, McIlroy maintained the mindset that helped him go on to win on Sunday last year.

He and caddie Harry Diamond reminded each other, again: We would have taken this position at the start of the week.

“I did bounce back. I hit some good shots coming in. But yeah, I’m in a great position. I just know I need to be better tomorrow to have a chance,” McIlroy said early Saturday evening, before a late range session to figure out why he was hitting his drives left.

A year ago, the past champions seemed to want to will McIlroy into their club. This year, they openly wondered how many more green jackets he’d win. “Rory may never lose this thing again,” 1992 champion Fred Couples said.

McIlroy may lose another Masters, but it won’t be this year.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Justin Rose said the support he received from patrons at Augusta National this week would stay with him after the 45-year-old Englishman again fell short in his bid to win a first Masters title.

Rose briefly held the lead during Sunday’s final round before slipping back and finishing two shots behind winner Rory McIlroy in a four-way tie for third, a year after losing to McIlroy in a playoff.

The former U.S. Open champion said the ovation he received as he walked up the 18th fairway was especially meaningful after another near miss at Augusta, where he has finished runner-up three times.

“I felt like the crowd was amazing to me all week long … I felt their encouragement and support,” he said.

“At the end it kind of goes a little flat. It’s more of a sympathy than anything. But it was still nonetheless very beautiful.

“But, yeah, another little stinger.”

Rose, who poured in five front-nine birdies, said he felt confident he had put himself in position to challenge before momentum turned around Amen Corner.

“I was really in control. First 10 holes, I felt like I was,” he said.

“And the mentality was to run through the finish line not just try and get it done.”

But costly bogeys on the 11th and 12th halted his momentum and he looked dejected when he missed a short par putt on the 17th to close the door on his dream of winning the Masters title this year.

“Today, I felt like there was an opportunity to do better, so obviously that is frustrating,” Rose said.

Even so, Rose said recent seasons had strengthened his belief that he can keep contending in the game’s biggest events and eventually challenge again for a Green Jacket.

“In the last two years I’ve really kind of re-kicked on and re-energized my career and I have a lot of belief in myself that there is a lot of runway ahead,” he said.

“These are the tournaments I focus on. These tournaments are why I practice. These are the tournaments that get me going that extra mile.”

Rose also said Augusta’s unique demands could continue to suit him as he gets older, pointing to veterans who have remained competitive at the Masters deep into their careers including Fred Couples and Bernhard Langer.

“Those guys get around this golf course,” he said.

Asked why he thought the galleries had embraced him so strongly, Rose offered a simple explanation.

“I think people just know I play hard. I try hard. I’ve been close,” he said. “I think they just appreciate the effort.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. — It’s not often the word “gettable” is used to describe Augusta National on a Saturday at the Masters, but that’s exactly the adjective several players used after this year’s third round.

Nineteen of the 54 players who made the cut posted rounds in the 60s on Saturday, led by the 65s posted by Scottie Scheffler and Cameron Young. In all, 35 broke par on a day in which Augusta National yielded a scoring average of 70.63, lowest in a third round in Masters history.

After the field averaged 74.65 on Thursday, Ireland’s Shane Lowry predicted this might prove to be “the toughest Masters we’ve played in a while due to the dry and firm conditions. Lowry made a hole-in-one Saturday that catapulted him to a 4-under-par 68 and 9 under for the tournament.

The scoring average dipped to 72.85 on Friday, leading many players to predict tournament officials would ratchet up the difficult dial for the third round, but most were surprised to find the greens mostly still receptive and many pins in attackable positions.

“Pretty easy,” Max Homa said when asked how the course was playing after posting what he felt was a disappointing 71. “The front nine is pretty — I mean, very gettable. I didn’t feel like it was too fast, too firm. Obviously the weather is amazing, so it helps.”

Even Rory McIlroy, the co-leader despite shooting a 1-over-par 73 on Saturday, acknowledged low scores were out there for the taking.

“The course was obviously gettable,” he said. “There was a lot of good scores out there, and the quality of the chasing pack is obvious. There was a lot of guys that shot good scores.”

Patrick Reed said Thursday he hoped the tournament officials would ratchet up the difficulty level. Adam Scott echoed that sentiment to a degree given the lack of the traditional winds that create additional difficulty around Augusta National.

“I think the firmer and faster they can get it, the better,” Scott said. “I mean, there’s no wind. The greens are still very, very friendly.

“I don’t think it’s the scariest I’ve ever seen it here, but I love seeing the fairways play firmer. On some of these holes that turn, having the ball run and you’re having to be more precise with your line off the tee is an important defense of the golf course.”

Jason Day wasn’t complaining after shooting a 4-under 68 that left him in a tie for fifth, just three shots off the lead at 8 under for the tournament.

“I expected to see it a little bit different than what I saw today. I mean, you were hitting shots in there that were spinning,” Day said. “Typically sometimes you get to Saturday at Augusta and they’re bouncing. It’s really difficult to hold some shots.

“So, I thought the green speeds were lovely. I thought the green firmness was great. It was very fair, and I think that’s why you’re seeing a lot of, like, decent scores out there, which brings in a lot of the crowd, which is great.”

Scheffler also took advantage of an early tee time to make his turn in 5-under 31 on his way to a career Masters-best 65 that could have been even lower. He’ll go out in the fourth-to-last group today, when the course will likely be at its firmest and fastest of the week.

“It depends on what the leadership here wants to do,” Scheffler said. “If they want to see some lower scores, they can make them softer if they want. They’re already pretty firm, so they can just go full Bay Hill (at the Arnold Palmer Invitational) and just let them die.

“It’s Augusta. They’ll figure it out after that.”