The shadows began to grow longer late Friday evening and there was no wind at all.
Then, suddenly, a Northern Irish whirlwind emerged among the tall pines at Augusta National.
His name: Rory McIlroy.
There is much testimony about how tough Augusta is, but McIlroy made golf look like the easiest sport in the world when he pulled away from the rest of the hornet's nest at the top of the leaderboard.
McIlroy shared the lead with Patrick Reed at -6 when a birdie rolled in on hole 12 at the bottom of the classic "Amen Corner." On hole 13 came another birdie.
Four straight birdies
On hole 14, it was "only" par before last year's winner finished with four straight birdies. Most of the birdie putts were short, but when McIlroy got into trouble, for once, on hole 17, he still made a birdie.
He sank a long chip that drew the biggest applause of the evening from the rapturous Augusta crowd.
It was a Masters performance.
Rory McIlroy finished the day with a 65 and a total of -12, six strokes ahead of the nearest Americans, Sam Burns and Patrick Reed.
Another pair of world stars are lining up behind them - three players at -5 and six players at -4 - but they have a tough task ahead of them, to say the least, if they are to manage to catch up with McIlroy in the second half of the competition.
"I've got a nice cushion so far. But my mindset is just to keep playing well and keep my foot on the gas pedal," McIlroy said.
"This golf course has certain characteristics that allow players to come in droves. They can make eagles, and you can hear screams all over the course."
Åberg plays with Scheffler
In other words, Rory McIlroy takes nothing for granted, which is easy to understand. Year after year he had chased victory at the Masters, without succeeding despite several good chances. Last year came the long-awaited triumph that completed the world number two's "career grand slam" - victories in all four majors.
Now the 36-year-old can make history again and become the fourth player ever to win two consecutive years at Augusta. Jack Nicklaus was the first to do it (1965 and 1966) and Nick Faldo repeated the feat (1989 and 1990) before Tiger Woods (2001 and 2002) also joined the exclusive club.
The group with Rory McIlroy and Sam Burns will tee off at 8:50 p.m. on Saturday, local time in Sweden.
Ludvig Åberg and world number one Scottie Scheffler share 24th place and will tee off on the first tee at 6:16 p.m. local time in Sweden.
Alex Norén, who barely made it to the qualifying round, will tee off in the first group at 3:31 p.m. local time in Sweden.
