Double Major winner Rory McIlroy was unconcerned despite being left a little red-faced in shooting a third round 71 that was one shot more than his official marker, Jeff Knox.

McIlroy had been four shots down on the Augusta Club champion with two holes to play but managed to pull one back when he birdied the uphill par four 17th.

However Knox, who holds the Augusta Club course record of 61, then found a greenside bunker an taking a bogey after the 24-year old McIlroy had virtually ‘stiffed’ his second shot to three feet pin-high right of the flagstick.

Augusta National member’s course record holder – Jeff Knox.

The duo had teed-off at 10.15am and McIlroy being allocated a marker given 51 players had made the cut in the year’s first Major.

Knox and McIlroy then shook hands three hours and five minutes later.

And it meant the duo finishing five holes ahead of the group behind featuring Australia’s Jason Day and reigning KLM Open winner Joost Luiten of Holland.

And McIlroy and Knox were in the clubhouse.

Here’s what Rory had to say following his round this morning.

RORY MCILROY

Qn.        An interesting experience for you this morning.  You finished well though.  What was that like in general?

RORY MCILROY:  It was okay.  I actually got off to a nice start.  Birdied the second hole.

Just put my ball in a couple of wrong positions going into greens and missed it in the wrong spots and all of a sudden I’m 2‑over standing on the 15th tee box.  It was nice to birdie three of the last four and shoot something under par.

Obviously I wanted something a little better than that going out this morning, but with the way these greens are and the way the golf course is set up, it’s going to be hard to ‑‑ I see Gary Woodland is going pretty low out there ‑‑ but apart from that, it’s hard to go really low on this golf course like I needed to, to try and get myself back in the tournament.

Q.  Does that mean that victory is out of the question at this stage and do you reassess at that point to maybe the best you’ve ever had in the Masters, a top 15 or a top‑10?

RORY MCILROY:  Yeah, exactly.  My best finish here is 15th, which isn’t really anything to shout about, so it would be nice to play well tomorrow, shoot something in the mid to high 60s and maybe finish the week in red figures.

I think 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 the week.

Q.  What kind of golf course are the guys going to face by the time the leaders get to it, what’s it going to be playing like?

RORY MCILROY:  Yeah, I hit my first shot, or my second shot into the first today at about 10:20 and I’m thinking, I don’t know what this green’s going to be like at 2:30.

It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be firm.  I think that gives Bubba a little bit of an advantage, how high he hits it and how soft he can get the ball to come down.

It all depends.  I think it will be more about if Bubba comes back to the field, rather than the field going to him, because guys going out in the last few groups, it’s going to be hard to really get it going and chase him down.

Q.  What did you think about playing with Jeff?

RORY MCILROY:  Jeff is a great player.  He beat me by one.  So 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.

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.  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.

Q.  Is this the first time you’ve ever been out with a marker in a Major tournament?  What’s the experience like?

RORY MCILROY:  It’s fine.  It’s good.  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.

Q.  I heard you had a funny story out there with him today.

RORY MCILROY:  He beat me.  I guess that was the funny story.  I don’t know

Q.  It looked like you had a nice conversation going on 18.

RORY MCILROY:  Yeah, we just, he just told me to go out there and continue the birdie run tomorrow.  I finished with two in a row and he said, go out and make it two more in a row tomorrow and try to get up on the leaderboard.

Q.  You talked about it earlier in the week, it’s sort of a surprise that your best finish is 15th here.  Is there something about this course that kind of confounds you or you’re still trying to figure out?

RORY MCILROY:  I don’t know what it is.  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.

But, yeah, I don’t know what it is.  It’s just turning those 77s and the high ones into 72s or 73s, that’s the real key for me around here.