IT took Rory McIlroy just 31 holes to claim his first prize at Augusta National yesterday, picking up two Waterford Crystal goblets for the jam-packed trophy cabinet at his home in Holywood, Co Down, with a spectacular eagle three at 13.

With World No 1 Tiger Woods struggling once again to rediscover his full majesty in the group ahead, it fell to McIlroy to take the breath away in only his second round at The Masters.

Yet if Augusta National giveth, so it can also taketh away, the youngster losing out on the prospect of a mouth-watering third round pairing with Tiger Woods as he dropped five shots on two of his final three holes.

Moments after his illuminating eagle, darkness began to close in on the teenager as he took a nightmarish four-putt double-bogey at the treacherous 16th and then stumbled to an agonising treble-bogey seven at the last.

Little surprise that the crestfallen youth would offer only one postscript to his second round of 73. "I don't feel like talking right now," he said, seven words which spoke chapters for his morale.

McIlroy would spend the rest of a day which had promised so much biting his nails on the cut line at one over par. Such are the cruel ways of Augusta.

Probably the happiest man on the golf course was the Irish youngster's playing companion Anthony Kim, who rebounded from an awful opening 75 to shatter the Masters record with 11 birdies in yesterday's 65.

As for McIlroy, he will win much, much more than cut glass at The Masters some day. Make no mistake, the kid is good enough to wear the Green Jacket. It won't be tomorrow but it will be soon.

After banishing the inevitable butterflies during a steady first-round 72 on Thursday, McIlroy strode Augusta's fairways with more purpose and confidence until that shocking finish.

As Tiger stalled in the group ahead, the young Irish terrier had nipped at his heels with sweet birdies at the third and fourth. The latter had played the toughest of all 18 holes on Thursday, but the tee was pushed up by some 70 yards for the second round, leaving just 181 yards to pin. McIlroy hit a beautiful seven iron which drew an almost perfect parabola to inside a foot and simply tapped in for birdie.

He'd drop a shot at seven. After a brush with the trees off the tee, McIlroy laid up short of the green and grubbed his delicate chip off one of Augusta's infamous Velcro lies into the bunker.

Yet with such astonishing power concealed in his wiry frame, McIlroy justified short-odds favouritism for a bounce-back birdie four at eight.

The youngster positively bounced down the fairways with his trademark gait, rounding Amen Corner, chipping and putting from short of the green for a facile par at 11. Then he hit a glorious eight iron into 12, the crowd behind the tee at this nightmarishly difficult par three roaring their approval as McIlroy's ball landed as gently as a leaf less than 10 feet from the hole.

The birdie putt looked good but shaved the right side of the hole. With applause still ringing in his ears, the innate showman in McIlroy took over. Rory ripped a wonderful drive over the corner at Azalea; blazed a long iron from a slightly uphill lie to within six feet and then putted out for the eagle which copper-fastened his reputation as the hottest prodigy in world golf.

It was love at first sight when McIlroy first played Azalea with his coach from boyhood, Michael Bannon, last Sunday week. Yesterday he showed the whole world why.

If McIlroy had made a considerable impact on his three appearances in America in the run-up to The Masters, the kid had just illuminated the grandest and most beautiful amphitheatre in golf. Barely a smile flickered on his lips as he walked off the green at 13, adrenaline plainly still was pumping in his veins as McIlroy stumbled to a bogey at 14, his approach shot coming to a stop at the foot of a steep bank to the left of the green.

Badly short-sided, McIlroy stubbed his wedge and his ball came to a rest on the fringe. If there's a weakness in his game, it's the youngster's lack of confidence in his chipping around the green, which occasionally prevents him from hitting wedges with the firmness required.

Only occasionally, however. McIlroy played a superlative shot with the open face of his lob wedge to three feet from the bank behind the green at 15, setting up his fourth birdie of the day.

As ever at Augusta, disaster lay just around the corner. After hitting his tee shot at 16 to the heart of the green, McIlroy hit his lag putt six feet past and above the pin which was located in that most vicious of position at the back right of the green.

Only the cup could stop the ball but McIlroy's trundled five feet past and he'd miss the next as well. One crushing blow was followed by another as he took two to get out of the greenside bunker at 18 and then took three to get down from the far fringe.

Woods might have made a complete recovery from last summer's knee operation, but if his golf game and Augusta National continue to tease him as mercilessly as they did during yesterday's round of level-par 72, the next stop could be the psychiatrist's couch.

If rust had cloyed his game on his return to action at The Accenture Match Play, Tiger struck the ball brilliantly at Doral but putted poorly. Then he stumbled blindly around Bay Hill but chipped and putted like a god to claim his first victory in nine months.

So far this week his iron game has been just as wayward but the inspiration has drained out of Tiger's putter. He's now being punished for most of his mistakes and letting so many birdie chances slip by, one fears for his prospects of winning a fifth US Masters this weekend.

Yet for the first time in nearly seven years, Woods has enough confidence in his rebuilt left knee to play at full throttle. Once again, he's capable of knocking gasps of astonishment out of spectators with the power in his swing.

Astonishing

Right from the opening shot of his second round yesterday, Tiger, or more precisely his golf ball, appeared to defy the laws of gravity as it arced an astonishing 358 yards up the first fairway.

Surfing nicely on the wind, it eventually fell back to earth, skipping right and well beyond the yawning fairway bunkers which fill the eye and imagination of every golfer who steps onto the tee at Augusta National's 445-yard first hole.

First the power, now for the glory, we thought. Yet Tiger's wedge into the green would bite a little too hard on a putting surface which, for the second day in succession, was a little more receptive than one expects at The Masters. It sucked back to 30 feet and he'd two-putt for par.

Another monster drive over the right fairway bunker at the second and, even more frustratingly, an absolute screamer to within 10 yards of the green at the 350-yard third hole also yielded no better than par as the Tiger's iron play and putter failed to live up to the promise of his long game.

On Thursday evening, a maddening series of missed putts had come between Woods and a gilt-edged opportunity to dip below 70 for the first time in the opening round at 15 Masters.

And so it continued yesterday. Tiger missed a birdie putt of less than five feet at the third, setting the tone for a day in which three birdies would be counter-balanced by three bogeys, leaving him on two-under for the tournament and with a lot of ground to make up at the weekend.

The Masters,

Live, BBC 2/Setanta Ireland, 8.30

- Karl MacGinty at Augusta