Sunday April 10, 2011, 03:51 PM

Rory McIlroy carried a four-stroke lead into Sunday's final round of the 75th Masters, the 21-year-old Northern Irish prodigy on the verge on his first major title and a wire-to-wire victory.

McIlroy, in only his 10th major tournament, has been poised under pressure, surrendering only two bogeys through 54 holes to stand on 12-under par 204, four strokes ahead of K.J. Choi, Angel Cabrera, Jason Day and Charl Schwartzel.

It's the largest Masters lead since Tiger Woods opened a nine-stroke edge on the field on his way to winning his first major title in 1997 by a record 12 strokes, a victory that helped inspire a young McIlroy to play golf.

"It feels good," McIlroy said. "I'm not getting ahead of myself. I know how leads can dwindle away quickly. I have to go out there, not take anything for granted and play as hard as I have the last three days.

"If I can do that, hopefully things will go my way."

McIlroy already has three third-place showings in majors, including the 2009 and 2010 PGA Championships and last year's British Open, where the Ulsterman matched the record low score in any major with a 63 only to follow with an 80 at wind-swept St. Andrews.

Sunday began with a downer for McIlroy as his beloved Ulster rugby team lost 23-13 to Northampton in the European Cup quarter-finals.

"Proud of the lads! They gave it a great go!" McIlroy posted on his Twitter microblogging website after loss, some 3 1/2 hours before his tee time.

McIlroy leads the field in driving distance at 303.3 yards and ranks second in greens in regulation with 43 of 54.

No European has won the Masters since Spain's Jose Maria Olazabal in 1999, but McIlroy could end the drought and become the second-youngest Masters winner, eight months and nine days older than Woods when he won at 21 in 1997.

But a host of rivals from other continents hope to make a typical back-nine charge at famed Augusta National to claim the champion's green jacket and a $1.44 million top prize while denying McIlroy's bid at history.

Argentina's Cabrera, McIlroy's playing partner, won the Masters two years ago and took the 2007 US Open as well, making him the only major champion in the last four groups.

Players in the last pairing have won 19 of the past 20 Masters titles, the lone exception being Zach Johnson in 2007.

Day, 23, will try to become the first Australian to win the Masters, the only major that golfers from Down Under have never claimed. He could also be the first player since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979 to win in his Masters debut.

Schwartzel, who made it to Augusta only off his 2010 year-end top 50 world ranking, could become only the third South African to win the Masters and do so 50 years after countryman Gary Player became the first non-US Masters winner.

South Korea's Choi shared fourth last year and was third in 2004.

For the first time, no American was in the top five at the Masters when the final round began. The vanguard of US hopes was eighth-place Bo Van Pelt on 210, one stroke behind England's Luke Donald and Australian Adam Scott.

Odds were likely that all major titles would be out of American hands at the end of the day for the first time since 1994 and only the second time in golf history, a sign of the game's global growth.

Woods, a 14-time major champion seeking his fifth green jacket and first victory of any kind since November of 2009 after his infamous sex scandal erupted. He has not won at Augusta since 2005 and has not won a major since the 2008 US Open.

Woods, four back of the record 18 majors won by Jack Nicklaus, began the day seven strokes behind McIlroy in a share of ninth with Aussie Geoff Ogilvy, England's Ross Fisher and fellow Americans Bubba Watson and Fred Couples.

Couples, at 51, could become the oldest winner in major golf history and break the Masters champion age mark of 46 set 25 years ago by Nicklaus.

The greatest comeback after 54 holes to win the Masters was in 1956 when Jackie Burke rallied from eight strokes down in the final round.

© 2011 AFP/sid