Masters Sunday has arrived, and it's shaping up to be a big day. There are many possible outcomes, each with quite a story to be told—just wait until Sunday night and Monday morning!
On fast forward, some of those stories are as follows: Bryson DeChambeau's popularity surges with a win. Bryson or Patrick Reed win, and the PGA Tour-LIV Golf discussion starts again.
Ludvig Åberg, Jason Day, Shane Lowry, or Justin Rose win, and their careers forever change. Corey Conners wins, and he is Canadian golf hero 2.0 after Mike Weir.
Or, of course, Rory McIlroy wins to complete the career Grand Slam.
Up two shots with 18 holes to play, Rory will have had quite the night and morning in store for himself.
If it were a normal week, including The Players or any of the other majors, he would be hounded by the media, fans, spectators, and other players.
Talking points would range from finishing second in 2022 to his final-round 80 in 2011 to coming up short in last year’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst. In another week, the moment Rory gets out of his car, whatever headspace he was in would be gone at someone else’s hands.
For example, at the 2009 Players Championship, Alex Čejka had a five-shot lead with 18 to play at TPC Sawgrass. He walked from the locker room all the way to his place on the range with an NBC camera three yards ahead and to his left each step of the way.
For a then-winless PGA Tour player, perhaps he could be excused for feeling intimidated by the moment and a final-round 79, ultimately finishing in a tie for ninth, eight shots back of winner Henrik Stenson.
Rory likely will feel a bit of relief that this moment is at Augusta National, as the folks who run The Masters keep tight controls on the media effectively shielding the players from distractions as much as possible.
Of course, Rory was expected to speak with the media after his third-round 66. While he might not get hounded quite like other events in the Media Center, he was expected to address issues he might want to keep at arm’s length.
Regardless of the event, being a leader with one round to play is intimidating. The leader has the last tee time of the day. Owing to the last tee time, the leader naturally arrives fashionably late, and EVERYONE will notice when he arrives.
While they might not say anything, the leader will know others know he has arrived. Whispers or thoughts of “There he is” abound. The leader will be one of the two or three last players to leave the range and putting green – everyone else will have already left to start their rounds.
As a PGA Professional, I have been an overnight leader a handful of times in events I consider my personal majors.
I converted some to a victory, some I came up short, and some I really blew up. I have found that keeping my mind somewhat turned off helps the most.
In a future article, I may tell a humorous story of a sponsor accidentally giving me a bad omen the night before a final round (it has a good ending, though). Trying to recreate what I have done to get to that point the next day has had the least success as I was setting myself up for failure.
Rory has been an overnight leader many times over the years, both with successes and failures. He has enough experience sleeping on a lead to know what his plans would be Saturday night and Sunday morning. What are some of the positives and negatives he will face between signing his card on Saturday and his Sunday tee time?
Again, he is at Augusta. As mentioned, once he arrives, he will be shielded from the most intimidating factors he could find.
No patron is stupid enough to say anything negative or condescending, like what he heard at TPC Sawgrass. He will use as many players-only areas, including the supposed tunnel that connects the 1st tee from the Tournament Practice Area to help keep to himself.
McIlroy is playing with his closest competitor on Sunday, Bryson Dechambeau. Bryson has plenty of power so if Rory can feel himself trying to keep up—and he is more than capable of doing so—he should find comfort with who he is playing with. It also helps to have the cushion of a two-shot lead.
Augusta has very little margin for error. If Rory can embrace an “aim small, miss small” mantra on Sunday, he will do much better than being concerned about potential trouble all around him, as Greg Norman found out in 1996.
On the other hand, will those he comes into contact with help or hurt him mentally? If he went to dinner at, say, a local steakhouse, did other diners and the wait staff leave him to his own devices or pester him? And if they pestered him, was it positive or negative?
What about playing with Bryson? Deep in his mind, he knows it was DeChambeau who lifted the trophy during last year’s U.S. Open, a result he called a “tough day.”
Worth mentioning, is that, if he does not slip on the Green Jacket, what will the media put him through at next week’s RBC Heritage in Hilton Head?
Also, what about Sunday morning? 2:30 p.m. is a long time to wait around to play, compared to a 9:30 a.m. tee time, for example.
We should get a decent idea of how he is feeling in the first few holes. The free-flowing, strong, and powerful swing he demonstrated on Saturday is what we see when he is playing his best golf. If we see him steering the ball any, I will get concerned for his chances.
Rory put on a stripe show on Friday and Saturday, but will he be able to keep that up? Lest we forget that he also put on a stripe show on Thursday, getting to 4-under before the pair of poor pitches on 15 and 17 dropped him to even.
I like Rory’s chances and will be pulling for him. But Bryson can be a machine and is certainly not to be taken lightly, as Rory knows all too well.
Corey Conners is the wild card to me. Being in third place, four shots back is certainly doable, as we have seen through the years at Augusta.
Not being in the last group, if he can get roars going through the trees, he can send shockwaves to the final pairing and possibly get Rory and Bryson off their games some.
Whatever happens, Masters Sunday is a tradition unlike any other, and this year will be no different.