Rory McIlroy faces biggest round of his life: Will he win the Masters or be Greg Norman?

AUGUSTA, Ga. – A throng of spectators stood on the hill to the right of the green at Augusta National’s third hole, jostling for the best possible spot to see the player that would be coming through in the next 10 minutes.

It was getting crowded out there, as it usually does on Saturday at the Masters when the leaders start to make their way around the course. But it was especially frisky at that moment

The large, human-operated leaderboard on the other side of the green had shown Rory McIlroy’s birdie on No. 1, getting him to 7-under par. Many of the fans had just seen McIlroy’s approach shot land just long of No. 2, assuming he’d make another birdie, sending them scrambling for position along No. 3.

And then, out of nowhere, one of those famous Augusta National roars echoed from behind, through the loblolly pines. It had to be Rory. It had to be an eagle. There’s no technology allowed on the golf course here, but sometimes the sound is so unique it tells you all you need to know.

As Shane Lowry walked onto the green, playing a group ahead of McIlroy, the scoreboard operator opened the door next to McIlroy’s name and slipped in a red “9.” Indeed, it was eagle. For the first time all week, McIlroy led the golf tournament, sparking a frenzy of screams and high-fives so loud you might have thought he already won it.

Of course, McIlroy has not won the Masters yet. And what he’ll face when he wakes up on Sunday is nothing less than the most challenging, and perhaps most important, round of his career.

Because when he walks off the 18th green and toward Augusta National’s white clubhouse with its famous cupola framed by a crisp late-afternoon dusk, McIlroy will either be Greg Norman chasing something here he might not be destined to have or a forever member of golf’s pantheon, reserved for the handful of human beings who did something that makes them something close to immortal.

There’s little in between.

“I still have to remind myself there’s a long way to go,” McIlroy said. “(It’s) 18 holes and I just, as much as anyone else, know what can happen on the final day here.”

The final round of the Masters is usually about many things, converging into chaos and then clarity by the time they exit Amen Corner. But Sunday is mostly about one man and his many demons, here at Augusta National and elsewhere across his major-less last decade.

It’s going to be four hours of fascinating theater. For McIlroy, it’s either going to end as the best day of his career or the worst. And there is little chance this will be anything but eyes-glued-to-the-television golf.

Because we know the stakes, with McIlroy trying to become just the sixth player to win a career Grand Slam and cement his status as the greatest champion in the post-Tiger Woods era. Because for all the times he’s theoretically had a chance to win the Masters, going all the way back to 2011 when he was a 21-year-old who blew a four-shot lead, it’s never been this clear that McIlroy should win it.

Because we’ve watched him fail in a variety of ways to slam the door in the final rounds of majors, most notably at St. Andrew’s in 2022, at Los Angeles Country Club in 2023 and at Pinehurst No. 2 in 2024. Because he has allowed us to watch his heart break after those moments and so many more, each one causing us to wonder how much more he can take. And because we know who he’s going to face head-to-head on Sunday: Bryson DeChambeau, who took that U.S. Open from him last summer and begins the final round a mere two shots back after ruthlessly rolling in a 47-foot, 9-inch birdie putt from the fringe of the 18th green to finish Saturday.

“I’ve got a lot of experience” McIlroy said. “I came in here talking about being the most complete version of myself as a golfer, and I just have to keep reminding myself of that and no matter what situation or scenario I find myself in tomorrow, I’ll be able to handle it.”

This is not necessarily a two-man duel. In a normal Masters, you could make a case for Corey Conners winning it from four shots back, perhaps for 2018 champion Patrick Reed or the brilliant 25-year old Swede Ludvig Aberg coming from six behind.

But this feels like a once-in-a-lifetime cataclysm, a tournament where both the stakes and the characters are so clearly defined it’s hard to imagine any other outcome than McIlroy shedding tears all over his first green jacket or leaving with that same, sullen, get-me-outta-here look he wore last year in the scorer’s tent watching DeChambeau drain a four-footer on the 72nd hole and celebrate like a madman.

Which is, of course, why DeChambeau kept thinking as he played the final four holes Saturday that he needed to get in the final group, that he wanted the opportunity to look McIlroy in the eye. He knows what we all know. If there is anyone who is going to feel comfortable doing what needs to be done on this stage, in this moment, it is more likely to be him than maybe anyone in golf.

“It’ll be the grandest stage we’ve had in a long time, and I’m excited for it,” DeChambeau said. “We both want to win really badly, and there’s a lot of great players behind us too. Got to be mindful of that, and it’s about who can control themselves, who can execute the golf shots the best and it’s going to be an electric atmosphere.”

At Pinehurst last year, DeChambeau won the galleries. He played to them, he engaged with them, he fed off them. It will be more difficult to pull off here. The patrons, as they call them, know what Sunday means. They know how badly McIlroy needs it. It is difficult, walking around the grounds here, to describe the thirst these galleries have to see McIlroy finally win a Masters. And as such, the kinetic energy when he started his third round with six consecutive 3s, to the point where he flipped a two-shot deficit to a three-shot lead in about 90 minutes, rattled across every inch of this golf course.

In fact, the tension around every McIlroy swing and jubilation after every good shot is so over the top that you can almost see him restraining his emotions so that he doesn’t feed the beast. Whether it was his eagles on No. 2 and No. 15 or any of his four birdies Saturday, McIlroy’s facial expression barely changed when the ball went in the hole.

“It’s going to be a little rowdy and a little loud and I’m just going to have to settle in and really try to keep myself in my own little bubble and keep my head down and approach tomorrow with the same attitude that I’ve tried to approach the last three days with,” McIlroy said.

This moment, perhaps more than any other in McIlroy’s career, won’t just be about the golf shots. It will be like an autopsy happening in real time, each hole extracting the contrasts between he and DeChambeau and showing us nakedly what lies within each of them.

You could even see this developing Saturday night, when McIlroy came into the media room talking about how he would put away his phone, watch an episode of “Bridgerton,” try to shut out the world and not make this bigger in his mind than what it organically is. DeChambeau came in moments later champing at the bit to get back on the practice range and immediately talked about how much he relished being in the final group, especially when he’s the one chasing.

“You know what? I’m still here,” he said after putting a little extra juice in his celebration after a birdie at No. 16, which he admitted was a salvo right at McIlroy. “I’m not going to back down.”

That’s what McIlroy faces tomorrow: The career Grand Slam, the major championship drought, a crowd on the emotional knife’s edge, his own frailties, a punishing golf course and an opponent who has already broken his heart once.

It’s a lot to deal with. But it’s the only way to finally win everything he’s ever wanted.