While the chasing pack at Augusta National includes a Masters champion in Patrick Reed and a future one in Ludvig Aberg, it is hard to shake the feeling that Sunday will come down to Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy.
Rory McIlroy has made back to back 66s at The Masters to put himself two shots clear of the field. It is the first time since 2011 that the Northern Irishman has led with 18 holes to play at Augusta National.
But three birdies in the final four holes has left Bryson DeChambeau just two shots back of McIlroy. Outside of Xander Schauffele, DeChambeau has been the in-form player in the majors over the last 12 months.
Of course, it is hard not to think back to the US Open when DeChambeau won his second major title. McIlroy made three bogeys in the final four holes to lose by one having had a two-shot lead at one stage down the back nine.
The ‘jarring’ comment Bryson DeChambeau made about Rory McIlroy which he will not forget ahead of the final round of The Masters
So it is incredibly difficult to call how Sunday is going to play out.
McIlroy has been sensational all week, barring four holes on Thursday evening which had looked set to end his hopes of victory at the first hurdle. His resiliency to fight back further confirms that this is a different player right now.
But DeChambeau is a man for the big occasion. And he will relish the duel between the two. But perhaps one comment the LIV Golf star previously made will harm his chances.
Speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman recalled a moment from The Showdown – which also involved Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka – in December in which DeChambeau took a shot at McIlroy for failing to get across the line at Pinehurst.
“You’ve got to give Bryson so much credit, even going back, of course he won the US Open, but he was very close to winning the PGA Championship up against Xander Schauffele. It’s an incredible major run. Wins tomorrow, he passes Scottie Scheffler in the major count. He’s becoming a big-time major player,” he said.
“What interests me most about tomorrow is that there’s no doubt that if there’s one player that Rory McIlroy wants to beat tomorrow more than anybody in the field, it’s Bryson DeChambeau. It’s the guy who beat him at the US Open, and if you remember from The Match earlier this year – or whatever it was called, The Showdown – I just remember even Bryson throwing in a quick, little, jarring snab at the putt that he missed at the US Open.
“It was brought up. Rory doesn’t forget those things. No player would ever forget a guy who he lost to in a nightmare finish, he ain’t going to forget a player saying that out loud to everybody.
“That’s the one thing that concerns me the most is that; maybe it will help him take his mind off of winning a green jacket and the grand slam, it’s that it’s matchplay, ‘I’m going to beat this guy’, and maybe that’s how he turns his focus from what we’re all talking about and the history component of all this, which is the magnitude of winning a grand slam and what that means.”
What Bryson DeChambeau said about Rory McIlroy before The Showdown
In the build-up to The Showdown, McIlroy was speaking on the range about trying to gain a little retribution for DeChambeau winning at Pinehurst.
That prompted the two-time US Open winner to reply: ‘To be fair, you kind of did that to yourself.’
In fairness to DeChambeau, it was the right thing to do to build up The Showdown amid concerns that it would be a disappointment.
Ultimately, it was anyway, with that comment surely the most memorable thing which happened all week.
McIlroy would have surely understood why DeChambeau took the shot. But Kaufman is surely right that he can now use that moment as fuel when they tee off on Sunday at The Masters.
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