AUGUSTA — Saturday at the Masters overflowed with thrilling theater. It was one of the great Saturdays in modern tournament history. And it means the marquee for Sunday’s matinee is a blockbuster: Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau, the game’s biggest hitters and also its most popular players still active in golf. (Sorry, Tiger. I did say “active.” )
McIlroy played another superlative round Saturday and shot 66. Friday night, he relaxed by watching a movie with his daughter, Zootopia. Rory’s review: “It’s actually pretty good.”
DeChambeau shot 69 and became the first player since 2020 to post his first three rounds in the 60s. He planned to watch a James Bond flick to relax Saturday night. He didn’t say which one but he did admit to preferring Pierce Brosnan as Bond over Daniel Craig. It’s a good thing Sean Connery wasn’t alive to hear such blasphemy.
So if we’re going to analyze who can still win this Masters, and a certain unnamed editor who is a peach of a man says I am going to do just that, let’s stick with the movie theme our leading actors/players/gladiators suggested.
Sunday’s Coming Attractions:
Rory McIlroy, -12. He’s still the player to beat, as he has been all week. The Honorary Starters who kicked off this Masters early Thursday morning—Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson—all picked McIlroy to win, which McIlroy dismissed by quipping, “They are getting older.” Sure, but they aren’t getting dumber. They look like the Three Wise Men now.
McIlroy’s quality of play has been exquisite, very much Tiger Woods-like quality. He made two double bogeys in the opening round and still leads DeChambeau by two. Give him two pars there and suddenly Rory is up by six, which smacks of his eight-stroke margins of victory in the 2011 U.S. Open and ’12 PGA Championship. All four of McIlroy’s major championships came when he had a 54-hole lead. In other words, he’s seen this movie before and was, in fact, the star of it.
The good news: McIlroy has hands full with the course, the greens, DeChambeau and an 11-year major drought to worry about the elephant in the Volkswagen—completing the career Grand Slam.
The bad news: McIlroy has not been a closer like Mariano Rivera of late, notably Pinehurst last summer when DeChambeau clipped him with the bunker save of the century (so far). Even when Rory won the Players Championship in March, he coulda-shoulda clinched it in regulation instead of letting J.J. Spaun back into the mix. Also, Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee described Rory earlier in the week as the Buffalo Bills of golf, the best team in the league that just can’t win the big one (although let’s be fair, the Kansas City Chiefs haven’t let many other teams win the big one.)
McIlroy’s play has been impeccable for two straight rounds. He’s the favorite and if he just pushes his score to 14 under par, he’ll realistically eliminate all but two other contenders. This movie’s title: Unstoppable. (In Unstoppable, Denzel Washington actually did stop the runaway train. A correct title would’ve been Stoppable. So don’t get cocky.)
Bryson DeChambeau, -10. This guy has come up clutch in both of his U.S. Open victories. He’s in the hunt here even though his iron game was off Saturday. It was a good reminder just how good his short game is, he had half a dozen terrific saves Saturday. And he’s putting better than ever. If you missed his putt on the 18th green, a 47-footer according to Bryson, you missed a moment of electrification. Does Pinehurst mean Bryson has Rory’s number? Hardly. Is this the start of a potential rivalry? Maybe.
The key will be whether Bryson can straighten out his iron shots, which he pull-hooked too often Saturday. Rory has been five strokes better than him over the last two rounds. But Sunday is a new day. Would I bet my house on Bryson to win if I had to? No. Would I bet my car? No, but I’d bet your car. Does this mean anything: Bryson’s caddie has bib number 89 in the 89th Masters. It’s the same caddie bib number Nicklaus had in ’86. This movie’s title: Licence to Kill. (Sunday’s final pairing is going to be the best long-drive contest ever!)
Corey Conners, -8. This unheralded Canadian is a first-class ball striker. He loses strokes on the greens to the other guys. He left makeable birdie putts short at 15 and 16 and missed a 6-footer left at 14. With better pressure putting, Conners could easily be tied for the lead. Easily. He made a run at Oak Hill in the PGA Championship won by Brooks Koepka. That time, he was derailed when his 9-iron shot from a fairway bunker buried in the bunker face. He’s got game but the putter isn’t his friend.
Am I saying he can’t win? No. Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia, two weak putters, have green jackets. The problem here is he’s got to get past two of the world’s best three players. This movie’s title: The Great White North. (If the two top dogs go South, this could turn into Rocky II.)
Patrick Reed, -6. The performer formerly known as Captain America is among the many LIV departees who have fallen off the radar of American golf fans. He shouldn’t have, though, because he sniffs around the Masters lead nearly every year and, of course, won it in 2018, when everyone wanted Rickie Fowler to take it instead. Four of Reed’s last five Masters finishes were 4th, 8th, 10th and 12th. He’s the pesky short-game expert who knows how to score at Augusta National, which makes him dangerous. His Masters low is 66. At six shots back, he might need to best that. And with the game’s two most popular players in the final twosome, Reed is there to play the spoiler. This movie’s title: Despicable Me. (Sometimes the apparent bad guy turns out to be the good guy. A second Masters title for Reed could turn him into Transformers.)
Ludvig Aberg, -6. The Swede who tied for second in his first Masters last year may have waited too long to make his move. He birdied 14, 15 and 16 and narrowly missed another at 18. He is tied with Reed, six off the lead. He’ll need a low round but he’s already established himself as a likely future major champion. Aberg has already starred in a Ryder Cup and won twice on the PGA Tour. Of all the players at least six shots back, I like his chances best. He hits fairways like a robot and he can putt. This movie’s title: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. (Arnold Schwarzenegger was Austrian, not Swedish, but he’ll like the plug.)
Scottie Scheffler, -5. Thanks to the new data available on the practice range scoreboard, we know that Scheffler has been hitting a lot of balls this week. Not as many as DeChambeau, who makes legendary range-digger Vijay Singh look like a tremendous slouch, but in this case, it is clear that Scheffler still hasn’t regained the form he had last year when he won nine tournaments. He shot 62 in the recent Houston Open but c’mon, this is Augusta National, where no one has broken 63. It was clever irony for the defending Masters champ to serve ravioli Tuesday night at the Champions Dinner, an inside joke because Scheffler sliced his hand open while using a glass to cut ravioli dough. Maybe he can get the last laugh. This movie’s title: The Italian Job. (What, you’re in the mood for Chinese?)
Justin Rose, -5. The leader of the first two rounds fell on his sword Saturday, which was his putter. I thought he still had a chance judging by the steely gaze he mustered at the par-3 16th hole after he missed a birdie putt on the preceding hole. DeChambeau stuffed in close there, then Rose dropped it in nearly as close, three feet above the hole. Then he missed that birdie putt and the par putt that followed. Three putts from inside four feet. Augusta National does that to you but that was a two-shot swing that erased the momentum he could have had. Rose played well and don’t forget, he might have won last summer’s British Open if Xander Schauffele hadn’t scorched Royal Troon in the final round. At 44, Rose is still game but his putter sank his chances. This movie’s title: Sink the Bismarck. (It already sank but the putts didn’t.)
Shane Lowry, -5. This Irishman made a nice move on the front nine but two wayward drives led to a bogey-bogey finish that pushed this former Open Championship winner’s chances to the brink. At one point, it looked feasible that he could get into the final pairing with his pal McIlroy, a comfortable pairing that might have benefited them both Sunday. But he couldn’t keep up the birdie pace set by McIlroy and DeChambeau. His lowest Masters round is 68. That won’t be good enough. This movie’s title: Bridesmaids. (Well, he won the Open Championship in the Republic of Ireland and he’ll probably never have to pay for his own dinner again.)
Jason Day, -5. There was no quieter rise of a contender than the run made by this former PGA Championship winner. He didn’t make much of a move, shooting only 71, and he has zero rounds in the 60s this week. We remember Day from his stellar run in 2015, though. Does he still have that in him? This movie’s title: Pocketful of Miracles. (The Aussie needs a really, really g’day, mate.)
Zach Johnson, -4. The 2007 Masters champ, 49, shot his lowest Masters round, 66, to move up to 10th place. Can a short hitter really go even lower on Sunday? This movie’s title: Against All Odds. (When you’re almost ready for senior golf, you’re allowed only one Zach Attack per Masters.)
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sunday’s Coming Attraction: A Masters Final Round Worthy of Hollywood.