AUGUSTA — Rory McIlroy arrived at the 10th tee, looked up at the leaderboard, took a drink and exhaled. He looked down. Then he looked back up at the leaderboard, its numbers forming a message, like a computer code: He had gone from chaser to chase-ee. 

McIlroy began the third round 3-3-3-3-3-3, rocketing from 6 under to 11 under. On the par-5 8th hole, he found one of the deepest bunkers on the course and made his first bogey of the tournament. Now here he was, 10 under for the week, 27 holes away from (move along, folks, nothing to see here).

McIlroy bombed a 3-wood (what human bombs a 3-wood?) down the 10th fairway, but he hit his second shot long and three-putted. Another bogey. The questions that have hovered over McIlroy for a decade were now resting on his shoulders:

Can he handle the pressure of holding a lead in a major?

Can he put his Masters demons behind him and complete the career (shhhh)?

The 10th tee, of course, is where his 14-year run of Masters pain began. He led the 2011 tournament with nine holes to play, hooked his tee shot on No. 10 almost off the property, and shot 43 on the back nine.

This time, McIlroy admitted he went through “a little bit of a wobble around the turn.” He hit a few tee shots that flirted with trouble before finding safe ground. He appeared to hit his approach on 11 just as he wanted, but it landed short of the green, leaving him slack-jawed. But he recovered with a par there, and … well, this is why McIlroy is irresistible: He admitted how badly he needed it: “par putt on 11 was huge, just to sort of get some momentum back.”

Calling McIlroy the crowd favorite here undersells it. I only recall one other golfer in the last decade who was so clearly the fans’ preferred winner, and I’m quite sure you can guess which one.

McIlroy was conscious of playing with the lead. He said after making par on the nerve-rattling 12th, “all I was trying to do then was take advantage of the par-5s coming in.” He birdied the 13th, and on 15, he hit perhaps the best shot anybody has hit all week, considering the circumstances: an iron from 205 yards away that stopped six feet from the pin.

As McIlroy walked over the bridge to the 15th green, a security guard in the nearest stands dropped all pretense of neutrality and spun his hand around to get the crowd to give McIlroy a standing ovation.

McIlroy holed the eagle putt. The roar was electric. By the time Bryson DeChambeau walked up to the green a few minutes later, those same stands had started emptying.

After McIlroy botched his way to a pair of double bogeys in the first round, I wrote that I did not believe for a second he could win this. I meant it. I also wrote that at that point, I was skeptical that even McIlroy believed. Whatever happens in Sunday’s final round, I was wrong about that.

McIlroy just went 66-66 to take a two-shot lead over the field going into the final round. I asked him if Thursday’s two-chip meltdown (I phrased it more nicely than that!) helped him at all Saturday: Something lousy had happened, he survived it, and that could make potential future lousiness seem manageable. But McIlroy said no.

“It’s gone,” McIlroy said. “It’s two days ago. I didn’t even think about it, so I guess that’s a good thing.”

McIlroy will wake up Sunday morning and find all of his psychological burdens stacked like pancakes. He has the lead at the Masters. He is playing with DeChambeau, who scooped up last year’s U.S. Open trophy after McIlroy bogeyed three of the final four holes. DeChambeau will have LIV GOLF on his shirtsleeve. He is the only golfer in the field capable of consistently driving it past McIlroy, which could reduce some of Rory’s strut.

McIlroy said between Friday and Saturday, he felt “a lot of anticipation and anxious energy that builds up.” He can expect to triple it Sunday. His goal: “Settle in and keep myself in my own little bubble.” He said he has “little reminders, one- or two- sentence things,” in his yardage book, and he will consult them, but reading them aloud would not cause the earth to shatter.

“All the cliched mantras that you’ve heard before,” he said.

The crowd will be ready. DeChambeau will be ready. The only question is whether Rory McIlroy is finally ready to (for the love of God, leave the man alone.) 

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sunday at the Masters, Rory McIlroy Must Face His Demons Once More to ... Well, You Know.

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