Rory McIlroy makes Masters history with six straight 3s
Rory McIlroy called it a dream start at Augusta. A few hiccups followed, but he battled back and finished strong to stay in the hunt.
The Masters
- Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau, rivals representing the PGA Tour and LIV Golf respectively, are paired in the final group of the Masters.
- While putting is ultimately key to winning, the long-driving competition between McIlroy and DeChambeau adds another layer of intrigue to the final round.
Do we keep score Sunday or simply break out the tape measure?
Rory McIlroy vs. Bryson DeChambeau. Or could Corey Conners, Patrick Reed and others cash in on the leaders’ mano a mano twosome?
Sunday at Augusta is always dramatic and thick with anticipation when the Masters is on the line.
This year, it’s all amplified with McIlroy and DeChambeau in the final group. For obvious reasons: Rory has become the face of the PGA Tour in the time of Tour versus LIV, while Bryson is one of the big faces of the LIV Tour.
Also, there’s last year’s U.S. Open, when Rory’s putter balked down the stretch and Bryson stole the championship with one of the great bunker shots in major championship history.
But we might be overlooking a subplot of masculine nature.
These two could be so busy trying to overwhelm each other with haymakers off the tee that they forget one of golf’s oldest axioms: Drive for show, putt for dough.
We’re talking about the Monster Mash of today’s driving distance — Bryson, whose personality and overall game is based on his prodigious length. Versus Rory — golf’s best overall driver (length plus accuracy) since at least Greg Norman, and maybe since the best ever, Jack Nicklaus.
For the sake of stats, Augusta National and the Masters measure length on just two holes — the par-4 fifth and the par-5 15th, a pair of holes where players can let it fly with fewer reservations than other driving holes. And the results through three rounds tell us Rory and Bryson are the heavyweight punchers of this field.
Bryson: 330 yards.
Rory: 325 yards.
The only other contender within four or five steps is Ludvig Aberg, at 313 yards.
They always preach, “play your own game.” And that’s true, tee to green. But when Joe Louis met Rocky Marciano, they weren’t matching finesse versus finesse. It was haymaker versus haymaker.
So while the most important part of Sunday’s final round will be the amount of strokes it has taken before each golfer pulls the ball out of the cup, the tee box will be quite a show in itself.
