By Frank Pingue
AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) -Rory McIlroy left the Masters on Saturday with a bullseye on his back and one arm in an elusive Green Jacket after a sparkling performance that put him in the driver’s seat to complete the career Grand Slam he has been chasing for over a decade.
To join golf’s most exclusive club as the sixth player to complete the Grand Slam, McIlroy will not only need to outplay his pursuers in the biggest round of his life but tame a course that has caused him plenty of heartbreak over the years.
But McIlroy, who will have Bryson DeChambeau breathing down his neck two strokes back, is a much different player now than the baby-faced version of himself that blew a four-shot lead in the final round of the 2011 Masters with a back-nine collapse.
“I still have to remind myself that there’s a long way to go … I, just as much as anyone else, know what can happen on the final day here,” McIlroy said after a six-under-par 66 that left him at 12 under and two shots clear of DeChambeau.
“I came in here talking about being the most complete version of myself as a golfer, and you know, I just have to keep reminding myself of that and remind myself that no matter what situation or scenario I find myself in tomorrow, I’ll be able to handle it.”
Prior to the third round, McIlroy had held at least a share of the 54-hole lead at a major championship on six occasions, converting four into victories.
McIlroy knows his final pairing with DeChambeau, who took advantage of the Northern Irishman’s late collapse to win last year’s U.S. Open, will make for a rowdy atmosphere on Sunday when two of the game’s most popular players do battle.
“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, you know, sort of approach tomorrow with the same attitude that I have tried to approach the last three days with,” McIlroy said.
McIlroy began the day two shots back of overnight leader Justin Rose but needed just two holes to replace the Englishman atop the leaderboard after a dream birdie-eagle start that put a hop in the Northern Irishman’s step.
The four-time major champion padded his lead with birdies at the third and fifth holes and, with a routine par at the sixth, became the first player in Masters history to start a round with six consecutive threes on his scorecard.
McIlroy encountered his first bit of trouble after an errant tee shot into the trees at the seventh but safely blasted out and then got up and down from beside the green and led by as many as four on the outward nine.
McIlroy saw his lead cut in half after a couple of bogeys but got back on track when he birdied the 13th and restored his four-shot cushion in stunning fashion with an eagle at the par-five 15th after his approach stopped six feet from the cup.
“It was such a great way to start, and you know, just to come out of the blocks like that, I think, as well, from finishing yesterday afternoon to teeing off today, it’s quite a long time,” said McIlroy.
“You know, there’s a lot of anticipation and sort of anxious energy that builds up. You just want to get out there and play. So you know, with all of that, to go out and start the way I did, was amazing.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Augusta, Georgia; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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