An epic Masters Saturday is required to even slow down the Rory McIlroy Train

Huge galleries will follow Rory McIlroy on Saturday. Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images Share full articleAUGUSTA, Ga. — We often talk about Masters Sunday as one of the best, if not the best, days in sports, those of us who make a living chronicling the games that people play. On the closing nine, with a green jacket at stake, it’s hard to beat the drama of the world’s greatest golfers fighting their own demons and doubts while trying to will that little white ball into a cup 4.25 inches in diameter. Legacies are enhanced. Dreams are destroyed. The print and TV storytellers put it all into historical context, and then everyone rises Monday morning to the long, torturous countdown to the next April in Augusta. But this time around, Masters Sunday is in danger of being about as compelling as the C-flight semifinals at your local club. The only thing that can save it is a Masters Saturday that tilts the leaderboard … or flips the damn thing upside down. Bobby Jones said Jack Nicklaus “plays a game with which I’m not familiar,” years before Nicklaus said the same thing about Tiger Woods. The entire Masters field, Scottie Scheffler included, can now show the same reverence for Rory McIlroy, who is carrying a tournament record six-shot lead into the weekend. Before the defending champ shot 7-under 65 for a 12-under total, Fred Couples said he could see McIlroy winning another five green jackets to match Nicklaus’ record of six. That might be pushing it, as the Northern Irishman turns 37 next month. But at the very least, a liberated McIlroy seems like a safe bet to join Nicklaus, Woods and Nick Faldo as the only Masters winners to two-peat. That’s bad news for everyone outside of Rory’s tight inner circle of family and friends. The good news? There are 36 holes to go, not a mere 18. Enough of the other 22 players under par have the requisite experience to think they still have time and opportunity on their side. A comeback is still within the realm of possibility. A lifetime memory is still there to be made. Belief is a powerful thing in golf, and the third round inspires a whole lot more of that than the fourth. That’s what makes a Masters Saturday one of the more underrated days anywhere. Sports is about dreaming up things that you’re not sure are attainable, and Saturday throws open a door to so many possibilities for so many dreamers that are only available to a handful of contenders as Sunday’s shadows in the pines grow long. “The best part (of the third round) is if you’re not where you’d like to be — you know, if I was 38 years old and I was the fifth group off, you try and go crazy,” said Couples, one of only three players in Masters history to make at least 30 cuts. “You try to do everything you can to birdie and make eagles back then. … That’s what I used to look forward to. If you could just make the cut and come out and shoot a 68 or 69, you go from 45th place to 15th place and then you worry about Sunday. I don’t think anyone comes here and says, ‘I’m going to work on my swing on Saturday and Sunday.’ You really try and attack.” McIlroy’s breakthrough victory here last spring gave him the career Grand Slam, ended his major championship drought of 10-plus years, and might just make him seem invincible in the moment. His chip-in at the 17th only fortified that aura. And hey, this could end up being a third round ripped from the playbook of Rory’s boyhood idol, Tiger, who changed the modern Masters for keeps in the third round of 1997, after Colin Montgomerie issued him a public challenge. Monty reminded the world that Woods had never felt the heat of a major championship weekend, and Tiger, angry that a player with no major titles to his name dared to play this psychological game with him, went out and buried him. He shot 65 to Monty’s 74 to take a nine-stroke lead into his final-round coronation, winning by 12. McIlroy might ultimately win this year’s Masters by 12, too. But he’s endured too much punishment and pain at Augusta National to fall into a prevent-defense trap, defining his strategy as “keeping my foot on the gas.” Sounds like a winning plan for sure. Then again, golf is a funny, funny game. “Golf is the most amazing game,” McIlroy said, “because it’s you and the golf ball and the golf course. And that’s it. You shouldn’t be affected by anyone else.” McIlroy was running his own race Friday; that much was clear. But tournaments can change on a dime, or on a ball marker. “The weekend at Augusta is a different beast obviously,” said Jason Day, who maintained that he’s always found Saturday rounds more difficult than Sundays because “you have to be very, very patient with yourself and make sure you stay disciplined.” Easier said than done, especially with a generational great threatening to pull a Secretariat on the field. In most years, fans could lose themselves in the chaos that is their sport’s signature moving day, knowing that an unforgettable final round was waiting for them in the background. A Masters Sunday was a buffer between a fantasy week and a return to the grind and drudgery of the real world, as dependable as the most reliable neighbor on your block. But there is more at stake in this third round. McIlroy, whose human frailties were always exposed at Augusta National, is playing superhuman golf. Some force of nature has to change that on Masters Saturday, or this Masters Sunday will only be memorable in the McIlroy home. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Ian O’Connor is a columnist for The Athletic. He is the author of six straight New York Times bestsellers. O’Connor was a columnist at various major outlets who earned multiple first-place finishes in contests run by the Society of Professional Journalists, Associated Press Sports Editors, Pro Football Writers of America, and Golf Writers Association of America. He is a proud former copy boy at The New York Times. Follow Ian on Twitter @Ian_OConnor