As the 2025 Masters, there was hopeful talk about showdown between two of the best players in the world. While those hopes were specifically centered around world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, the reigning Masters champion looking for his third green jacket in a four-year span, and world No. 2 Rory McIlroy, Augusta National will treat us to what may perhaps stand as an even tastier final pairing on Sunday afternoon.
With Scheffler lurking seven shots behind, McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau will go head-to-head over 18 holes seeking their first green jacket.
It will be a partial rematch of the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst as that was a proxy war with McIlroy playing a group in front of DeChambeau, who was in the final pairing. Ten months later, their shots will be fired across the same tee boxes and greens, which figures to create an unbelievable atmosphere on the grounds of Augusta National.
DeChambeau offered a preview of the raucous scene that awaits both men on Sunday after he buried a 48-foot birdie putt on the 18th to close out the third round. He tried to high five every patron he saw between the green and the clubhouse.
There have been popular champions and strong final pairings at the Masters, but it’s safe to say this will be the most buzz a Sunday duo receives since Tiger Woods’ unbelievable 2019 triumph — and that was entirely carried by one of the greatest to ever do it.
McIlroy and DeChambeau have become the closest thing to true rivals that the golf landscape split between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf has created. There is respect between them, and neither is going to chirp the other, but best believe there is a level of pride on the line as they prepare to battle for this major championship.
DeChambeau came out on top in North Carolina, handing McIlroy his most recent gut-wrenching major defeat with one of the greatest 60-yard bunker shots in history. McIlroy rather famously watched that shot from the scoring area, subsequently peeling out of the parking lot as he stewed over his latest major disappointment.
McIlroy now has a chance to put an end to just about every ghost that’s haunted him — all at once. The 14-year sojourn for a green jacket (since leading after 54 holes in the 2011 Masters, his third appearance), the 11-year quest to complete the career grand slam (going 0-38 in majors since winning the 2014 PGA Championship), 10 months of waiting for revenge on DeChambeau — it’s all right there in front of him.
McIlroy understands the history and anticipates atmosphere that awaits Sunday at Augusta National given his extended popularity and DeChambeau’s rise to fame on social media, but Rory plans on looking inward to deal with the outside noise.
“That final group is going to be a little rowdy and a little loud,” McIlroy said Saturday after completing his second straight 66. “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 sort of approach tomorrow with the same attitude that I’ve tried to approach the last three days.”
DeChambeau, unsurprisingly, will have a more outward embrace of the sea of patrons that will follow that final pairing across 18 holes.
“It’ll be the grandest stage that we have in a long time, and I’m excited for it,” he said. “We both want to win really badly. Shoot, there’s a lot of great players behind us, too. Gotta be mindful of that. … In regards to the patrons, it’s going to be an electric atmosphere.”
It will be a fascinating dichotomy, two of golf’s biggest stars doing battle at a place where neither has found ultimate success. Two crowd favorites, sometimes overlapping but with plenty of entrenched supporters on either side, seeking to seize the moment for themselves.
It will be the ultimate test of McIlroy’s newfound self-belief.
“I came in here talking about being the most complete version of myself as a golfer,” he said. “I just have to keep reminding myself of that … no matter what situation I find myself in tomorrow, I’ll be able to handle that.”
The two take vastly different approaches to the massive crowds that follow step for step, shot for short around the golf course. McIlroy is a bit more restrained but knows how to coax a reaction out of the crowd in his own way, strutting and bouncing after shots he loves. DeChambeau is far more demonstrative, stoking patrons and inviting the noise — as he did on No. 16 when he gave the grandstands across the pond a lengthy stare down, almost demanding a more boisterous reaction to his birdie in hopes of sending a louder roar up McIlroy’s way on the 17th.
“Rory was kind of moving forward,” DeChambeau explained. “He was at 12 under, and I was kind of chasing a bit. when I made that, I looked up and kind of said as a statement [to myself], like, ‘I’m still here. I’m going. I’m not going to back down.'”
Augusta National is a particularly unique place to patronize golf as the sounds of the gallery travel incredibly well from hole to hole — even more so now that the tree-lined corridors between some holes have been thinned out.
The reaction to McIlroy’s first nine barrage Saturday undoubtedly made its way back to DeChambeau, who tried to return the favor and alert Rory of his own surge down the final stretch of the second nine.
The sounds will have no need to travel Sunday.