Rory McIlroy entered the third round at The Open Championship at his home country's Royal Portrush Golf Club on Saturday not looking like he was firmly in contention. After all, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler held the 36-hole lead at 10-under while McIlroy was seven shots behind at 3-under. That's a lot of ground to make up, without question. But just like at The Masters, Rory got golf fans dreaming of another brilliant Saturday and the hopes of another possible major victory at The Open.
On the first tee, the site of his 2019 horror show in the first round that ultimately portended him missing the cut and not dissimilar to the scars he long had at Augusta, McIlroy got his third round started with a nice iron shot up the left-hand side of the fairway. His approach wasn't anything to fawn over, but the birdie putt that followed was, sinking a 36-footer to go under par for the round immediately.
It didn't stop there, though. On the Par-5 second, McIlroy tattooed a drive up the right side, giving him a great angle into the back-left hole location. He left it a bit short with a 27-footer for eagle, and his putt came up just short. But a putt of less than a foot for birdie to go 2-under for the day was exactly what the doctor ordered.
And the similarities to what we saw on Moving Day at The Masters started to really get fans' imaginations running wild at The Open.
Rory McIlroy starts Open Championship comeback eerily similar to The Masters
On Saturday at Augusta, the eventual champion McIlroy came into his third round tied for third and two shots back of the then-leader, Justin Rose. He was also behind his recent major championship nemesis, Bryson DeChambeau, who was in solo second one stroke ahead. So what did Rory do to respond and send a message?
Well, he sent a message, obviously. And he did so in the same immediate fashion that we saw from McIlroy at Royal Portrush on Saturday. He birdied the first at The Masters, eagled the second, and then birdied the third. That set the tone for a brilliant round of 66, pushing him into a two-stroke lead.
Of course, McIlroy didn't birdie the third at The Open Championship on Saturday, making a comfy par. However, the hot start didn't cool off either, as he sent a pin-seeking missile into the Par-4 fourth hole, giving him an eight-footer for another birdie, which he sank. That put him just four shots back of Scheffler and the lead just four holes into Saturday.
Message sent.
Of course, Rory's comeback at The Open might not be as smooth
Not to say that everything about McIlroy surging into the lead on Saturday and eventually winning The Masters was easy — he made some baffling errors in the final round and somehow had to win a playoff to put on the Green Jacket for the first time. At the same time, though, it's hard not to look at The Open and think that Rory's path to hoisting the Claret Jug for the second time in his career will be potentially harder to accomplish.
That really comes down to Scheffler. He's the No. 1 player in the world for a reason, and he's played like it at Royal Portrush. He left the second round sitting second in Strokes-gained: Approach and second in Strokes-gained: Putting. With the latter in play and the putter not hamstringing him, he's nearly impossible to beat.
But there were some who said Rory ever getting over the hump at Augusta was impossible. There were others who said the same about him ending a decade-long major drought. That happened, and at a place where winning would mean just as much as putting on the Green Jacket, who's to say a storybook ending can't happen twice in a year?