It was impossible, at least from afar, not to think of Pinehurst. Rory McIlroy stood framed against the water on the 18th hole at TPC Sawgrass, waiting for the moment when he would stand over a four-foot, four-inch par putt that would likely mean the difference between winning and losing the Players Championship.

Behind him, also at 12 under, J.J. Spaun had made a terrific two-putt on 17 and hit his drive on 18 into the pine straw, but not far enough to be obstructed by the tree branches and Spanish moss hugging the fairway. If McIlroy missed his par putt, he’d lose. Alex Smalley, the rail-thin 28-year-old who had shrunk from the Sunday pressure, made his bogey putt. Corey Conners asked McIlroy who was away, and though it was Rory, he offered to let Conners go first. The Canadian took him up on it and made his par. McIlroy crouched to take one last read, and then there were no more delays.

He decided, in the end, to putt it firmly at the center of the hole. He suspected that if it broke at all, it would break left. He wasn’t extremely confident, because it had turned dark at Sawgrass following the long weather delay in the afternoon, and he had misread putts on 15 and 16 as a result. The bogey on 15 took him from a score that felt like a near-certain winner, 13 under, to the more ambiguous 12 under, which became truly tenuous a moment later when Spaun hit his approach on 15 to a foot and converted the birdie. Just one more birdie would have sealed it for McIlroy on the home stretch, but those birdies weren’t available in the twilight, and now he had to stave off another Sunday disaster.

In the end, he was wrong again—the putt broke right. But since he hadn’t played any break, it caught the right edge and fell in. When he picked up the call, he gave the hole a second glance—not quite a glance of betrayal, but with a lingering question about its intent. Call it another moment where the universe makes it abundantly clear how a nightmare on the course can be a matter of inches. With a miss, the ghosts of Pinehurst would resurface, both among his fans and probably in his own head too. Instead, the hole cut off the ball’s rightward break in the nick of time.

Spaun almost broke his heart anyway—his approach from the straw stopped 30 feet away, and the ensuing birdie putt came to rest two rolls from the dead middle of the hole—but now he’ll have a night to rest and return Monday at 9 a.m. for a three-hole aggregate playoff.

“I’d like to think that I can fall back on my experience and maybe have a little bit more than JJ,” McIlroy said after his round, “but then at the same time, tomorrow is all just about execution and getting up there and … making five good swings.”

In the morning, with tee times pushed ahead in expectation of thunderstorms, the dark air had an ominous quality, and McIlroy started marvelously with a birdie and eagle. That went a long way to erasing Spaun’s deficit, and an incredible scrambling par from the pine straw on 6, another birdie on 8, and a final birdie on 11 before the horn blew put him in tremendous position to run away with the tournament. When play resumed at 5:15 p.m., he quickly converted a 13-foot birdie on 13 to take a three-shot lead. As per usual, though, nothing is ever simple at the biggest tournaments when McIlroy is in the hunt, and the closing drama funneled him into a Monday playoff.

In the midst of it all, the fans largely supported him, but after the bizarre incident in the practice round when he took a heckler’s phone, lone idiots—there’s no better word—took it on themselves to shout abuse as he walked past, most of them copycat crimes from Tuesday’s heckler who brought up Rory’s 2011 Masters collapse. Two very burly cops have followed him around the course all week, throwing out anyone who heckles him and is close enough to catch. It was an ugly scene when it happened on 17, and though it’s plainly stupid and abusive behavior to yell at a golfer, it’s also unsettling to see a fan kicked out just for shouting. And of course, the punishment was uneven—both before his drive on 18 and before the final putt, a fan shouted “no pressure!” but was too deep in the crowd for the cops to find.

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Richard Heathcote

The crowds thinned out after the rainstorm and they’ll undoubtedly be even smaller during the Monday playoff. It feels now that there’s quite a bit at stake for McIlroy. It’s true that the Players isn’t a major, but it’s a massive tournament, and here he is again, among the best in the world, contending for a title. As he said in the aftermath of Sunday’s round, he had his chances to walk away with a trophy, but it’s also true that he survived some serious tests. Monday, he’ll want to prove to himself that he can rediscover the closer’s instinct and take the prize against a man who isn’t in his class but is playing with a good deal of courage.

Will the outcome define the rest of his season? Would a win propel him to finally break the 11-year major drought? Will his now legendary ability to bounce back from heartbreak resurface even in the case of a loss? He has given fans incredible drama over the last decade, but in the majors that drama has ended poorly for him. And while we can’t get inside his head, it doesn’t feel like a leap to say that for a few reasons, he needs this one badly.

Main Image: David Cannon