Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed have set us up for a title fight at the Masters

Charl Schwartzel may not be the greatest Masters winner of all time. He may not be the most famous or beloved or historic. But when Augusta National, in the subtle way that they do, put 50 years of final rounds on YouTube recently, I immediately raced to 2011, the year Schwartzel won the green jacket. While Schwartzel may not be the name winner you put up there with the greats, that 2011 Masters is hailed as one of the best of the last 20 years.

That’s because the pace was manic. It gave us everything we love about an individual sport and everything we love about Sunday at the Masters. There were nearly a dozen players moving up and down the leaderboard, firing darts at Augusta and CBS could barely keep up. Golf, and specifically Sunday at the Masters, gives us so many things happening in different places at the same time. It’s not a game on one court or field. It’s individual players playing against the course, while other players do the same around them. We often lament the lack of player vs. player matchups in golf, or how often they fizzle out. But the 2011 Masters revealed just how great this major is with the absence of that adversarial nature that exists in all other sports.

This Sunday at the Masters is the opposite but has the possibility to be just as great as that 2011 edition and I can’t wait. We’re set up for a fantastic Patrick Reed vs. Rory McIlroy matchup in a game that so rarely gives us that.

There are two contrasting personalities that both bite in their very distinct and different ways. Rory lands punches with sharp-witted and precise strikes. Reed has both gloves up and is always on defense with a persistent bristle.

There is history. Their leadoff Sunday singles battle at the last Ryder Cup delivered arguably the greatest two-hours in one match in that event’s history. We will talk about it for years, remember it for years, and associate it with both for years as they progress in their careers.

There are mind games. After a wild Saturday afternoon playing in the final two groups at Augusta, Rory strutted off the course three shots behind Reed and immediately put it on him. “I’m really excited to go out there tomorrow and show everyone what I’ve got, show Patrick Reed what I’ve got,” he told CBS. “All the pressure’s on him tomorrow … I’m hoping to come in and spoil the party.”

This is golf and it’s not Draymond Green guarding LeBron in the NBA Finals, but that quote from Rory qualifies as first-rate shit talk. He’s putting it on Reed and after taking some more time to consider the moment, he went to the press center later and doubled down in his press conference.

“I feel like all the pressure is on him,” Rory said. “He’s got to go out and protect that, and he’s got a few guys chasing him that are pretty big‑time players. He’s got that to deal with and sleep on tonight.” Talking about what the other player might have to deal with mentally while sleeping on the lead is not exactly an area golfers often go. They may talk about how they will sleep or struggle to sleep, but not about the other guy.

Reed, who can lean on having wiped out Rory in that all-time Ryder Cup match, accepted the maneuver with a smirk. “I am leading,” he uttered. “I mean, I guess [there is pressure]” Then the prickly Reed put it back on him. “But at the same time, he’s trying to go for the career Grand Slam. You can put it either way.”

Rory, who said his meltdown in that 2011 loss here was the turning point of his career, refused to even mention that grand slam Reed was citing. “It’s the last round of a major championship, and we’re both going for ‑‑ Patrick is going for his first and I’m going for ... something else.” That something else just happens to be a feat that only five players have ever achieved in the history of golf, and only one, Gene Sarazen, at this particular major.

It was also a reminder for Reed just how far ahead Rory is and what he’s done already: You may have got me in that Ryder Cup match but I’m already a Hall-of-Famer and you’ve never won a major.

This is not some long-standing beef. They two intimated that they get along fine. But there’s matchplay history, a clash of personalities, and the very highest stakes. Both will speak their minds and are absolutely willing to make it adversarial if it’s in their best interests or self-motivating (which it is, for both). Golf is cliched as a “gentleman’s game” but that doesn’t mean it can’t be made better sometimes when two guys may not love each other. The reason why Tiger and Phil playing together this week in the sunset of their careers felt so special was largely because of their frosty history. Rory and Reed are not that, but we still got 18 more holes to go on Sunday.

If Saturday is a preview of Sunday, then we’re in for one of the great finishes. The third round was a back-and-forth fight with the two playing separately in the final two groups. After pouring in a birdie on the first par-3 of the day, Rory nearly aced the second par-3, dropping it right on top of what Ben Crenshaw had characterized as a gettable pin. The strut was in full effect throughout the front nine and I kept joking with friends that Rory might start driving every green of these par-4s. Instead, he’d just bomb one 343 yards up the shoot of the tightest hole on the course, the 7th, and casually walk off the tee talking soccer with his caddie and close friend, Harry Diamond.

The peak of Rory’s round came at the 8th, where his ball slammed into the pin and fell for an eagle that momentarily put him in a share of the lead with Reed. Rory authored one of the usual fist pumps followed by a right hook into the air in the direction of Harry.

He then murdered one 374 yards off the next tee and casually walked off joking and giggling with playing partner Henrik Stenson about how his chip shot had just slammed in the cup on the adjacent green. Soccer and giggles were the order on Saturday but that will probably change for the final round. “I can’t imagine there’s going to be much chat out there tomorrow,” Rory said about the Sunday draw and stakes.

In typical thorny Patrick Reed fashion, he took the Rory hole-out almost as an affront. How dare he challenge my lead and celebrate this good fortune ahead of me. Reed responded with birdies over his next three holes to quickly take back his multi-shot cushion. Late in the second nine, he would deliver his own peak chip-out, one that had me wondering if the Masters scoring record was starting to come into jeopardy.

That put Reed at 15-under and now he’s got a chance to become the first player ever to shoot all four rounds in the 60s at the Masters. There are other players who can definitely get involved on Sunday, and they likely will. This set includes heavyweights like Jon Rahm, Henrik Stenson, and Rickie Fowler. It’s not a two-horse race just yet.

Rory caught the heater on the first nine. Reed saw it and then played the final 11 holes in 5-under, including eagles on both second nine par-5s. It was a sizzling back-and-forth in the rain at Augusta, where all the roars and affairs ahead are so easily heard and seen.

Now we’ll get that kind of show with the two playing side-by-side in the final round of the Masters. Rory says he’s been “waiting for this chance” since 2011. That year provided one of the great Masters in recent memory for all the different players attacking the leaderboard. This year can be one of the great Masters for an entirely different one-on-one dynamic. Of that 2011 Masters, Rory admitted, “It was the day that I realized I wasn’t ready to win major championships.”

Now he’s on the cusp of an historic grand slam and up against the one guy who’d relish a head-to-head matchup with him more than anyone in the sport. Seven years later, Rory added about this Sunday, “But now I am ready.”