Rory Mcilroy had the crowd roared on Saturday, but he still chased Scottie Scheffler

Portrush, Northern Ireland – with the Northern Ireland sun, which on the left below it, ran down Rory McIlroy on the 17th tea box – one of the highest points at Royal Portrush – and took up the scene at the open championship.

On his left, there was a hill with a series of fans who hoped to take a look at his discount. On his right, more fans crowded against the ropes just to try to get a little closer. When he was waiting to hit, McIlroy let himself be smiled. The chants soon started.

“Rory! Rory! Rory!”

They had continued all day long, when he made Birdie on the opening hole, even louder when he was on another birdie to 2 and as loud as she had switched on all week when he started his approach on the Par-4 fourth and 3-unit. Eight holes later, on the 12th, the sound reached a climax. McIlroys 56-foot-eagle putt tipped into the bottom of the hole. A fist pump. A roar. This was the moment they all waited for.

“The roaring when this ball was. It was insane all day, but the noise after this putt received,” was incredible, “said Mcilroy.” That was a really cool moment … could be one of the coolest moments I've ever had in a golf course. “

All day, the thousands of fans – be it from Northern Ireland or beyond – seemed to wear McIlroy from hole to hole. Birdie or Bogey, the noise was there, crescendo when he reached every green.

At any time, through the dunes and the zebraTrope, on every overcrowded hill and in any place, the crowd was a memory of the fact that McIlroy was and was the main event this week. Outside the hotel next to the fourth fairway, a group of workers stood in a single file line to get through McIlroy. In addition to the green on the fifth, the fans drove from the nearby beach to the top of a dune that made it possible for them to take a look at the campaign.

As soon as McIlroy was able to dismiss this 17th tee, his shot found the right gallery. A fan picked up his ball – everything that felt closer to her hometown hero. When McIlroy was in a swarm of his followers, he replaced him, setting up the hard approach, which shot over a Greenside bunker and landed safely on the green. He went forward and the amount that had split like the Red Sea to put it behind him and became louder on the second.

“Rory! Rory! Rory!”

In various places on Saturday, the dream of a return victory felt alive for her and McIlroy. And yet between the moments of madness there was the most inevitable power of sport in silence.

Enter Scottie Scheffler.

The 17th green and the 13th green in Royal Portrush are connected and as McIlroy persecuted his birdie Putt, Scheffler stood on the opposite hill. Scheffler's tee landed – where else? – PIN high. McIlroy had stolen all day long to see where he was. This time the hard reality of which he stepped stared back at him.

“Scottie Scheffler is – it is inevitable,” said Mcilroy. “Even if he doesn't have his best stuff. He is just so solid. He doesn't make mistakes.”

Scheffler made par in 13 and added another birdie to Calamity Corner, the hard, long, Par-3-16. Hole that gave the players about the players all week. Not Scheffler. He asked it every three days.

“There seems to be no weakness there,” said Mcilroy. “Whenever you try to pursue such a man, it's hard to do.”

It is not just Mcilroy's dream that Scheffler follows. Matthew Fitzpatrick is five shots back on Sunday. He was just a shot back to start the day. Russell Henley scored 65 and Xander Schauffele 66. Both are seven shots behind and feel like long shots on Sunday.

“When I play a lot of scottie, he only looks black for me and only do his thing. He is only in his own world and nothing will bother him,” said Schauffele. “He often comes to this place, which is a good thing for him.”

“He is incredible,” said Harris English, who is six shots back like McIlroy. “I can't say anything bad about the guy. It is impressive to see and what he does is incredible.”

Even Haotong Li, who did not faded and a round of 69, who brought him four shots from Scheffler and in the last group on Sunday, could not help but recognize his reputation.

“Four shots behind it, somehow as for the second game,” said Li. “Above all, play[ing] With the world No. 1. “

It is almost annoying in the way the players, since the players can recognize the extraordinary performance of Scheffler, will play down every step. Even if he presented an objective example of his own size, the fact that he completed nine 54-hole leads twitched Scheffler.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” said Scheffler about the question of why he was so effective. “I like to be in competition here.”

Even if he complains about the inconsistent nature of the profit like the beginning of this week, Scheffler's obsession – whether he likes it or not – has brought it to a place where he is pursued by everyone, while he is chasing history, the ghosts of the golf sponsors and a Tiger Woods comparison that continues, does not lose. With a win on Sunday, Scheffler will be the fourth player who wins the open, the Masters and the PGA championship before their 30th birthday. The last to do that was Woods.

McIlroy and everyone else behind him have to believe that they check their fates on Sunday. But in reality, their hopes depend on the performance of a man who dreams to make a living.