With Rory McIlroy’s game the inevitability he would win The Masters was anything but and he admitted when he met with the press that the great past champions telling him thus only made it more difficult.

Certainly, no man in golf carried a heavier burden. To go 11 years between major championship wins for one as talented bordered on the unbelievable, especially to those who’d seen him win The Open at Hoylake in 2014.

After starting the final day with a two-shot lead over the man all assumed was his only challenger, he found himself on the third tee – courtesy of a six at the opener and Bryson DeChambeau’s birdie at the second - a shot behind.

He hit three truly astonishingly good shots during his round. The first was an extraordinary 9-iron lofted out of the left trees at the seventh hole to 10 feet, followed by a 7-iron hooked around the trees and over the pond in front of the 15th green to six feet and then a crushed 8-iron to a couple of feet at the 17th hole.

McIlroy’s pick of his best shot, however, was a tiny lob wedge at the third hole. He bombed a drive just under the steep bank defending the diabolically difficult green where a yard either way makes a huge difference. He then bumped his ball into the bank, popped it to 10 feet and made the putt at just the right moment.

DeChambeau three-putted down the hill from not so far away and at the par-3 to follow, a McIlroy-birdie, Bryson-bogey exchange restored order and a three-shot lead for the Belfast man.

The US Open champion played a sloppy round filled with poor iron shots and one pulled left and into water by the 11th green reduced him to the role of spectator during one of the wildest-ever final nines at Augusta.

Rory birdied both the ninth and 10th holes after perfect irons (short irons, it goes without saying, given how far he drives), made an excusable bogey at the difficult 11th and did exactly what he needed to do at the famously treacherous 12th and two-putted for a par.

With a three-shot lead, he clearly determined to play the 13th safely when it was easily within reach off one of his trademark drives.

Instead, he hit a 3-wood and a safe 7-iron short of the creek and from there he’d seemingly easily make a stress-free five, but more likely a birdie.

Instead, he played an inexplicably horrible pitch to the right and into the water and made a seven. The only memory of something more insane was Tiger putting all the way across the green and into the water many years ago.

A poor tee shot at the 14th led to another bogey as Justin Rose was emerging from the pack with a brilliant, 10-birdie round of 66.

The brilliant McIlroy slinging 7-iron hooked around the pine trees on the 15th fairway couldn’t have been timelier and even though the six-footer never looked like going in, he’d at least restored some equanimity.

The 16th hole exam was passed with another solid iron and after a short – for him – 3-wood off the 17th tee, he hit an 8-iron from 180 yards to three feet. Likely it was the best shot hit to that green since Gary Player’s equally close 9-iron in 1974. The birdie put him one ahead of Rose who’d holed the 2013 Adam Scott putt across the green for a birdie and 277.

From the 72nd tee to the clubhouse all Rory surely needed was a great drive and he hit the perfect, hard cut all the way up there, leaving himself 125 yards to the flag. The green is much smaller than it looks on television, but this was seemingly a straight-forward pitch and a ceremonial walk to the Grand Slam coronation.

Instead, Rory amazingly blocked it into the bunker, blew it out to six feet and then didn’t even come close to making the putt.

Now what? If he loses this what happens? Coronation or collapse? Triumph or tragedy?

The Europeans both hit great drives to start the playoff, and Rose almost flew a short iron into the hole, finishing 15 feet behind the hole. Rory with the same number he’d had half an hour earlier hit the perfect middle-lofted wedge which bounced past the flag, caught the slope and ran back to four feet.

Rose missed, just, and for the Grand Slam Rory had a putt a foot shorter, but much easier, than the one he’s missed on the 72nd green at Pinehurst 10 months ago.

“St Andrews (the Cam Smith Open) was hard, and Pinehurst was awful” was McIlroy’s summation of his last two close calls, but this one after 11 long years was one celebrated the world over like few others.

Tiger in 2019, Nicklaus in 1986, Seve for Europe in 1980 were all historic Masters and this one goes right alongside those great ones.

In years to come, people will look at the Sunday 73, but it’s a number telling none of the story of what was one of the wildest, most unpredictable days of championship golf.

From here Rory goes to Quail Hollow, where he’s won four times, for the PGA followed by Oakmont and the US Open and a home game at Royal Portrush at The Open.

With the burden lifted, why not?