Heading into Sunday's final round of the 2011 US Open, it's Rory McIlroy's tournament to lose at Congressional Country Club, where he sits atop the leaderboard by eight strokes. But as we learned at The Masters, where McIlroy also held the lead heading into the final 18 holes, anything can happen on the final day of a major, and no lead is safe. The young Irishmen also held a lead at The Masters, but unraveled on Sunday as Charl Schwartzel took home the green jacket.
This time around, there's a different feel to McIlroy. As the rest of the field stumbles and bumbles around the course, he's been adept at avoiding trouble while throwing darts at the flagsticks. McIlroy has only made bogey or worse twice -- the first of which, a double bogey, came on No. 18 at the end of his second round. As a result, he's 14-under for the tournament and recorded the best score to par ever in a US Open after 54 holes. In fact, as long as he shoots par or better on Sunday, he'll have the best score in the history of the tournament.
Idaho native and Portland resident Robert Garrigus is right in the thick of things, battling for second and hoping McIlroy slips up with the rest of the field. After three rounds, Garrigus is at 5-under, tied for third place with two others. Y.E. Yang is one shot in front of the group at 6-under and will pair with McIlroy again in the final round.
To get an idea of how far in front McIlroy, here's what the top of the leaderboard looks like heading into the final round.
At this point, even a meltdown may not knock him out of contention, thanks to the monstrous gap he's opened on the field.
The final group tees-off on Sunday at 3:20 p.m. Garrigus will be the third-to-last group, teeing-off at 3:00 p.m. with Frederik Jacobson. On Saturday, Jacobson flirted with a 63 before fading on the back nine to finish with a 66, putting him at 4-under for the tournament. Sunday's tee times can be found here.
Check out the full 2011 US Open leaderboard here. For more on the second round, head over to SB Nation's 2011 US Open StoryStream and visit SB Nation DC's US Open StoryStream.