AUGUSTA, Ga. — History awaits Rory McIlroy.

A career Grand Slam sits a tantalizing 18 holes away.

Sometime before 3 p.m. Sunday, McIlroy will stand on the first tee in the final pairing of the day at Augusta National on the precipice of history, with a chance to become only the sixth player ever to win all four major championships.

He’s won two PGA Championships, one U.S. Open and one British Open.

The Masters has been the elusive one, like the girl you’ve been asking out for years who keeps rejecting you.

This week is McIlroy’s 11th attempt at completing the career Slam by winning his first Masters. His last major championship came in 2014.

Now, after a positively electric third-round 66, McIlroy takes a two-shot lead into the final round with a chance to stamp his name in history.

He has a chance to exorcize some demons at Augusta, which has been a place of more heartbreak than exhilaration for him in his 16 starts before this week.

Sunday will mark the first time McIlroy enters the final round of a major championship with the lead since 2014 when he won his last major, the PGA.

To get it done, cross that line and make history, McIlroy will have to overcome his own nerves and scar tissue as well as Bryson DeChambeau, who birdied three of the final four holes Saturday, including burying a bomb of a birdie putt on 18 to inch within two shots.

McIlroy is 12-under. DeChambeau is 10-under. Canadian Corey Conners is 8-under. Patrick Reed and Ludvig Åberg are 6-under and defending champion Scottie Scheffler is among four players at 5-under.

It all sets up an absolute dream final-round showdown against DeChambeau, the player who defeated him in the final round of last year’s U.S. Open and devastated McIlroy so much that he bolted from Pinehurst refusing to speak to reporters.

It, too, is a showdown between the best of the PGA Tour and the best of its rival, LIV Golf.

Delicious, every morsel of it.

“It’ll be the grandest stage we’ve had in a long time and I’m really excited for it,’’ DeChambeau said. “We both want to win really badly. It’s going to be electric out there.’’

It’s difficult to pack more epic storylines into one final round than what awaits on Sunday.

“That was fun … what dreams are made of,’’ DeChambeau said. “I couldn’t ask for anything more.’’

Nor could anyone who loves golf.

Where do you start with McIlroy’s scintillating Saturday?

“It was an awesome day and it obviously puts me in a great position,’’ McIlroy said.

With his start to the day — birdie on No. 1, chip-in eagle on No. 2, birdie on No. 3 and birdie on No. 5 for a 5-under start on the first five holes?

With six consecutive 3s on his card to start the round — something no one in the 89-year history of the Masters has ever done?

Or with the eagle he made on the par-5 15th hole to get to 12-under and take a commanding four-shot lead with three holes to play in the round?

This was, without question, one of the most hair-raising rounds of golf ever played around the fabled theater of perfectly manicured greenness.

“A dream start,’’ McIlroy said.

How will McIlroy handle it all Sunday — the 11-year major drought, the chase for history, the showdown with DeChambeau?

“The big thing is not to make it a match, to stay in my own little world,’’ McIlroy said. “There are some other players on that leaderboard that can make a run. I just have to do what I’ve been doing and surround myself in my own cocoon.

“[DeChambeau] will do what he does and I just have to stay firm.’’

What makes the place McIlroy sits right now even more impressive and remarkable is what unfolded at the end of his opening round.

McIlroy was 4-under par entering the par-5 15th hole and proceeded to double-bogey 15 and then double-bogey No. 17 to melt away those four strokes and go home with a demoralizing even-par round.

The finish left him seven shots behind first-round leader Justin Rose, who posted a 7-under-par 65.

McIlroy was livid afterward, turned up Friday with a clear mind and charged to a 6-under par 66 to vault himself right back into contention.

He began the third round three shots behind Rose and, after four holes, he had a two-shot lead.

Another element to consider when McIlroy tees it up Sunday is 2011.

Yes, it was a long time ago, but that’s when McIlroy entered the final round with a four-stroke lead at 12-under. He’d led or had a share of the lead after each of the first three rounds and ended up shooting 80 on Sunday and finishing tied for 15th.

McIlroy cried when he got off the course that day.

Will we see tears of joy from him this time on this Sunday evening?