The most despised two words in major championship golf are ``What if?''

Who knows when co-runners-up David Duval and Fred Couples will stop playing the ``what if'' game inside their heads, but you can bet that both will be kicking themselves after holding leads late Sunday, only to falter and see Mark O'Meara catch and pass them with one thunderous putt.

``If I go out and play well and get beat, there's not much you can do about it,'' said Couples, the 1992 Masters champion.

Entering Sunday by leading after all three days, Couples proceeded to suddenly stumble, bogeying No. 9 from 105 yards out, and double-bogeying No. 13 after hooking his drive far left behind the azalea jail, escaping from a service road, then dumping a 6-iron into Rae's Creek tributary.

Duval, lurking all afternoon, captured his temporary lead after his sixth birdie, a tap-in at No. 15. Coupled with Couples' catastrophe, the former Georgia Tech star carried a three-shot lead to the par-3 16th.

``It didn't get away from me,'' said Duval after his 5-under-par 67 Sunday. ``It took a 20-footer on the last hole to beat me and Fred.''

In fact, Duval faced a similar 20-foot putt on the 18th green minutes earlier. His try for birdie and possible immortality ended up on the cup's low left side.

``I actually thought I made that one,'' Duval said.

But with par instead, Duval, two groups ahead of Couples and O'Meara, sat at 8-under while awaiting his fate in Jones Cabin.