Rory McIlroy birdied his last two holes to keep his hopes of winning the RBC Canadian Open for the third time alive as he moved to within three shots of the halfway lead.
Birdies on 17 and 18 saw McIlroy home in 32 after birdies on 8, 10 and 14 helped him sign for a five-under 67 as he climbed to six-under-par with Chinese player Carl Yuan leading the way on -9.
“Yeah, three back going into the weekend, that’s, I’m pretty pleased with that,” said McIlroy. “Finished strongly out there this afternoon. Yeah, I feel pretty good with where I’m at. Would have been nice to be one or two closer to the lead, but I thought today went well.”
The Holywood native is purring on the greens and leads the way in strokes gained putting despite not really getting too much time to practice Oakdale Golf and Country Club due to his off course commitments following the sensational PGA LIV Golf merger, but he likes playing the golf courses on the fly.
“I like reacting to what I’m seeing out there and targets. And I’m not a great player at playing a course by memory. And like I, there’s certain venues on TOUR that I go back to and I play well, but it’s not really because I remember how putts are breaking or where to miss it. It’s just I feel comfortable at that venue. So I’m not saying I’m better at playing a course blind, but I’m, sometimes it’s nice not to know where the trouble is. You just sort of react to your targets out there and you really get into your shots. So sometimes I don’t feel like it’s that much of a disadvantage.”
2019 Open champion Shane Lowry moved into a share of 32nd place after a three-under 69 left him on -3. Lowry carded his second double bogey of the week on the 1st hole (his 10th) having roared to the turn in 32 after opening with back-to-back birdies before following up with birdies on 15 and 16.
David Carey missed the cut on three-over-par.
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