Rory McIlroy and Seamus Power are locked at four-under after round three of the Genesis Invitational at L.A.’s Riviera Country Club, but they trail Patrick Cantlay by 10 as the American is closing in on a wire-to-wire victory in his native state.
A birdie-birdie start suggested that fireworks could be in the offing for McIlroy, following a five-under round on day two to move from outside the cutline and secure a weekend tee time, but it never materialised, and a bogey on the eighth was the only deviation from par for the next eight holes as he struggled to get his approach shots close enough to have good birdie looks.
A bogey on 12 was sandwiched by birdies on 11 and 13, and he card one more of each on the way home, signing for a two-under 69 that was enough to see him climb just three places on the moving day leaderboard.
“I feel like it’s been a pretty good tournament apart from two holes on Thursday,” McIlroy said afterwards, “going double-triple on 15, 16 on Thursday wasn’t ideal.
“Honestly, apart from that, it’s been pretty good. Sort of liked how I’ve played, liked how I’ve hit the ball. A couple loose shots here and there, but overall I’ve been pretty encouraged with how I played.”
Seamus Power will be more than happy with his efforts, having started the day at level-par. A near-ace on the par-3 sixth saw him open his bridie account, but the highlight of the day came on the drivable and iconic 10th hole, when after finding the front of the green off the tee, he perfectly judged a heavily-swinging 33-footer to record the first eagle of the week on the hole.
With the wind in his sails, he reeled off back-to-back birdies on the 11th and 12th to provisionally move into the top 16, but two bogeys in a row on 15 and 16 brought him back down to earth, and when he missed a five-footer for birdie on 17, it looked as though he wasn’t going to get his just rewards for the day’s play. As inaccurate as he’d been from five feet on 17, he was pinpoint from 19 feet on the 18th, however, and the closing birdie puts him in a great position to attack the final round and get some much needed ranking points with the Masters growing larger on the horizon.
But Patrick Cantlay remains the man at the top of the board, just like he’s been since early on Thursday, albeit with less of a margin than he’d have liked and many would have expected seeing as how he’d been sitting at -15 through 13 holes and then bogeyed the par-5 17th to drop back to -14, two ahead of Will Zalatoris and close friend Xander Schauffele.
Schauffele and Zalatoris shot matching six-under 65s, but Schauffele, by virtue of being first in the clubhouse, will face off against his pal in the final pairing.
“We’ve had a few final rounds together, so should be a comfortable pairing,” said Cantlay. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Earlier, when asked about the likely prospect, Schauffele said something similar, saying: “Yeah, we’ve played in the final pairing a couple times. I got the best of him at Travelers, he got the best of me at BMW. We know where we stand and how we compete against each other.”
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