After making a triple-bogey-six on the 17th hole on day two, Rory McIlroy again finished in disappointing fashion in round three but is still in with a chance of capturing his fourth victory of 2024 at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links.
The world number three was hoping for tougher scoring conditions after finding himself nine back despite covering his first 36 holes in -10, and he got his wish as the tournament organisers tucked the pins away and the firm course combined with a fresh breeze meant that anybody shooting a round in the mid-60s was going to gain ground.
Despite starting with a scrappy bogey, the four-time major winner made birdies on two, seven and eight to remain in touch, and then picked up three more in a five-hole stretch from the 11th which moved him to -15 and within three of the lead.
He’s taken the aggressive line on the par-5 18th in each of the two previous rounds, and did so again on Saturday, but this time it was too aggressive and he watched as his ball careened off the rocks and found a watery grave.
He had to drop way back, and ended up in the greenside bunker in four, and was unable to get up-and-down and the resulting ‘seven’ dropped him back to -13 whereas a birdie would’ve seen him get the opportunity to flex his muscles in the final group on Sunday.
“A little bit, yeah,” he replied afterwards when asked if he felt like screaming because of the late flurry of dropped shots on days two and three. “Playing the last two holes in two days over two days in a row is not ideal. Cost myself obviously a few shots there. You know, wind got up a little bit this afternoon.
“So the leaders weren’t getting away, which was nice and I was making a little bit of a charge. And yeah, just one mistake, that drive on 18, and with it playing so much into the wind. With the third shot, the layup was very difficult to try to take on the water. I had to lay up down the right and I still had 222 yards for my fourth.
“Yeah untimely mistake just like yesterday on 17 and dug myself a little bit of a hole to get out of, but depending on what the leaders do, I can still go into tomorrow feeling like I have half a chance.”
McIlroy won the Dubai Desert Classic having overcome a 10-stroke deficit on Saturday morning, and he’s now got five to claw back if he’s to get another win in the Middle East before returning to Dubai for next week’s DP World Tour Championship.
“Absolutely,” he said when asked if he felt there was another low round out there for him. “I bogeyed the first today and doubled the last but in between, there was some really good golf, same as yesterday. I just need to put it all together and play the way I’ve been playing and keep the big mistakes and big numbers off my card and if I can do that and post a score, you never know.”
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