Defending Zurich Classic champions Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry are five shots off the pace heading into the weekend after a sloppy finish to their foursomes round at TPC Louisiana.
The Irish pair bogeyed three of the last six holes including their last two to settle for a three-under round of 69 to leave them in a share of 15th on eleven-under with fourballs to come.
The duo will be looking for a similar vein of form that saw them roar to six-under through twelve holes and within two of leaders Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin who are now 16-under, but McIlroy stressed the importance of not trying to force things to much to make up for a poor finish.
“We were six under through 12 today and cruising and then, you know, a bit of a bad finish,” McIlroy said. “But we didn’t feel like we played that badly to have the finish that we did. Couple of loose shots here.
“Tomorrow, it’ll be hard to stay patient, because in the fourball format, you just have to try to make as many birdies as you can.
“But we know that we’re really good at the foursomes format, which we showed today for the most part.
“So if we can climb back into contention within a few shots of the lead going into Sunday, we feel like we’ll be in a good position.”
The pair carded an eagle on the second, which was followed up by a bogey, birdie run before they birdied the par-5 7th.
A 340 yard drive from McIlroy set up a bird at the eighth as they turned in 32 before birdies on 10 and 12 set their sights on the leaders.
Fluffed chips on 13 cost them a shot and they failed to get up and down on the par-3 17th before McIlroy hit a tree with his drive on 18 as they wound up with a bogey six.
“Well, I’m enjoying myself playing from about 340 down the middle of every fairway,” Lowry joked.
“I’ve had a great time so far this week. Look, we’re obviously disappointed. I feel like 11-under is the worst score we could be for two days right now with our finish yesterday and today.”
Lowry is upbeat that they can whittle down the gap and go low on Sunday as well.
“But I feel like if we can go low tomorrow and get into the 20s under par, and get after it, then on Sunday, we showed today, foursomes is our thing and we can make ground on the field there.”
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