Rory McIlroy knows he’s going to have to go low in the final round of the Crown Australian Open, but even then he fears he may be too far back as he trails by nine shots.
The World Number Two finished his roller-coaster 68 with back-to-back birdies and played the back nine in four-under at Royal Melbourne, but he’d covered the front nine in one-over after making a double bogey on the second, before trading two birdies with a bogey on the remaining seven.
That leaves the reigning Masters champion nine shots off the lead held by Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen heading into the final round and he suspects the gap may be too big to close with just 18 holes left to play.
He said: “With the lead at 13-under, I think I’ll be a bit too far back. I think if everything comes together for me, I can shoot a pretty low one out there. But whether that’s good enough or not, I’m not sure.”
McIlroy feels that he should be several shots better off than he is, but conceded that that will be a common refrain in the locker room. But he’s not given up hope entirely and is targeting one final push in round four and a trademark Sunday charge up the leaderboard.
“If I think back over the last three days, just like anyone else in this tournament, they’ll tell you that they should be a lot better or a lot lower than they are,” he said.
“But I’ll go out there and try my best tomorrow and try to shoot a low one and see where it leaves me.”
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