Rory McIlroy carded a scintillating 66 on day three of the PGA Championship to close within three shots of Alex Smalley and give himself a realistic chance of adding a seventh major title to his tally.
McIlroy briefly led the way but did lament being unable to birdie the par-5 16th and dropping a shot at the par-3 17th but after opening his campaign at Aronimink with a “sh*t” 74 he is delighted to have clawed his way back heading into the final day.
“Better,” laughed the Masters champion who fist pumped a seven-foot par effort home on the 18th. “I said no profanity today, so keep it clean.
“I had a chance to do this. If I had to play the last three holes at 1-under instead of 1-over, I would have got to 5. And I sort of thought if I could go out today and get to that, it would make the leaders shoot under par to either be with me or ahead of me. So I didn’t get there. I made, I guess, a couple of mistakes the last three holes.”
McIlroy began with an opening birdie and after dropping a shot on the fourth he kicked in to gear with birdies on the 5th, 6th, 9th, 11th and 13th to momentarily share the lead before a bogey on his penultimate hole. The Holywood man finished his round at just the right time time with winds whipping up to 30mph before the leading groups tackled the course.
“I think I pride myself on managing my game well and learning as I go and trying to, I guess, problem solve as the week goes on,” he said. “I’ve certainly driven the ball better the last couple of days. Still not perfect, but much better and giving myself opportunities from the fairways and being able to make more birdies because of it.”
McIlroy, a two-time PGA champion, isn’t the only Irish golfer with hopes of adding another Wanamaker Trophy to his collection. 2008 champion Pádraig Harrington rolled back the years with a classy 67 to reach level-par and he is one of 43 players within six shots of Smalley.
“I ain’t going out there to play for second, third, fourth or fifth. I won’t remember it. So I’m hoping I go out there and just fall into the zone tomorrow, and it just keeps flowing,” said the 54-year-old who made the cut at the PGA for the first time in three years.
The leaderboard is littered with big fish in McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Ludvig Åberg, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Reed and others. But it’s relative minnow Smalley who leads by two shots on six-under after a sensational back nine of 31 put him in pole position.
Smalley teed off as co-leader but looked down and out after a nervy three bogeys in his first four holes. After a birdie, bogey, birdie run to the turn he produced a remarkable recovery with birdies on 10, 13, 15, 16, a bogey on 17 and a superb birdie on 18 to put daylight between himself and Rahm, Åberg, Matti Schmid, Nick Taylor and Aaron Rai.
Shane Lowry is four-over after a round of 70.
“Any time I did something good, I did something bad,” he said of his day. “And there was a score out there this morning, and I didn’t get it, so another early start tomorrow.”
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