Rory McIlroy was battling hard to keep his hopes alive of winning back-to-back Majors as stormy weather lashed the third round of the British Open at Royal St George’s on Saturday.
Last month’s US Open champion started the day on level par, handily-placed four shots off joint leaders Darren Clarke and Lucas Glover. With the rain increasing in intensity and the gusting wind turning shot selection into a lottery, the 22-year-old Ulsterman, playing for the third straight day with young Amerian Rickie Fowler, pulled off a thick pair of gloves and promptly clattered his opening drive into heavy rough left of the fairway.
He slashed his second into a bunker and failed to get up and down from there as he slipped back to over par territory. Another bogey followed at the par-three third, but he also had birdie opportunities at two, four and five as he grafted away to stay in contention. He then bagged his first birdie of the day at the par-five seventh.
Tied for 19th at the halfway stage it was a different prospect for McIlroy on Saturday as he led after the first two rounds of the year’s first two Majors, The Masters and the US Open. Fowler, who also started the day on level par, stayed there after a bogey at the second and a birdie at the fifth. Friday’s perfect playing conditions were a distant memory as Australia’s Matthew Millar got things going under glowering, grey skies and a slight drizzle.
Playing alone he came in with a 10-over 80 and gave the initial first-hand account of the mayhem out on the course. “It was very wet, very cool and very windy,” he said after a round which contained two double bogeys, five bogeys and one solitary birdie. “It was a real beast today. The forecast was for worse to come during the afternoon, adding extra fangs to a par-70 layout already feared for its length and unpredictability, before a gradual improvement from 4:00 pm just after the
leaders have gone off.
