McIlroy can’t match leaders as Grace gets major first
WALKING between the ninth green and tenth tee at Birkdale yesterday, Rory McIlroy’s step was jaunty.
He’d just holed a decent putt for birdie to reach the turn three under par for The Open and was getting close to leader Jordan Spieth, playing three matches behind.
Spying Frank Nobilo, the NBC golf analyst, doing an interview for BBC, he fished out a white tee from his pocket and flicked it playfully at the slightly-startled New Zealander.
His mood was light. And why not? Overhead the sun shone, the dunes were crammed with galleries rooting for him to continue the surge of electricity which fizzed about the links.
Branden Grace was already in the clubhouse on four under after a scintillating 62, a record for any major, while Dustin Johnson was a shot behind following a 64 which promised to be even better.
On a still day in Southport, the course was set up by the R&A for the players to gorge themselves with birdies and eagles after two days of punishment and McIlroy seemed set fair to sample his share.
And then the McIlroy storyline took an unlikely twist.
The 10th hole measures 402 yards and yesterday played the 11th hardest, or eighth easiest if you prefer, with an average of 3.9 strokes.
Only one player in the third round took a double-bogey – McIlroy.
To find one of the pot bunkers down the left may be regarded as misfortune, to find both was unnecessary and McIlroy paid a huge penalty for his sloppiness.
After tugging his tee shot into the first bunker, he splashed out to the next one directly in front and duly ran up a six.
By the time McIlroy stood on the 11th tee, Spieth had picked up a birdie on the eighth and the gap between them was eight shots.
McIlroy was clearly rattled and the momentum of early on, where he picked up three birdies inside the opening five holes, was long lost.
On the short 12th, where he was 20 feet away, he checked with his caddie JP Fitzgerald for confirmation of the position of the pin. ‘Is it four off the back?’ ‘Yeah,’ came the reply.
On a bank overlooking the green, a spectator whispered, ‘It goes left at the end Rory.’ It duly did, to a nonplussed Rory who always reads his own lines.
As he waited for playing partner Gary Woodland to tidy up, McIlroy studied the giant leaderboard by the green, where his name was noticeably absent.
He hitched up his trousers like the way Arnold Palmer, the 1961 champion here, used to do, as if to say to himself, ‘C’mon son, there’s work to be done.’
He dialled in birdie chances on the 13th and 14th but they went abeggging, as did an eagle putt on the 15th, where he made do with a four – his last birdie in a stop-start round of 69. By then, the skies overhead had begun to darken ominously and an official amber weather warning was issued.
It was close to half past six in the evening and the R&A’s folly of allowing the leaders tee off at 4.0pm for the benefit of American TV was becoming obvious.
Soon, the heavens opened but at least the lightning stayed away and there were no hold-ups. For the most part, this was a day of days at The Open as the players, shorn of wet gear, made hay in the early sunshine.
No one broke from the traps quicker than Grace, who raced to the turn in 29 shots, picked up three more birdies coming in and stood on the 18th needing a par to become the first golfer to record a 62 in any major.
Bizarrely, the 29-year-old from Pretoria was unaware that history beckoned. ‘I had no idea that 62 was the lowest score ever. My whole things on the 18th was trying just not to make bogey.’
That he did, when he executed a superb two putt from off the back of the green for a four after his wedge approach caught a flyer.
‘I knocked in the three-footer and my caddie Zack (Rasego) came up and said, “you’re in the history books.” And I was like “What are you talking about?”
‘What a special day and what a special place to do it,’ smiled the South African.
Kevin Baily, the caddie of playing partner Jason Dufner, knew what was at stake, as he’d been there before with Dufner at Oak Hill in the 2013 USPGA.
‘We had a birdie putt on the 18th at Oak Hill for 62 but left it short,’ he recalled. ‘At least I got to see it done today,’ he said wryly.
Prior to amazing Grace, 26 players had carded 63 in the four majors, nine at The Open, the most recent being Henrik Stenson in his wonderful final round shoot-out with Phil Mickelson in Troon last year.
After waiting for so long for a 62 to come along, there was almost a second 90 minutes later.
When Johnson stood over an eight-foot birdie putt on the 16th, he seemed likely to move to seven under. With the par five 17th playing downwind, the odds on a 62 were better than even.
Yet, a tame putt was followed by a par-par finish for a humdrum 64, if there’s such a thing. It swept Johnson into the frame but the leaders had yet to be unleashed and they were primed for business. Spieth and Kuchar picked up three shots apiece to par on the outward nine, Koepka a couple, as they eased clear of the pursuers. Kuchar closed the gap to one on the 14th and when both birdied the next, Spieth led on 10 under to Kuchar’s nine. A double bogey for ‘Kooch’ on the 16th gave Spieth a three-shot initiative for the first time. And when the Texan stood on the par five 17th, with a rainbow arcing across the leaden skies in the distance, he was on track for the pot of Open gold. It was Kuchar who birdied that but Spieth followed suit at the last to go to 11 under and be a warm favourite today.