Rory’s back and anxious to show he’s the master
McIlroy two back as Dunne and Lowry also shine
RORY McILROY admitted his competitive juices were flowing again after a superb 64 lifted him into contention for a first win of the year in the British Masters.
At the start of the week McIlroy insisted he was unconcerned about the prospect of just the second winless season of his career, a season which will come to an early end next week.
Yet the four-time major winner’s bogey-free round at Close House equalled his lowest score of an injury-hit campaign and leaves him just two shots behind Sweden’s Robert Karlsson going into the final round. It was a good day for the Irish, with Shane Lowry alongside McIlroy on 10 under, with Paul Dunne just a single shot off the pace.
‘You get yourself into contention and you start to think about things and it would be nice to get a win,’ said McIlroy, who chipped in for a birdie on the fifth and carded three more in a front nine of 31.
‘Hopefully I’m in at least the last half a dozen groups tomorrow and it will be nice to feel that again.
‘The crowds have been fantastic. The last couple of tournaments I’ve been off pretty early on the weekends and had 50 people following me, where there’s thousands out there so it’s nice to get into that sort of environment again.
‘I haven’t shot a low score like that in a while, so it was nice to see. I had not really got off to a good start the last couple of days, so to be three under through six it was nice to get off to a start like that.’
Karlsson’s last European Tour title came back in 2010, but the Ryder Cup vice-captain’s 67 was enough to leave him at 12 under, a shot ahead of Ian Poulter, Tyrrell Hatton, Graeme Storm, Richie Ramsay and Dunne, who shot a 65.
Poulter was furious despite shooting a 68. The former Ryder Cup star found the water with his tee shot on the par-three fifth after being distracted by spectators taking pictures on their phones and was still seething hours after that double bogey.
‘What are we doing?’ an irate Poulter said. ‘We’ve allowed them all to take pictures and videos and tell them to put them on silent, and it doesn’t work does it? ‘You get distracted on the wrong hole at the wrong time and it’s extremely penal and it’s really f ****** annoying.’
Lowry shot a 66 that, like McIlroy’s effort, contained no bogeys to go with four birdies. The pair are two behind Karlsson alongside home player Chris Hanson, South African George Coetzee and Sweden’s David Lingmerth, who shot a brilliant 62, having made the halfway cut with nothing to spare.
‘I’m very pleased with how my round ended up today,’ said Lingmerth, who carded nine birdies and a solitary bogey but could not claim a course record due to the preferred lies in operation. ‘I try to get up three hours before my tee-time so my alarm was set for five o’clock. I’m not a morning person so I need to get moving and get my blood flowing.’
Despite a birdie on the first, Graeme McDowell shot a two-overpar 72 and is four under overall.