McIlroy keeps up pressure
RORY McIlroy carded a seven-under 65 in the third round of the DP World Tour Championships yesterday to leave himself one stroke adrift of surprise leader Andy Sullivan, who sank a nerveless late birdie to edge ahead again.
The British pair will play together in today’s concluding round after Sullivan’s 68 gave the 28-year-old an aggregate score of 200 to McIlroy’s 201 at the European Tour’s season finale.
American Patrick Reed (68) is on 203, while Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo (71) and Korea’s Byeong-hun An (66) are a further stroke behind.
“I’m satisfied. I hit the ball fantastically from tee to green,” McIlroy, 26, said. “Everything was firing today and that’s why I’m walking off the course a little bit disappointed, because that 65 could have been a 62 or a 61. But it’s still a great position going into tomorrow.”
Sullivan had begun the day on 12-under, one stroke ahead of Grillo and four clear of world No 3, McIlroy.
McIlroy started two groups ahead of Sullivan and the Northern Irishman exerted some immediate pressure, making a 10-foot birdie on the first and picking up further shots at holes two and four.
Sullivan, known for playing with a smile, looked serious on the first tee as he waited to start. He sank a three-foot birdie on the second hole, but fluffed the chance to pick up another stroke at the third, missing from 10 feet.
Worse followed on four, when a simple putt lipped out for a bogey as McIlroy’s charge seemed to inhibited the ebullient Englishman. An eightfoot birdie at five and at seven put Sullivan ahead again.
McIlroy was often sublime, picking up further shots at seven and 10, while the fourtime major winner followed a bogey on 12 with three successive birdies.
Sullivan was unbowed, also birdieing 15. He picked up another shot on 17 with a 20footer. McIlroy erred on the 18th, rolling a simple birdie chance wide.
As well as seeking a third tour win of the season, McIlroy is eyeing a third Race to Dubai title in four years, the prize awarded to Europe’s biggest money earner.
McIlroy led going into the season climax and of the six others who could potentially usurp him, only Danny Willett still stands a chance with 18 holes to play. The English- man’s third-round 67 puts him on 205, four adrift of McIlroy.
“I’d love to finish the year on a high and win the Race to Dubai and, more importantly, win this tournament,” McIlroy said.
A bet with his father has Brandon Stone well-fed after his third-round nine-underpar 63 yesterday in the R1.2 million Lion of Africa Cape Town Open at Royal Cape Golf Club.
The winner in the family duel – dad Kevin is in the field and shot 75 – has to buy dinner, and Brandon’s 10 birdies and one dropped shot gave him a three-stroke edge over sec- ond-placed Erik van Rooyen ahead of the final round.
He pulled that dropped shot straight back with a superb birdie on 18.
Stone started like a house on fire. After making a regulation par on the first, he reeled off four birdies in a row, and followed it with another on the seventh. He turned in fiveunder 31, and picked up another two birdies on the 10th and 11th. Another two in a row came at 14 and 15, before he missed an opportunity on the par-five 16th.
“I didn’t hole too many putts from the fifth to the ninth,” he said, “but I holed a few goodies on the back nine. There was one putt on 15 that was a steely one. It was about a 30-footer which hit the hole dead centre, or it might have gone eight to 10 feet past. But I also hit the ball really well. It’s the same as I’ve been playing for the last two days… the putts just fell today.”
Van Rooyen posted a solid two-under-par 70 of his own, to go with his opening eightunder 64 and his second-round 71, but his attempt to keep in touch with the rolling Stone was stymied by four bogeys interspersed with his six birdies. Peter Karmis and Richard Sterne found them- selves in a share of third, four shots behind Van Rooyen, and there were seven players on six-under.
They will have their work cut out if Stone can reproduce anything like the form he did in the third round. He started the tournament with a oneover 73, but he followed it with a six-under 66, and then the 63.
“I don’t know what I’m going to shoot tomorrow, but if the putter gets going, a low score is on the cards. I’ve got to go out and do better than I did today. The way that I’m playing, and the way I feel on this course, you never know!” – Sunshinetour.com