SUBLIME McILROY SETS UP DUEL FOR THE AGES
A brilliant day’s golf by Rory and Norwegian star Hovland has the Old Course rocking
RORY McILROY and Viktor Hovland turned in such a stunning exhibition of how to play the Old Course when it’s hard and fast, it’s only right they will get the chance to do it all over again in the last group out in the final round of the 150th Open today.
Both shot fabulous rounds of 66 to separate themselves from the field and set up the prospect of a duel for the ages for a prize so precious McIlroy refers to it as the sport’s Holy Grail. On the one hand, the Northern Irishman who hasn’t won a major for eight years but has clearly rediscovered his mojo. On the other, the prodigious 24-yearold who will become the first Norwegian to win a major one day — and it might very well be this one.
The pair began the third round three strokes off the lead but played so well they’re now four shots clear of the two Camerons, Smith and Young, who found playing in the final group a trying experience and shot 73 and 71 respectively. Masters champion and world No1 Scottie Scheffler shot 69 to be five strokes adrift, alongside Korean Si Woo Kim. US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick and Tommy Fleetwood enjoyed good days but are surely too far back at seven strokes behind.
The bunker just short of the 10th green on the Old Course is not one of those with a name known throughout the golfing world, but McIlroy might be about to change all that. If he goes on to win, they’ll surely have to call it something to commemorate the moment when destiny and the sands of time aligned for him once more.
Going in the bunkers here is supposed to signal the death knell for a player’s hopes. McIlroy’s stroke of genius — ironically, the first bunker he’d been in all week — had the opposite effect. It filled a rabid home crowd with belief that the agonising wait to see him win his fifth major might finally be coming to an end.
Bunker shots from 40 yards or so are widely considered the hardest to play in the game and, for this one, McIlroy had to land the ball on a space the size of a postage stamp to get the ball close. That’s just what he did, as the ball landed softly and rolled in the hole.
The R&A built new grandstands at the loop at the far end of the course to generate atmosphere this year and, at that moment, they must have been so glad that they did. McIlroy’s marvel generated surely the loudest noise heard on a golf course at a major for many a year.
Indeed, you might have to go back to Seve Ballesteros’s win in 1984 to find the last time that a crowd here rooted so hard for one man to win. It brings as many cons as pros, of course, but to this point the 33 year old has ridden the incredible wave of emotion expertly to find himself co-leading a major with a round to go for the first time since his last win, at the 2014 USPGA Championship at Valhalla.
This was McIlroy’s seventh round in an Open on this course and the sixth time he has broken 70. It’s the stage where so many of the greats of the game have left their mark and now he has an opportunity to join them and cement his own legacy.
It will not be easy, of course. Not with a golfer as accomplished as Hovland matching him stride for stride and shot for shot. ‘I know he’ll have all the support and I’m the underdog but I’m really looking forward to it,’ said Hovland. ‘It’s going to be special.’
This was a gripping day’s play when the world’s best players were given every encouragement to show what they’ve got. There were at least four par-fours that were
driveable and four more where players could get their tee shots within throwing distance of the green. There was just a warm breeze by way of protection.
Standing between them and a low score were the wiles of the Old Course, the fieriness of the fairways, the grandeur of the occasion and one or two juicy pin placements. American Kevin Kisner underlined the possibilities with a 65, as did Shane Lowry with backto-back eagles at the ninth and 10th. Fleetwood posted a 66.
Among the leaders, it was Hovland who was fastest out of the gate. This always looked a good course for him and particularly in this burnished state because there’s barely a chip required anywhere, the weakest part of the Norwegian’s game. He notched four birdies in a row from the third.
McIlroy had chances of his own but had to stay patient before his first gain arrived with a two-putt birdie at the par five fifth. Another two-putt birdie followed at the ninth before the moment at the 10th that took this Open to a completely different level. Even Scheffler playing the adjacent 11th let out a grin. It was truly a magical moment.
McIlroy and Hovland skilfully negotiated the treacherous holes that followed while other contenders lost their minds. Only the Australian Smith will know what he was doing when he tried to hit a long iron at the 13th while standing in a bunker with the ball well below his feet. You have to take your punishment in such situations and the Old Course handed out quite the whipping for his audacity as he ran up an ugly double bogey. Dustin Johnson was another who lost ground with moments of madness, bogeying the 13th and then taking four from the back of the 14th to drop a further stroke.
McIlroy showed what you’re supposed to do, when he went through the green at the fearsome 17th and close to the wall that runs beyond the road that gives the hole its name. He took his medicine with a bogey, the only blemish by either him or Hovland all day.
Both birdied the 18th to set up the perfect scenario for the final round, and a duel that is too close to call.