McIlroy takes 1-shot lead at CJ Cup
Rory McIlroy made two eagles that made the rest of his day feel better Saturday at the CJ Cup in Ridgeland, South Carolina. His 4under 67 was enough for a one-shot lead and a clear road to return to No. 1 in the world.
McIlroy hit a 6-iron that took the slope and rolled out to 2 feet for eagle on the par-5 fourth. He smashed a 376-yard drive and made his second eagle with a 30-foot putt from the tightly mown grass off the green on the par-5 12th.
The rest of the round was even par, a mix of good birdies and sloppy bogeys, and it added up to a one-shot lead over Jon Rahm, Kurt Kitayama and K.H. Lee.
“You take away those two holes and I was even par for the rest of the round. Felt like it was a little scrappy coming in, but did enough to hang in there and shoot a solid score,” McIlroy said.
McIlroy was at 13-under 200, with hopes set on going back to No. 1 in the world for the ninth time in his career, and first time since the summer of 2020.
Having been there, all he said he truly cared about was winning.
Ditto for Rahm, who had to scrap his way through a series of bogeys for a 70. Rahm started the second round tied for the lead. He was five shots behind when McIlroy made his eagle on No. 12.
But the big Spaniard was solid as Gibraltar coming in at Congaree, picking off birdies with two good bunker shots and making a great escape for par on the 16th, where he purposely took free relief into the trees because of a tiny gap.
“A lot of battle today. I’m proud of it,” Rahm said. “I’m standing on 12 tee ... I thought things could get ugly. But I just stayed on my own game and tried to make some birdies coming in and put myself in position for tomorrow.”
His only disappointment was not getting into the final group with McIlroy, a power group for a sleepy tournament in the low country.
Lee matched the low round of a day made challenging by some tees moved back and some pins in perilous positions. He also made amends on the 17th hole, the toughest at Congaree this week.
Elsewhere: Atthaya Thitikul hit five birdies on the back nine and will take a one-stroke lead into the final day of the BMW Ladies Championship at Wonju, South Korea. The 19-year-old Thai player’s 5-under 67 in the third round left her at 15-under 201 overall with Lydia Ko and Andrea Lee both trailing by a shot . ... Ryan
Fox and Yannik Paul share a two-stroke lead of the Mallorca Open at Palma, Spain, after both had a flawless third round while Richard Mansell shot a course-record 61. Fox is aiming for his third European tour win of the year. Paul is searching for his first win.
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Soccer: The defending A champion United States will face the Netherlands in the group stage of the women’s soccer World Cup next summer, setting up an early repeat of the 2019 World Cup final. The draw was made at a ceremony in Auckland on Saturday. Four-time champion the United States was drawn in Group E with Vietnam, the Netherlands and a playoff winner still to be determined in a tournament expanded for the first time to 32 teams drawn into eight groups of four. The U.S. will play all of its group matches in New Zealand in the tournament to be played at 10 stadiums in Australia and New Zealand in July and August 2023. The match against the Netherlands will be at Wellington on July 27. The U.S. beat the Dutch 2-0 in the 2019 final in France. Second-ranked Sweden is drawn in Group G with South Africa, Italy and Argentina. Third-ranked Germany is in Group H with Morocco, Colombia and South Korea and European champion England in Group D with Denmark, China and a playoff winner. ... American Gio Reyna started and scored to help Borussia Dortmund rout Stuttgart 5-0 in the Bundesliga. It was Reyna’s first league start of the season and he crowned an impressive outing on the left of midfield with his first goal in more than a year when he curled a fine strike inside the far post just before the break . ... Manchester United defender Raphael Varane left the field in tears as his chances of playing in the World Cup were threatened by an apparent knee injury. The France international was substituted after 60 minutes of United’s 1-1 draw at Chelsea in the Premier League . ... Karim Benzema proudly showed his Ballon d’Or award to fans at the Santiago Bernabéu and then sat back to watch Real Madrid beat Sevilla
3-1 and increase its lead of the Spanish league.
Tennis: American Sebastian Korda will play second-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime in Sunday’s final of the European Open at Antwerp, Belgium. Korda rallied from a break down in the third set to edge Dominic Thiem 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), and Auger-Aliassime had to work hard to beat French player Richard Gasquet 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-3), in Saturday’s semifinals.
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