Scintillating back nine leaves Rory McIlroy two behind

World number four Rory McIlroy was delighted with his resilience after recovering from a nightmare start to remain firmly in contention for a second win of the season in the 100th edition of the French Open.

McIlroy began the third round in a five-way tie for the lead but found himself eight shots adrift in the space of eight holes after a double bogey on the first, three bogeys and a solitary birdie.

However, after covering the front nine at Le Golf National in 40, the four-time major winner needed 10 shots fewer to complete the back nine thanks to five birdies which left him tied for second on six under par with Korea’s Wang Jeunghun, two shots behind leader Thongchai Jaidee.

“I just could not get anything going on the front nine and with the way I’m feeling with my game, if it’s good it’s very good but if it’s bad it’s hard to get out of it,” said McIlroy, who revealed after his opening 71 he had whittled 17 swing thoughts down to four or five as he continued to work on eradicating some “bad habits” which had crept into his game.

“It shows the fragile state of my game at the moment but to come back the way I did was really pleasing. It was more resilience than anything. I’ve hit enough good shots this week to know it’s possible and I just needed to find a spark and get something going.”

McIlroy had enjoyed a stroke of luck when his wayward opening tee shot stopped inches short of the lake to the left of the fairway, although from an awkward stance on the edge of the hazard he could only pitch out short of the green.

From there the 27-year-old almost pulled his approach into the water and then duffed a chip from the fringe to run up a double-bogey six, which he soon followed with a bogey on the third after driving into another hazard.

A birdie on the fourth repaired some of the damage, but bogeys on the seventh and eighth dropped him eight shots behind Wang, who had birdied four of the first seven holes in pursuit of a third European Tour title of the season.

“I knew if I could hit a few fairways and greens the last few holes were not playing quite as difficult as usual due to the wind and the birdie on 11 was big,” added McIlroy, who also picked up a shot on the 13th before a hat-trick of birdies from the 15th.

“I wanted to hole that birdie putt on the last to get into the final group, but any time you can shoot five under on the back nine here is a great finish and I’ll be in the group ahead and will try to give them something to shoot at.”