Golf:Rory McIlroy took control of the USPGA Championship as the final major of the year made up for lost time at Kiawah Island today. Among 26 players unable to complete their third rounds because of Saturday's thunderstorm, the 23-year-old— up at 5.30am to prepare for his remaining 27 holes — went three clear of the field with a five under par 67.
McIlroy achieved that in spite of missing putts of three and five feet when he resumed on the back nine at 7.45am. Last year’s US Open champion failed to birdie the long 11th and bogeyed the next, but came back superbly with a 10-foot putt on the 444-yard 15th and then a two-putt birdie at the long 16th.
Two closing pars — the short 17th after he managed to get up and down from sand - kept him at seven under par.
“Could have been better,” he said before heading off for some rest before a final round starting at 1.45pm (6.45pm Irish time). “I gave myself plenty of chances and the start was not what I wanted, but to play the last four in two under was nice.”
McIlroy added: “I’m going to go back to bed for an hour or so — I didn’t get enough sleep last night.” He was reminded that third round leaders have not been too well lately — including Adam Scott at The Open last month, of course — and he himself crashed to an 80 when four ahead at Augusta last year.
“I learned a lot from The Masters and I think it will stand me in great stead this afternoon,” McIlroy said. “That’s definitely something that I can think back to and draw on some of those memories and some of the feelings I had at Congressional.”
That was where he led the US Open by eight after 54 holes and won it by eight. “You realise that you might not feel the same or your anxiety level is a little bit higher,” he added. “At least being in that position before I’ll know what to do again.”
Swede Carl Pettersson was in second place following a 72, while joint third one shot further back were Australian Adam Scott, South African Trevor Immelman and American Bo Van Pelt, who had the luxury of a lie-in after finishing his 67 yesterday.
As for Tiger Woods, he was in a tie for sixth five strokes behind after an eventful morning that even included a fight with a cactus plant. Woods’s first shot of the day was an eight-footer for par on the eighth and by lipping out he registered his fourth bogey in five holes and fell all the way to joint 17th.
Out in 40 — eight more than McIlroy — his comeback began with a seven-foot birdie putt on the long 11th and he picked up more shots at the 13th and 16th. There was drama and pain for him at the 15th, however, when he tangled with the thorns of a prickly pear cactus after carving his drive.
Woods was limping badly until calling for a towel from caddie Joe LaCava and extracting what he could from his trouser leg and shoes.
Vijay Singh led by one after his birdie at the 11th, but the 49-year-old Fijian’s bid to become the oldest major winner in history faltered badly with four dropped shots in the next four holes. He and playing partner Woods, who had shared the halfway lead with Pettersson, birdied the 16th, but neither could get up and down from the sand at the 223-yard 17th and pars on the last meant rounds of 74 for them both.
Ian Poulter had the same score to drop from fourth to tied 10th on one under, while Graeme McDowell was bitterly disappointed to be on the same mark after a closing double bogey gave him a 71. McDowell had also doubled the 13th before coming back with a hat-trick of birdies.
“Very frustrated,” he said. “I played myself back into the tournament and the last was a killer blow.” He ran into the sand waste with his drive and needed three more strokes to find the green.
Collated third round scores
(USA unless stated, Irishin bold, par 72)
209 Rory McIlroy(NIrl) 67 75 67
212Carl Pettersson (Swe) 66 74 72
213Adam Scott (Aus) 68 75 70, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 71 72 70, Bo Van Pelt 73 73 67
214Steve Stricker 74 73 67, Tiger Woods 69 71 74, Vijay Singh (Fij) 71 69 74, Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 75 70
215 Graeme McDowell(NIrl) 68 76 71, Ian Poulter (Eng) 70 71 74, Jamie Donaldson (Wal) 69 73 73, Jimmy Walker 73 75 67, David Lynn (Eng) 73 74 68, Padraig Harrington(Irl) 70 76 69
216Keegan Bradley 68 77 71, Pat Perez 69 76 71, Marcel Siem (Ger) 72 73 71, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 68 78 70
217Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 68 75 74, Phil Mickelson 73 71 73, Bill Haas 75 73 69, Marc Leishman (Aus) 74 72 71, Tim Clark (Rsa) 71 73 73
218John Daly 68 77 73, Justin Rose (Eng) 69 79 70, Jason Dufner 74 76 68, Joost Luiten (Ned) 68 76 74, Greg Chalmers (Aus) 70 76 72, Bubba Watson 73 75 70, Blake Adams 71 72 75
219Francesco Molinari (Ita) 70 75 74, John Senden (Aus) 73 74 72, Ben Curtis 69 77 73, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 70 79 70, J J Henry 72 77 70, Jim Furyk 72 77 70, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 71 75 73, Paul Lawrie (Sco) 73 75 71, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 69 77 73
220Alexander Noren (Swe) 67 80 73, Ernie Els (Rsa) 72 75 73, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 75 74 71, Rich Beem 72 76 72, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 67 78 75
221Brendon De Jonge 71 78 72, Zach Johnson 72 73 76, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 70 77 74, Robert Garrigus 74 73 74, Gary Woodland 67 79 75, Darren Clarke(NIrl) 73 76 72, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 72 78 71, K J Choi (Kor) 69 77 75, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 73 74 74
222Dustin Johnson 71 79 72, Matthew Every 72 76 74, David Toms 72 78 72
223Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 74 75 74, K.T. Kim (Kor) 69 77 77, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 73 75 75, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 70 79 74, Ken Duke 71 78 74, Chez Reavie 74 76 73
224Martin Laird (Sco) 71 74 79, Scott Piercy 68 78 78, Luke Donald (Eng) 74 76 74, Cameron Tringale 69 78 77
225Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 69 77 79
226Toru Taniguchi (Jpn) 72 76 78
227George McNeill 71 76 80, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 74 75 78
229John Huh (Kor) 72 78 79
