Rory McIlroy was pleasantly surprised to find himself just three strokes behind Carlos Ortiz and a controversial Patrick Reed in the Farmers Insurance Open in La Jolla near San Diego.

The Holywood star rode his luck at times but despite holing little on the greens, he played his last 12 holes in an impressive three-under, carding a two-under 70 to share eighth place on three-under.

That left him just three shots off the lead, held by the Mexican Ortiz, who signed for a best of day 66, and Reed, who was the centre of yet another rules controversy as he shot an erratic 70.

Scores

The Texan raced clear on 13-under after turning in 31 but then played the back nine in 39 as he dropped for shots in six holes, shortly after being awarded relief following some controversial actions in the left rough.

The American claimed relief for an embedded ball at the 10th, where he was informed by a marshal that she had not seen his approach shot bounce, which turned out to be incorrect.

Informing his playing partners Will Gordon and Robbie Shelton that the ball had not bounced, Reed went to determine if his ball was plugged. 

He marked and removed his ball, leaving it to one side, and called for a Rules official, who examined the place where the ball had finished, agreeing that he could feel  “the lip” [indentation], awarding a free drop.

TV replays showed that Reed’s ball did not plug directly on landing but bounced forward and after getting up and down for par there and eventually carding a 70 to tie for the lead, he was not informed of that fact until after his round.

"It is an unfortunate thing that happened today, but at the same time it's exactly what I would have done every time, exactly what every player should do," Reed told reporters post-round.

"You should ask your playing opponents if they've seen whether it's a ball bounce or whether it crosses a hazard line, you always ask them first and then you ask the volunteer, and then from there you check to see and at that point you call a rules official.

"When you have the rules officials and everybody come up and said that you did it textbook and did it exactly how you're supposed to do, then that's all you can do. I mean, when we're out there and we're playing, we can't see everything.

"That's why you rely on the other players, other opponents, you rely on the volunteers as well as rely on the rules officials. When they all say what we've done is the right thing, then you move on and you go on. You know, the great thing is I still have a chance to win a golf tournament."

Reed, who was heavily criticised on social media for his actions, was shown footage of the incident post-round by Senior Tournament Director John Mutch, who reiterated that Reed followed golf's rules correctly.

"It's pretty clear watching the video that he got to within 10 yards of the ball and asked the volunteer who was standing right there "did it bounce" and the volunteer said it did not bounce," Mutch told reporters, neglecting to point out that the volunteer said that she “didn’t see it bounce.”

"It was reasonable for him to conclude that that was his ball, it did not bounce and he was then entitled to see if it was embedded. Once it was determined to be embedded, he would be allowed to clean it and he also did mark it.

However, rules officials were satisfied that the American had done everything by the book.

"It's pretty clear watching the video that he got to within 10 yards of the ball and asked the volunteer who was standing right there "did it bounce" and the volunteer said it did not bounce," Mutch told reporters.

"It was reasonable for him to conclude that that was his ball, it did not bounce and he was then entitled to see if it was embedded. Once it was determined to be embedded, he would be allowed to clean it and he also did mark it. 

"He also let his fellow competitors know he was going to do that, so he operated the way the rules entitled him to operate. Under soft conditions we do get a lot of rulings for embedded ball and we don't always get called in on every one of them.”`

The final round promises to be cavalry charge with the top 19 players on the leaderboard covered by five shots.

Reed and Ortiz lead on 10-under, one stroke clear of Sam Burns (70), Lanto Griffin (70), Viktor Hovland (73), Jon Rahm (72) and Adam Scott (72).

McIlroy is tied for eighth ith Will Zalatoris (70) and Ryan Palmer (73) and pleased to be so close to the lead.

“I sort of walk off a little feeling like I didn't get that much out of my round, but looking at the scores out there it's actually pretty good,” McIlroy said. {I think today was a day where you just sort of had to limit your mistakes and I did that really well. I had a three-putt bogey on 4 and then after that I played the rest of the golf course in 3 under on the way in.

“I feel like the last two days I've come in saying I probably could have squeezed a few more out of the round, but at the end of the day it seems like a lot of people are struggling with short putts and the poa, it gets tricky, especially when it gets a little soft. The ball can start to wander a little bit on the greens.

“If I hadn't seen a leaderboard I probably would be a little disappointed, but seeing that a 70 is a pretty good score today, I'm pretty happy.”

Ranked first for strokes gained off the tee and from tee to green, McIlroy knows he must find fairways on Sunday and hope his putter behaves.

“I think maybe I'm riding my luck a little bit at the minute, but the lies I've gotten in the rough haven't been too bad,” he said of his mistakes. “There's been a couple that have been tough and you're having to just try to play to the front of the greens or whatever. I mean, I think if you get a similar day tomorrow like we do today, yeah, you can be pretty aggressive. The course is soft, maybe not all the par 5s are reachable, but I can still see -- you know, Carlos Ortiz went out there today and shot 66. I can definitely see something like that.”

He added:  “I hit a terrible tee shot off 1 today and that sort of got into my head. I didn't drive it very well on the front nine, but once I saw a couple of good drives around the turn I got some confidence and started to hit it a bit better. Whatever I am back, I think I'm only three back at the minute, yeah, it's a great opportunity to go out and be aggressive and make a good start and get myself right in the mix.”