McIlroy just one back at US Open in quest to end Major drought: "It's been such a long time since I've done it"
Rory McIlroy plays his tee shot on the 15th hole during the third round of the 2023 U.S. Open at The Los Angeles Country Club in Los Angeles, Calif. on Saturday, June 17, 2023. (Chris Keane/USGA)
Rory McIlroy chiselled out a one-under 69 to go into the final round of the US Open just one shot behind Rickie Fowler and Wyndham Clark and keep alive his hopes of ending his nine-year wait for that elusive fifth Major.
The world number three birdied two of his first three holes at the Los Angeles Country Club and bounced back from bogeys at the fourth and 13th with a birdie at the 14th in fiery afternoon conditions.
“Yeah, I feel pretty good,” McIlroy said. “The golf course definitely got a little bit trickier today than the first couple of days. Felt like I played really smart, solid golf. Hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens. Sort of felt somewhat stress-free out there, if you can ever call golf at a U.S. Open stress-free. “Overall, yeah, pretty pleased with how today went, and feel like I'm in a good spot heading into tomorrow.”
Asked if his experience winning majors could prove crucial, he said: “I don't know. It's been such a long time since I've done it. I'm going out there to try to execute a game plan, and I feel like over the last three days, I've executed that game plan really, really well, and I just need to do that for one more day.”
The Holywood star did not have his A-game on a sun-kissed day in Beverly Hills but he plotted his way around clinically with his three-putt bogey from 80 feet at the 13th, his only major error.
Fowler looked set to lead by a shot from Clark but he three-putted from 26 feet, lipping out from two feet in the gathering gloom to card a level par 70 and fall into a tie for the lead with Clark (69) on 10-under par.
Clark denied the Co Down man a place in the final pairing when he followed a bogey at the 17th with a spectacular birdie at the 18th where he hit the pin 170 yards and brushed in a six-footer for birdie.
World No 1 Scottie Scheffler is lurking in fourth place on seven-under, four shots off the pace, after a spectacular finish to his round.
The American holed out from 196 yards for an eagle two at the 17th before rolling in a 22-footer for a closing birdie and a two-under 68.
Harris English is fifth on six-under, five off the pace, after a 71 with Dustin Johnson (71) and Xander Schauffele (73() tied for sixth, five off the pace.
Pádraig Harrington shot the joint second-best round of the day, a three-under 67, to share 15th on one-under with Shane Lowry a shot further back in a tie for 20th on level par after a 68.
McIlroy said after his round that it wasn’t so much about winning but putting yourself in position to see if you have what it takes to get over the line.
He briefly joined Clark and Fowler in a share of the lead early in the round when he birdied the third, then made a great up and down for par at the seventh and another from sand at the 10th but found himself tied for third at that stage, two behind Clark.
He would three putt the 13th from 80 feet for his first three putt of the week to fall two shots behind Fowler,
But he took advantage of a good break at the par-five 14th, where his second shot hopped out of heavy rough onto short grass and he hit a low spinning 40 yard pitch to seven feet and made the birdie putt.
He then went on to par his last four holes and sounded upbeat about his strategy for what is a quirky but classic course.
"I haven't hit driver a whole lot this week,” he said. "Yeah, like the tee shots are hugely important, to then give yourself the opportunity to hit the greens and attack the pins.
"I haven't been playing out of the rough that often this week, which has been really nice, and I think I've played smart off the tee, and I've done what I needed to to get the ball in play. As I said, I just need to do that for one more day.”
Paul McGinley likes what he sees from McIlroy.
“I really like Rory tomorrow. He’s dominating tee-to-green,” the Dubliner said on NBC. “We’ve been down this track before with Rory. He’s always great when he’s got something to prove, he gets his elbows pointy…adversity drives him to focus, we saw that last year, he hunted down Scottie Scheffler…I just see a little bit of that going on.”
Fowler made two birdies and two bogeys in turn in level par before following a birdie from 69 feet at the 13th with that three putt bogey at the 18th.
"Through three rounds we're in the spot that we want to be in, and tomorrow is when the tournament starts,” Fowler said.
As for the three putt, he said: "Yeah, just a bummer. It would be nice for that one to go in. Really doesn't matter, having the lead, being one back, two back. You're going to have to play good golf tomorrow.
"Bummer to have that one slip away, but tomorrow is a whole new day, and like I said, that's kind of when the tournament really starts.”
As for his hopes of winning his first Major, he said: "I mean, obviously it would be huge. It would be great. Especially being here in Southern California, having a lot of people, family and friends that are out here this week.
"We have a chance tomorrow. I mentioned out there after going through the last few years, I'm not scared to fail. I've dealt with that.
"We're just going to go have fun, continue to try to execute, leave it all out there, see where we stand on 18.”
Clark has just one PGA Tour win, this year’s Wells Fargo Championship. But after opting to take a penalty drop at the last from heavy rough and make bogey to fall out of the final group, he was thrilled to birdie the 18th to bump McIlroy into the penultimate group with Scheffler.
"Yeah, I wanted to be in the final group,” Clark said. "Every shot matters out here. And on top of it, we couldn't see. So just the fact making it when we were kind of just feeling it and didn't really have the clearest of reads.
"Yeah, there's a lot of emotion. It's a U.S. Open and I wanted to be in that final group.”
Scheffler is two shots behind McIlroy and three behind Clark and Fowler but he showed how dangerous he can be when he recovered from a bogey at the 16th with that eagle-birdie finish.
"Going into tomorrow, I'm going to be chasing, but it's not going feel any different,” Scheffer said.
"If I was in the lead it's just I'm four shots behind instead of four shots ahead or whatever it is. Got to go out there and execute and do the best I can.”
Final round tee times (Irish time)
1623 Ryo Ishikawa
1634 Patrick Reed, Jacob Solomon
1645 Adam Svensson, Maxwell Moldovan
1656 Ben Carr, David Puig
1707 Romain Langasque, Aldrich Potgieter
1718 Abraham Ancer, Adam Hadwin
1729 Ryan Gerard, Mackenzie Hughes
1740 Yuto Katsuragawa, Gordon Sargent
1751 Jordan Smith, Sam Bennett
1807 Nick Hardy, Sebastián Muñoz
1818 Charley Hoffman, Sahith Theegala
1829 Andrew Putnam, Austin Eckroat
1840 Kevin Streelman, Sergio Garcia
1851 Sam Stevens, Tommy Fleetwood
1902 Jon Rahm, Dylan Wu
1913 Gary Woodland, Denny McCarthy
1924 Billy Horschel, Patrick Rodgers
1935 Ryan Fox, Brian Harman
1951 Justin Suh, Eric Cole
2002 Sam Burns, Keith Mitchell
2013 Si Woo Kim, Joaquin Niemann
2024 Brooks Koepka, Tyrrell Hatton
2035 Cameron Young, Russell Henley
2046 Shane Lowry, Tony Finau
2057 Collin Morikawa, Matt Fitzpatrick
2108 Padraig Harrington, Patrick Cantlay
2119 Min Woo Lee, Viktor Hovland
2135 Hideki Matsuyama, Cameron Smith
2146 Bryson DeChambeau, Tom Kim
2157 Ryutaro Nagano, Xander Schauffele
2208 Dustin Johnson, Harris English
2219 Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy
2230 Rickie Fowler, Wyndham Clark
