HOYLAKE, England // Rory McIlroy waited patiently for the right moment to press the nitrous button in the third round of the British Open on Saturday, and when he did he sped away from the field like a finely tuned Ferrari.
The Northern Irishman’s four-stroke overnight lead was completely wiped out when he failed to sink a par-saving effort from five feet at the 12th hole.
Rather than feel sorry for himself, though, he calmly rolled in putts of 33 feet for a birdie at the 14th and 21 feet for an eagle two holes later before another eagle attempt from 11 feet at the last nestled in the cup.
“I knew Rickie Fowler was playing well in front,” McIlroy said after a four-under-par 68 gave him a 16-under aggregate of 200, two strokes off the record 54-hole total at a British Open. “I bogeyed the 12th and he tied with me there, but I never panicked and I didn’t feel uncomfortable. I knew I had some holes coming up that I could take advantage of.
“I feel like today my patience was rewarded. I just waited for my chance and I was able to convert.”
McIlroy, who finished the day six shots clear of the second-placed American, achieved his two major victories, at the 2011 US Open and 2012 US PGA Championship, by runaway eight-shot margins and said he knew how to get a front-running job done.
“I’m comfortable in this position,” said McIlroy, 25. “This is the third night in a row I’ll sleep on the lead. It helps that I’ve been in this position before and I’ve been able to get the job done. I’m comfortable with my golf game, comfortable with how I’m hitting it.”
His experience at the PGA Championship at Wentworth in May means he is taking nothing for granted.
On that occasion, he started the final round seven shots adrift of leader Thomas Bjorn.
But by the end of the day he had won his first tournament of the year. What goes around can come around when it is a case of protecting a final-round lead, McIlroy said.
“I noticed coming off the 11th tee at Wentworth that Thomas [Bjorn] and Luke [Donald] had made sevens on the sixth hole. So I knew that it was my opportunity,” he said. “This was my chance to make a few birdies and there were some birdie opportunities coming up for me, par-four 11th, par-five 12.
“I knew that I could make up some ground on them and maybe put a bit of pressure on them.“
If McIlroy hangs on, he has won three of golf’s four majors and would stand just a Masters victory away from joining Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen as the only players to have completed the fabled grand slam of golf.
Were he to do so next April at Augusta National he would, at 25, be the second youngest to have won all four after Woods, who was 24.
“I’d be in pretty illustrious company,” he said. “So not getting ahead of ourselves, here, but yeah, it would mean an awful lot.
“I never thought that I’d be able to be in this position.”
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