Saturday, May 21, 2016

Rory McIlroy is singing in the rain at Irish 

Open, leads by three in a downpour

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
Rory McIlroy surged to the top of the leaderboard on a weather-delayed day three of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open hosted by the Rory Foundation as he attempts to win his home event for the first time.

The Northern Irishman, pictured, will head into the final day's play with a three-shot lead over Masters Tournament champion Danny Willett, but both men will have to complete three holes of their third round on Sunday after nearly four hours of play was lost to the weather.
McIlroy had picked up two shots in his third round to get to nine under when play was suspended due to darkness on Saturday, with Willett also stood on the 16th tee with three bogeys and a birdie on his card.
The Englishman is playing in his first European Tour event since his sensational win at Augusta in early April and all eyes were on the two top ranked players in the field coming into this week at The K Club.
That may remain the case on Sunday but they will have some pressure applied from a strong chasing pack, with Scotland's Russell Knox having set the clubhouse target at five under after a third round 70.
South Africa's Richard Sterne was also at five under and playing the 16th when the horn sounded, with Englishman Tyrrell Hatton a further shot back on the 17th.
McIlroy had spoken all week of his desire to at last lift a trophy on home soil and this week represents a change in fortune after missing the cut the past three seasons at this event.
Willett dropped a shot on the second after going right off the tee and dropped into a three-way tie for the lead with McIlroy and overnight co-leader Marc Warren - who would drop off the pace with a further five bogeys against a single birdie.
The Scot is only three under par with his third round still to complete so, after that excellent 66 on Friday, he has dropped dramatically to five shots off the pace.
McIlroy then took advantage of the par five fourth to get his nose in front before Willett joined him at eight under with a birdie of his own on the same hole.
Willett found some trouble down the right on the sixth and did well to get up and down to drop just a single shot but then found the water off the seventh tee to make it two bogeys in a row.
Play was then suspended for two hours and 18 minutes with McIlroy on the tenth green and upon the resumption the leader tapped in from three feet to extend his advantage to three shots.
Sterne had been one over for his round when the horn sounded but he birdied the 11th and then holed an excellent long putt on the 12th to move four off the lead.
Knox joined him with a birdie on the 16th after a fortunate bounce off the rocks before another hour and 31 minutes was lost. Play did resume but it was not long until darkness descended with the rain hammering down in County Kildare.
Frenchmen GrĂ©gory Bourdy and Romain Wattel, Spaniards Rafa Cabrera Bello and Jorge Campillo and Welshman Bradley Dredge were all in the clubhouse at three under.

THIRD-ROUND SCOREBOARD
+several players have still to complete their third rounds

1 Rory McIlroy 67   70 34 .

-8   171
2 Danny Willett 65 71 37


-6 173
T3 Rafa Cabrera Bello 72 71 64


-4 207
T3 Russell Knox 75 66 57


-4 198
T3 Sebastien Gros 71 70 53


-4 194
T3 Tyrrell Hatton 72 68 44


-4 184
T7 Gregory Bourdy 72 73 68


-3 213
T7 Romain Wattel 75 70 68


-3 213
T7 Stephen Gallacher   71 71 57


-3 199
T7 Bradley Dredge 71 70 54 -3 195
T7 Jorge Campillo 72 69 54 -3 195
T7 Richard Sterne 72 68 41 -3 181
T7 Jaco Van Zyl 68 72 41 -3 181
T7 Matthew Southgate 70 69 37 -3 176
T7 Marc Warren 70 66 40


-3 176
T16 Gary Boyd 72 73 69 -2 214
T16 Pablo Larrazabal 74 70 70 -2 214
T16 Lee Westwood 72 72 70 -2 214
T16 Richard Bland 70 74 70 -2 214
T20 James Morrison 70 76 69 -1 215
T20 Mikko Korhonen 72 73 70 -1 215
T20 Maximilian Kieffer 77 68 70 -1 215
T20 Oliver Fisher 73 71 71 -1 215
T20 Hao Tong Li 73 70 72 -1 215
T20 Nicolas Colsaerts 72 71 72 -1 215
T20 Brett Rumford 69 72 56 -1 197
T20 Jamie Donaldson 71 70 53 -1 194
T20 Callum Shinkwin 68 73 46 -1 187
T29 Trevor Fisher Jr. 73 73 70 E 216
T29 Nacho Elvira 70 75 71 E 216
T29 Thongchai Jaidee 71 72 73 E 216
T29 Raphael Jacquelin 73 69 60 E 202
T29 Eddie Pepperell 71 70 50 E 191
T34 Ricardo Gouveia 75 71 71 +1 217
T34 Shane Lowry 71 75 71 +1 217
T34 Adrian Otaegui 73 69 61 +1 203
T34 Chris Wood 71 70 55 +1 196
T34   Richie Ramsay 70 71 51


+1 192
T39 Rikard Karlberg 73 73 72 +2 218
T39   Craig Lee 73 73 72


+2 218
T39 Ashun Wu 72 74 72 +2 218
T39 Kevin Phelan 75 70 73 +2 218
T39 Thorbjorn Olesen 72 72 74 +2 218
T39 Gary Hurley 73 71 74 +2 218
T39 Darren Clarke 73 71 74 +2 218
T39 Soren Kjeldsen 69 74 66 +2 209
T39 Martin Kaymer 69 73 67 +2 209
T39 David Lipsky 72 71 66 +2 209
T39 Kristoffer Broberg 74 68 62 +2 204
T50 Matt Ford 72 74 73 +3 219
T50 Richard Green 75 70 74 +3 219
T50 Alejandro Canizares 73 72 74 +3 219
T50 Ross Fisher 69 75 75 +3 219
T50 Graeme McDowell 71 72 76 +3 219
T50 Gavin Moynihan 72 71 71 +3 214
T50 Niclas Fasth 70 73 67 +3 210
T50 Felipe Aguilar 71 71 63 +3 205
T58 Ross McGowan 73 72 77 +6 222
T58 Paul Dunne 70 75 77 +6 222
T58 Roope Kakko 71 73 78 +6 222
T61 Borja Virto Astudillo   74   72   77 +7 223
T61 Bernd Wiesberger 71 75 77 +7 223
T61 Robert Dinwiddie 72 72 79 +7 223
T61   Paul McGinley 72 71 80 +7 223
65 Renato Paratore 72 72 80 +8 224
 


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