FORMER CHAMPION RORY McIlroy let his frustration get the better of him during his third round at The Open, throwing his club in anger after a wayward drive.
The Ulsterman tossed his three iron forwards after a poor drive on the 14th. He was just after letting his early momentum slip away, bogeying twice on the backward nine to effectively finish his chances of winning here at Royal St George’s.
Earlier McIlroy exploited ideal conditions to climb the leaderboard on day three of the 149th Open.
McIlroy made the halfway cut with just one shot to spare, consecutive rounds of 70 leaving the four-time major winner 11 adrift of the record pace being set by South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen.
That meant an early tee time on Saturday morning, but there were still thousands of spectators on the course as McIlroy holed from 12 feet for birdie on the first and twice the distance on the fourth.
A clumsy three-putt from short of the fifth green cost McIlroy his first dropped shot of the day, but he quickly made amends with a birdie on the sixth.
A superb pitch on the par-five seventh set up another birdie and when he also picked up a shot on the ninth, McIlroy had covered the front nine in 31 to move inside the top 20 on four under.
But the back nine saw his momentum stall.
At the par-three 11th he hit his tee shot right and then missed from only around two feet for his par. That took him back to three under.
Soon he would be on two under. His 15-footer slid just past the hole on 12 before he bogeyed 13.
After driving into the left rough he was unable to reach the green in two and chipped up around 20 feet past the hole from where he was unable to salvage his par.
Then came 14. He used a three iron off the tee, hit it left. Then he tossed his club forwards.
Rory McIlroy let his frustration get the better of him after a wayward drive at the 14th 👀😤
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He ended up with a par. On 15, it got worse, he failed to make the green in regulation and then missed a four-footer for par.
Back at one-under, he parred 16, 17 and 18 to finish his round on one-under for the tournament, earning him a share of 38th position.
As McIlroy began the back nine, Bryson DeChambeau was already putting the finishing touches to a disappointing 72 which included a double bogey on the ninth.
DeChambeau had played his last five holes in two under par on Friday to make the halfway cut on the mark of one over, with two amateurs among the 77 players to advance to the weekend on the Kent coast.
The former US Open champion admitted after a second round of 70 that he feels “really bad” about the outburst on day one which led to a war of words with his club manufacturer, the world number six claiming his Cobra driver “sucks”.
A Cobra representative described the comments as “stupid” and likened DeChambeau to “an eight-year-old that gets mad at you”, leading to an apology from DeChambeau on Instagram and another following Friday’s round.
“I made a mistake and I think as time goes on I’ll look back on this as a growing moment for me personally,” he said.
“Hopefully I can make the right things go on from here on out in regards to that because I didn’t mean it, I was in a heated situation and feel really bad about it.”
DeChambeau had started the day 12 shots off the lead held by Oosthuizen and with almost no chance of getting back into contention, although the largest 36-hole comeback in Open history – 13 shots by George Duncan in 1920 – was achieved at nearby Royal Cinque Ports.
Oosthuizen’s record halfway total of 129 had given him a two-shot lead over 2020 US PGA champion Collin Morikawa, with 2017 Open winner Jordan Spieth a shot further back.
World number one Dustin Johnson was four shots off the pace alongside Scottie Scheffler and Dylan Frittelli, with England’s Andy Sullivan leading the home challenge on six under.
Four-time major winner Brooks Koepka, who was eager to score more points in his spat with DeChambeau by pointing out he “loved” his driver after a 66 on Friday, was six off the lead on five under.
Elsewhere, Padraig Harrington rounded out a disappointing third round with a double-bogey on 18, signing for a three-over round of 73. The Ryder Cup captained bogeyed the par-four fifth but took the shot back with a birdie on 8, but back-to-back bogeys on 10 and 11 was only partly mitigated against by a birdie on 14, prior to the disappointing final hole. Harrington is at plus-three for the tournament.
