Rory McIlroy felt like he was hanging on for expensive life Saturday on the Memorial. He needed to scramble for bogey to start out the again 9. He went 5 holes with out hitting a inexperienced. And all of the whereas, he by no means actually misplaced floor.
When he needed to scramble for par on the fourth-easiest gap at Muirfield Village, the par-5 eleventh, he stated he instructed caddie Harry Diamond he solely wished to attempt to break 70.
McIlroy wound up with a 2-under 70. That was sufficient to take him 4 photographs behind at first of the day to a share of the lead going into Sunday.
“That’s what happens when conditions are like this,” McIlroy stated. “You just have to hang on.” It helped that Hideki Matsuyama went from resulting in dropping off the leaderboard in a span of six holes. And that Patrick Cantlay went into the water and over the inexperienced on his solution to a triple bogey on the entrance 9. David Lipsky bogeyed his final two holes.
What remained amid a couple of rumbles of thunder — however no climate delays — was a possibility for almost everybody who had a tee time Sunday.
Thirteen gamers had been separated by two photographs. Nine extra had been solely three photographs out of the lead.
Lipsky’s two closing bogeys gave him a 72, whereas Si Woo Kim overcome two double bogeys for a 71. They joined McIlroy at 6-under 210.
It’s the best 54-hole lead since 1990, when the climate was so atrocious that the ultimate spherical was canceled and Greg Norman received at even-par 216.
McIlroy, doing his greatest to maintain in play on the quick fairways which have been baked all week by a scorching solar, picked up three birdies during the last seven holes, simply not on the holes he imagined.
He chipped in for birdie on the damaging par-3 twelfth. He reached the par-5 fifteenth in two after a 344-yard drive. His method to a again pin on the seventeenth rolled previous the cup to 7 toes and arrange one in all solely eight birdies on that gap for the day.
Just as candy was the 18th, the place his putt from the again of the inexperienced to a entrance pin ran almost 10 toes by the cup and he holed that for par. McIlroy had a number of par putts from between 5 and eight toes, all of them necessary on a day like this.
“I was really happy with how I scored out there, and how I just sort of hung in there for most of the day,” McIlroy stated.
He shall be within the last group with Kim, who one-putted his final seven holes, saving par from a entrance bunker on the 18th.
All this was made potential largely by Matsuyama, a former Memorial winner, who birdied his first two holes and appeared to be on his method. And then it rapidly fell aside — a nasty chip on the par-3 eighth, a three-putt on the ninth and his huge blunder on the par-3 twelfth — tee shot into the water, then over the inexperienced from the drop space and a triple bogey.
Cantlay, a two-time Memorial winner, had just one huge mistake. He went for the inexperienced from the tough on the par-4 sixth and got here up brief and into the water, then went lengthy into the tough and didn’t get up-and-down, making a triple bogey.
Otherwise, Cantlay made 14 pars, a pair of birdies and a bogey. He and Matsuyama, regardless of a giant quantity on every of their playing cards, had been two photographs behind going into Sunday.
The huge transfer got here from Keegan Bradley, who made the reduce on the quantity. He teed off at 8:15 a.m. and completed because the leaders had been simply beginning to heat up. Bradley made 9 birdies in his spherical of 65, and now he’s solely two photographs behind.
Viktor Hovland (69) and Mark Hubbard (72) had been within the massive group one shot behind at 5-under 211. Hubbard bogeyed his final three holes for the second time this week. He didn’t let it trouble him on Thursday, and he felt the identical method Saturday.
“I’m not happy with my finish again, but at the same time, I made three pretty good bogey putts,” Hubbard stated.
His technique on a day like this: “Just try and make a lot of birdies on the par 5s and not make doubles on the hard holes.” Justin Suh, the 36-hole chief, didn’t keep there for lengthy. He began bogey-bogey, then discovered the water on No. 3 for a double bogey. He didn’t make his first birdie — his just one — till the 14th gap. Suh had a 77.
He was nonetheless solely three photographs behind, together with Jordan Spieth (72).
Of the 22 gamers separated by three photographs, 9 have by no means received on the PGA Tour. One of these was Lipsky, who doubts he’ll get too wrapped up in wanting on the leaderboard.
“It’s too hard to focus on anything else but your game,” he stated.