McIlroy makes PGA Championship U-turn and plans to ‘forget about things’ | Golf | Sport
Rory McIlroy performed a swift about-turn on his earlier grievances regarding the conditions at Aronimink after putting a run of impressive six birdies together on his way to a four-under-par 66, thrusting himself firmly back into contention for the US PGA Championship. The Northern Irish star now believes he stands a genuine chance of landing a seventh major title, but has revealed plans to watch a particular film to ‘forget about things’ away from the course.
The 37-year-old sits just one stroke off the pace after completing his scorecard. This followed Friday’s 67 as he recovered strongly from a four-over-par opening round that had seriously dented his hopes of claiming back-to-back majors. McIlroy was among the morning wave at Aronimink Golf Club, teeing off more than three and a half hours ahead of the leading pack.
He briefly drew level with the four-under mark held by overnight leaders Maverick McNealy and Alex Smalley, before a dropped shot at the 17th pegged him back. Reflecting after the third round, McIlroy executed something of a U-turn on his earlier complaints, remarking: “Look when you have a set of greens like this you can start to frustrate people a little easier I think. You heard it in me last night, you heard it in Scottie [Scheffler].
“I saw some of his comments. I think there was a lot of guys that were frustrated yesterday coming off the course, but again, it’s frustrating to us, but at the same time it creates a hell of an entertaining championship. If I wasn’t playing this tournament I’d love what’s going on this week, but watching and playing are two different things.”
McIlroy intends to catch portions of Saturday’s action but has alternative entertainment arranged to keep himself busy. “I’ll watch a little bit of it,” he said.
“I’ll go back to the house and put the feet up. I started Batman: The Dark Knight last night, so I’ll try and finish that. That’s one of my go-tos to try to forget about things.”
“I’ll be curious just to see how the leaders go this afternoon. The wind was whipping at the end.”
“We’ll see if it continues to blow as hard as that. I’d certainly like it to blow as hard as that as the afternoon goes on, but we’ll see.”
McIlroy remained unsure as to where the lead might sit by day’s conclusion, with the likes of Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm accumulating birdies on the leaderboard behind him as he spoke to the media. “I feel like I still did enough to think I have a chance going into tomorrow,” he said.
“If I had played the last three holes at one under instead of one over, I would have got to five under.”Look when you have a set of greens like this you can start to frustrate people a little easier I think. You heard it in me last night, you heard it in Scottie [Scheffler].
“I sort of thought if I could go out today and get to that, it would make the leaders shoot under par to either be with me or ahead of me. So I didn’t get there. I made a couple of mistakes the last three holes.”
The demanding scoring conditions that had defined the opening two days eased on Saturday as the early starters, amongst them Justin Rose and Michael Kim, began stringing together a series of birdies. McIlroy recognised the moment to make his move and delivered exactly that, propelling himself squarely into contention on a remarkably congested leaderboard.
