Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy was one of four players to shoot a round in the 60s on Saturday, scoring 68 to jump 44 places in the standings at the cold and rainy Wells Fargo Championship at TPC Potomac.
He sits tied for sixth at two under, six shots behind leader Keegan Bradley.
Bradley sits at eight-under 202 after three rounds to take a two-shot lead into Sunday’s final round at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. Max Homa is Bradley’s immediate threat, two shots back at six under par. Homa shot 71 for his round.
“It was a really good day, it was a really good day,” McIlroy said. “I felt like I could have been a couple lower, I hit the ball really well in the front nine and just didn’t take any of the chances I gave myself. But overall I can’t be too disappointed, 2 below zero was a very good score.”
McIlroy stood his ground as everyone around him dropped in the first nine, firing nine pairs in a row. Bogeys on the 10th and 12th holes were quickly recovered with birdies on the 12th and 14th holes. A big finish with two iron shots inside 10 feet allowed for birdies on the 17th and 18th holes to post a 2-under 68.
Jason Day, who led after each of the first two rounds, struggled through a Saturday 79 to drop 12 places in a tie for 13th at 1 under in the tournament.
Saturday’s scoring average was 73.7, and Day helped inflate that number.
The day was bogey, triple-bogey, bogey from holes three to five in a nightmarish day.
Scores and totals collected from the third round at the PGA Tour Wells Fargo Championship, TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm:
(USA unless noted, Par 70):
202 Keegan Bradley 70 65 67
204 Max Homa 67 66 71
206 Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 68 68 70, James Hahn 66 68 72
207 Matthew Fitzpatrick (English) 68 68 71
208 Brian Harman 69 66 73, Cameron Young 68 71 69, Chad Ramey 69 66 73, Denny McCarthy 65 69 74, Luke List 68 66 74, Matthew Wolff 65 73 70, Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 67 73 68
209 Chengtsung Pan (Tai) 68 71 70, Jason Day (Aus) 63 67 79, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 68 69 72, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor) 66 73 70, Nick Taylor (Can) 67 73 69, Si Woo Kim (Kor) 67 72 70
210 Adam Schenk 69 68 73, Corey Conners (Can) 69 71 70, Kurt Kitayama 67 67 76, Lanto Griffin 70 69 71, Turk Pettit 67 72 71
211 Hank Lebioda 68 70 73, JT Poston 68 69 74, Mackenzie Hughes (Can) 66 73 72, Michael Gligic (Can) 71 69 71, Scott Piercy 67 71 73, Stephan Jaeger (Germany) 67 71 73, Troy Merritt 71 69 71
212 Austin Smotherman 68 71 73, Chez Reavie 69 71 72, David Lingmerth (Sweden) 71 69 72, Rickie Fowler 66 72 74, Russell Knox (Scotland) 68 72 72, Sergio García (Esp) 67 71 74, Tony Finau 69 69 74, Tyrrell Hatton (English) 70 66 76
213 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 69 68 76, Camilo Villegas (Col) 69 69 75, Matt Kuchar 67 73 73, Rory Sabbatini (Svk) 67 69 77, Stewart Cink 66 73 74
214 Ben Kohles 67 72 75, Ben Martin 68 70 76, Chase Seiffert 67 73 74, Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 71 69 74, Henrik Norlander (Sweden) 70 69 75, Justin Lower 68 70 76, Kelly Kraft 70 70 74, Luke Donald (English) 71 68 75, Matthew NeSmith 67 72 75, Russell Henley 68 72 74
215 Dawie van der Walt (Rsa) 69 70 76, Dylan Wu 66 73 76, Joel Dahmen 64 75 76, Martin Laird (Sco) 70 69 76, Paul Barjon (Fra) 65 74 76, Ryan Armor 72 67 76
216 Brendan Steele 68 70 78, Callum Tarren (English) 65 74 77
217 Peter Malnati 67 73 77
218 Kevin Chappell 70 69 79
219 Taylor Moore 69 71 79
222 Michael Thompson 71 69 82
Reference-www.irishtimes.com