{"id":865489,"date":"2026-08-23T12:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T12:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/865489\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T12:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T12:08:09","slug":"rory-mcilroy-keeps-bmw-championship-hopes-alive-with-strong-third-round-of-65-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/865489\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy keeps BMW Championship hopes alive with strong third round of 65 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy<\/a> pulled himself back into contention at the BMW Championship with a strong finish for a five-under-par third round in St Louis, leaving him five behind leader Wyndham Clark.<\/p>\n

McIlroy has been looking for a response after labouring to an eight over finish at last week\u2019s St Jude Championship, and shot a fine six-under opening round for a share of the lead, before following that up with a 69 on Friday.<\/p>\n

The back-to-back Masters champion again appeared in steady form during the front nine on Saturday, turning at one under after a birdie on the par-3 second before another on 11.<\/p>\n

World number two McIlroy then stepped things up with a run of four birdies from the 13th, sandwiched by a bogey at the 14th.<\/p>\n

The Northern Irishman found both bunkers with his opening two shots on the 18th, but then almost chipped in with a fine recovery effort before saving par.<\/p>\n

McIlroy finished the day at 12 under, looking to keep pace with Clark, who dropped his first shots of the tournament with a double bogey on the opening hole before an eagle at the eighth and a strong back nine saw him finish with a 65, having failed to save par on the last. The pair will make up the final group at 6.50pm Irish time on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I needed to be patient the last three days, because my game has been good in parts, but then it has been a struggle in other ways,\u201d McIlroy told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t hit my first fairway today until the 10th hole, playing this golf course from the rough isn\u2019t fun, but I hung in there, my short game saved me a couple of times and I got some momentum coming in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am in a good spot going into tomorrow in terms of where I am at on the leaderboard, but it\u2019s going to take a heroic effort from one of us to catch Wyndham.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrick Cantlay is alongside McIlroy at 12 under, with Chris Gotterup a shot further back alongside Gary Woodland, who dropped back after a 70. JJ Spaun also saw his challenge fade after a two-over round.<\/p>\n

World number one Scottie Scheffler \u2013 who had coasted to an impressive victory at last week\u2019s St Jude Championship, but was two over after a first-round 72 \u2013 sits in a group on five under after his 68.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy pulled himself back into contention at the BMW Championship with a strong finish for a five-under-par…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,1747,756,85],"class_list":["post-865489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-pga-tour","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}