{"id":873564,"date":"2026-08-30T07:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T07:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/873564\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T07:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T07:04:11","slug":"2026-tour-championship-rory-mcilroy-putts-way-back-into-contention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/873564\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Tour Championship: Rory McIlroy putts way back into contention"},"content":{"rendered":"

With five birdies on his back nine and four on the front, Rory McIlroy carved up East Lake Golf Club with his putter throughout Saturday\u2019s third round to post a thrilling 7-under 63.<\/p>\n

A pair of par-3 bogeys at Nos. 2 and 11 limited McIlroy from tying \u2014 and perhaps breaking \u2014 the low score of the tournament. It was still a showcase for the three-time FedExCup winner<\/a> who put together his best round of the week \u2014 and beat his previous best mark of the 2026 playoffs, a 6-under 64 during the opening round of last week\u2019s BMW Championship<\/a>. <\/p>\n

McIlroy and Round 3 playing competitor Si Woo Kim were the fourth pairing off the tee<\/a> in Atlanta on Moving Day, and then had a long wait watching as the rest of the field continued to keep up the low-scoring pace. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a very bunched leaderboard. The field used to get spread out a little bit more on the old track,\u201d McIlroy told CBS Sports after his round, comparing the course before its renovations to how it plays currently. \u201cIt seems like the last couple of years it\u2019s been a little more bunched, and that\u2019s a great thing because if you make a couple of birdies and jump up 10 or 15 spots.\u201d<\/p>\n

His birdie putt on the par-4 17th brought him into a five-way tie with Chris Gotterup, Viktor Hovland, Cameron Young and Ryan Gerard<\/a>. It also gave him a stretch of three consecutive made birdie putts. <\/p>\n

McIlroy went on to par his final hole after his tee shot disappeared off the fairway. He scrambled beautifully and gave himself at a look at a fourth straight birdie but just missed. <\/p>\n

It would have been just the second time he would have ended a round with four straight birdies. The first time it happened was at the Masters earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was leaving myself with putts that had a little bit of break in them but they were downhill and just sort of had to get them going on the right line,\u201d said McIlroy. \u201cSome days you leave yourself with putts that look better to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The TOUR Championship brings this season\u2019s top players to East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta to crown the 2026 FedExCup champion.<\/p>\n

How it all shook out<\/p>\n

McIlroy will enter Sunday five shots off Hovland\u2019s lead, tied for seventh with Cameron Young at 10 under.<\/p>\n

Gerard, Gotterup and Hovland all gained a stroke and took the co-lead at 11 under moments before McIlroy\u2019s round wrapped up on the 18th hole. <\/p>\n

From there, the leaderboard looked much like it has for a majority of the week in Atlanta \u2014 crowded.<\/p>\n

Gerard, who sits solo second after 54 holes, finished a shot behind Hovland and will play with him again tomorrow. <\/p>\n

\u201cI hope I can make it a little bit easier on my putter,\u201d said Hovland, who won the FedExCup in 2023. \u201cIf I can give myself a few more good looks, I feel like I am pretty deadly with the putter right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler sits T-3 with Gotterup at 12 under. They share that spot with Ludvig \u00c5berg and Adam Scott, the tournament\u2019s oldest player.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like if you went and did your homework and dug deep into the stats of the golf course, you might find something,\u201d said Scott when asked if he had any perspective on the low scores in Atlanta. \u201cThere are a few anomalies this week. There\u2019s been a lot of pars on holes, more than normal, I think. I don\u2019t know why. Maybe the greens are softer than they have been because maybe they\u2019re maturing. I\u2019m not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"TOUR<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

What\u2019s at stake this weekend in Atlanta? It\u2019s a good time to ask considering the hundreds of thousands of dollars that could swing at each and every hole. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With five birdies on his back nine and four on the front, Rory McIlroy carved up East Lake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-873564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873564","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=873564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}