{"id":8749,"date":"2025-07-19T19:13:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T19:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/8749\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T19:13:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T19:13:08","slug":"rory-mcilroy-hits-two-balls-in-one-shot-during-wild-third-round-at-the-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/8749\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy hits two balls in one shot during wild third round at The Open"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland \u2013 Rory McIlroy gave the home fans plenty to cheer about Saturday at The Open.<\/p>\n<p>He also left them bewildered with one of the strangest occurrences he could ever remember.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunate to draw a clean lie after a wild drive to the right of the 12th fairway, McIlroy smashed down on his short iron from 151 yards away, looking to pick up another birdie. Concerned about the possibility of a flier, he glanced upward after impact and was stunned to see his shot fluttering into the wind, about to come up well short of the green.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s when another ball popped up out of the turf and dropped behind him.<\/p>\n<p>McIlroy looked at the crowd and caddie Harry Diamond in confusion. Then he picked up the extra ball, inspected it and, annoyed that it may have cost him a pure strike, tossed it into the bush.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s never happened to me before,\u201d he said. \u201cIt could never happen on any other course but a links course as well. When the rough is all matted down and the balls get (buried) \u2013 it was very strange.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McIlroy still had a chance to salvage par but hit a so-so pitch and made bogey, his first dropped shot after a torrid start that put him, for a time, just four shots off the lead.<\/p>\n<p>But on the next hole, McIlroy got the stroke back \u2013 and then some \u2013 after dropping <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/watch\/golf\/randa\/rory-mcilroy-sends-open-championship-royal-portrush-into-frenzy-with-eagle\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a 55-foot eagle<\/a>, touching off a wild celebration behind the green from fans desperate to will him to victory about an hour from his childhood home in Holywood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the coolest moments of (my career),\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the largest roars I\u2019ve ever heard on a golf course.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McIlroy added one more birdie coming home, on 15, after kissing the flagstick, to sign for a 5-under 66 that was one of the best scores of the day. The rowdy third round vaulted McIlroy from joint 12th into a tie for fourth, into the penultimate group on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was just constant noise, for four and a half hours,\u201d said his playing partner, Jordan Smith. \u201cHe\u2019s gone out there and played really well today. So fair play to him. Hopefully he can do it tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019ll be a monumental task, as McIlroy enters the final round six shots behind world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. At least he has some history in that position \u2013 that was the same deficit that McIlroy overcame to defeat Scheffler in the 2022 Tour Championship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s just so solid. He doesn\u2019t make mistakes. He\u2019s turned himself into a really consistent putter,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cSo there doesn\u2019t seem to be any weakness there. Whenever you\u2019re trying to chase down a guy like that, it\u2019s hard to do. But he\u2019s incredibly impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland \u2013 Rory McIlroy gave the home fans plenty to cheer about Saturday at The Open.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-8749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}