{"id":5818,"date":"2025-09-07T13:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T13:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/5818\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T13:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T13:54:07","slug":"rory-mcilroy-goes-for-second-title-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/5818\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy goes for second title \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Leaderboard:<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">-15 Saddier (7)<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">-14 Cabrera-Bello (9), Lagergren (9)<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">-13 Hidalgo (6), McIlroy (8)<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Selected Irish:<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">-7 Lowry (16)<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">-6 McKibbin (F)<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">+1 Maguire (F)<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">The rain is back at the K Club with vengeance, lashing again as Cabrera-Bello (-14) lays up at the par 5 10th. Lagergren (-14) meanwhile hits it close at 9 with a chance to join the lead, he misses it though, big opportunity wasted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">The Swede is an Irish specialist, it seems, having won the second-tier Northern Ireland Open Challenge in 2014 and the Irish Challenge in 2024. Irish Open would complete the set.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">McIlroy\u2019s birdie putt at the eighth (-13) just a few inches away, great effort but lurking and ready to kick off you\u2019d think with three par 5s left in his final 10 holes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">McIlroy (-13) leaves his birdie putt short at the seventh, he\u2019s annoyed by that one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Lagergren (-14) is on the charge now and holes a birdie putt at the eighth and straight down the middle at the ninth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Cabrera-Bello is up to 14 under and flying it today, the course is there for the taking now in soft conditions with the rain stopping. Saddier (-15) has a tough par save ahead at the sixth hole after a poor approach, but he makes it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">McIlroy is middle of the fairway at the seventh par 4, from 119 yards another green light special and he doesn\u2019t love it but it\u2019s another big birdie chance from about 10-15 feet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Birdie putt for McIlroy (-13) from 16 feet at the par 4 sixth after an approach from 160 yards. It just slides by for par but right in the thick of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland in action. Photograph: Richard Heathcote\/Getty\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/JU24YM2S5ATWQU32AQFU44XBII.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland in action. Photograph: Richard Heathcote\/Getty <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free b-it-article-body__text--left\">Sorry for the delay but it was Birdie for McIlroy at the fifth, another stunning putt from 42 feet to get to 13 under. He has got it going with the flatstick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Birdie at the last for McKibbin, it\u2019s a round of 69 and he\u2019s inside the top 25 for now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">McIlroy\u2019s eagle putt then comes up short, the moisture probably making an impact. Short enough putt left for birdie though.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free b-it-article-body__text--left\">Birdie for McIlroy! Only three behind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">220 yards into the par 5, an iron in hand for McIlroy (-11). Hits a low cut up the side of the green. Fine shot and an eagle putt coming up of a decent distance coming up!<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Hidalgo makes bogey on 3 to drop to -13.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Unfortunately McKibbin\u2019s (-5) nicely played final round has been spoiled by a double bogey at the 17th after he hit the water off the tee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Big drive at the par 5 fourth hole for McIlroy (-11), where a birdie is surely a must.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Hidalgo (-14) bogeyed the second and has a decent sized par putt to come at the third.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Cabrera-Bello has a rare chance to go eagle-eagle to burst into contention, but just leaves the putt short, but he\u2019s up to -13.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free b-it-article-body__text--left\">Par for Rory. Big moment for McIlroy (-11) as he holes well from nine feet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Poor shot by McIlroy (-11) at the third, misses the green to the left and it\u2019s not clear if it\u2019s in the bunker or in the water. McIlroy just about safe from the water, in thick, wet rough which held it up, but leaves himself a tricky par putt left with his chip.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Saddier (-15) hits a nice shot at the second and has a chance for birdie which he misses, Hidalgo (-14) had to lay up and has a similar length putt for par, which he misses. Saddier back in front.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free b-it-article-body__text--left\">Birdie for McIlroy! 38 feet for McIlroy up the hill and it\u2019s right in the middle. That\u2019s more like it, back to -11. The crowd loved that one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Good par by Saddier (-15), solid stroke, but he\u2019s lost his lead on Hidalgo (-15), who taps in from a foot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">McIlroy only 105 yards in at the 2nd, a wedge, he eyes it down but it\u2019s a mediocre shot that spins back and leaves himself a long birdie putt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Hidalgo hits a cracking shot at the first, spins it back to a couple of feet. He should join Saddier in the lead, or maybe take the lead, with Saddier missing the green.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">McIlroy is safely on the fairway at the second.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free b-it-article-body__text--left\">Hole-in-one alert! Cabrera-Bello pitching it in at the 3rd. One bounce and straight in the hole. Magic moment for the fans! He\u2019s up to -12.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free b-it-article-body__text--left\">Bogey for McIlroy! Misses an eight-footer for par sadly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Lagergren starts with a birdie on the opening hole to move up to 12 under.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">McIlroy misses the green with his second shot, into the greenside rough on the right. But shouldn\u2019t be the most difficult up and down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">McIlroy is on the tee now after a bit of practice, his bunker shots have been top-class this week so far.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">First hole is 417 yards, tight par 4. He hits a draw with a 3 wood right down the middle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free b-it-article-body__text--left\">Hello and welcome to live coverage of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/irish-open\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/irish-open\/\">Irish Open<\/a> final round from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/the-k-club\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/the-k-club\/\">The K Club<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/rory-mcilroy\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/rory-mcilroy\/\">Rory McIlroy<\/a> is in contention in tied fourth position, four off the lead of Adrien Saddier. That is certainly surmountable if McIlroy hits his top form at a course where he won his only previous Irish Open in 2016. McIlroy has been in fine form this week, and enjoyed a homecoming type event after his round on Thursday, where he brought out the Masters green jacket in front of the fans. The home crowd will only be for one man today, even if it means getting soaked from the heavy rain so far this morning. He tees off at 12.56pm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">The leaderboard:<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">-15 Saddier<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">-14 Hidalgo<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">-12 Garcia-Heredia<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">-11 McIlroy, Lagergren<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Selected Irish:<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">-7 McKibbin (14)<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">-6 Lowry (6)<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">+1 Maguire (F)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leaderboard: -15 Saddier (7) -14 Cabrera-Bello (9), Lagergren (9) -13 Hidalgo (6), McIlroy (8) Selected Irish: -7 Lowry&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6608,61,60,1393,1394,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-5818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-dp-world-tour","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-irish-open","12":"tag-rory-mcilroy","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}