ORLANDO, Fla. – Twenty-seven holes. That’s all it takes to turn what was starting to feel like a lost week into something special – 27 holes.
Rory McIlroy knows this. Rory McIlroy lived this earlier this year when he won the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the European tour.
“I won that golf tournament in 27 holes. I shot 9 under on Saturday and 3 under on the front nine on Sunday, and sort of cruised, I didn’t really do much else,” McIlroy said Saturday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. “When the golf course is playing as tough as this, that’s all, you sort of only need like two really good nine-hole stretches and then you can sort of play conservative and make a lot of pars the rest of the way.”
McIlroy will put that theory to the test on Sunday at Bay Hill following a sublime finish to his third round that included three consecutive birdies to close out a back-nine 30 to tie the second-nine scoring record. His inward half started by driving the par-4 10th, cutting the corner and launching a tee shot 365 yards.
McIlroy, the 2018 API champ, shot a third-round 68 to move within four shots of the lead, offering him a glimmer of hope that he can piece together another 27-hole run at Arnie’s Place.
McIlroy’s day didn’t start with much promise. His opening loop included a three-putt at No. 7, missed birdie putts of 8 feet (No. 4) and 14 feet (No. 6) and two bogeys.
“I was 1 over through 7 [holes] and hit a bad tee shot on 8. I felt like I should have been 2 or 3 under through 7. I felt like I was pretty wasteful those first few holes,” said McIlroy, whose largest final-round comeback on the PGA Tour is six shots. “Then I hit it in the one place on 8 that you can’t hit it. It was in that right rough and you’re blocked out by the trees. So, yeah, a couple little bursts of frustration on the eighth the last two days. Both times it sort of got me going.”
McIlroy will need to avoid another slow start on Sunday if he’s going to pull off another 27-hole masterpiece.
