ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Rory McIlroy’s cost on the Abu Dhabi Championship faltered when he discovered water off his drive and made double bogey on the final gap on Saturday, leaving him 5 pictures off the lead held by Paul Waring heading into the ultimate spherical.
9 strokes off the lead after 36 holes, the No. 3-ranked McIlroy had closed to simply three pictures again within the third spherical when he pulled his tee shot on the par-5 No. 18, the ball bouncing off the rocks lining the green and ricocheting into the water.
After a drop, McIlroy then hit an method — his fourth shot — into the greenside bunker and will solely make a 7, for a 3-under 69 and 13 underneath total.
Lowry shot 6-under 66 Saturday and is simply three pictures again of chief Paul Waring.
“The leaders weren’t getting away and I used to be making a bit little bit of a cost,” mentioned McIlroy, who made six birdies after opening his spherical with a bogey. “And one mistake — that drive on 18. Premature mistake.”
It was all of the extra irritating for McIlroy as a result of the 229th-ranked Waring — the chief by 5 pictures after the second spherical — was one in every of solely two gamers within the prime 29 to shoot over par on Saturday.
With a 1-over 73, Waring noticed his lead trimmed to 1 stroke and was 18 underneath for the match. Niklas Norgaard was alone in second place after capturing 69, with Tommy Fleetwood (71), Thorbjorn Olesen (71), Sebastien Soderberg (68) and Shane Lowry (66) tied for third place.
“You’ve received to have a mean day, haven’t you?” mentioned Waring, whose 19-under rating after two rounds was the bottom 36-hole rating to par in European tour historical past. “A bit of bit upset. I felt like might I’ve actually moved ahead as we speak and put myself out of sight.
“However 4 rounds of golf, you’re all the time going to have an iffy run of holes, iffy spherical of golf, no matter you wish to name it,” the 39-year-old Englishman added. “If starting of the week you’d given me a one-shot lead going into tomorrow I’d snatch your hand off.”
McIlroy was in a tie for thirteenth place as he seeks a win that may clinch him the Race to Dubai title for a sixth time, tying him with the late Seve Ballesteros and placing him simply two off the file eight of Colin Montgomerie.
“I dug myself a little bit of gap to get out of,” McIlroy mentioned, including he nonetheless goes “into tomorrow feeling like I’ve half an opportunity.”
McIlroy additionally made triple bogey on No. 17 on Friday.
