Rory McIlroy is 18 holes away from achieving his “dream” to win The Open at St Andrews after a stunning charge yesterday.
The Northern Irish ace shot a brilliant six-under 66 on the Old Course in the 150th Open. He finished level at 16-under with Victor Hovland after the duo overhauled leader Cameron Smith to set-up a box office final round pairing this afternoon in Scotland.
Four-time Major winner McIlroy, 33, said: “It's unbelievably cool to have a chance to win The Open at St Andrews. It's what dreams are made of and I'm going to try to make a dream come true.”
McIlroy, whose last Major was in 2014, opened with four straight pars before his round caught alight with successive birdies at the fifth and sixth. Another birdie at the ninth was followed by a superb bunker shot to hole out for an eagle at the par 4 10th.
He added: “I think it was the first bunker I put it in this week and it was a nice result. Anything inside 10 feet I felt was going to be a really good shot.
“It just came out perfectly. It was skill to get it somewhere close but it was luck that it went in the hole. You need a little bit of luck every now and again, especially in these big tournaments and that was a nice bonus.”
McIlroy made a further birdie after hitting a superb iron into the par 5 14th. He dropped his only shot on the Road Hole after going over the back of the 17th.
But recovered to birdie the last after driving to the front edge of the green. He and Norwegian Hovland, 24, will take a four-shot advantage into the final day from Cameron Young and Aussie Smith back on 12-under.
McIlroy added: “I've got myself in a great position after three days. I've finished off enough golf tournaments in my time to feel like I know what to do. Nothing's given to you and I have to go out there and earn it just like I've earned everything else in my career.”
McIlroy walked up the 18th with his family in the adjacent Rusacks Hotel watching on. He is now planning his routine for Sunday to put him course for glory.
He added: “I've been sort of taking a little mid-morning nap the last couple of days. I’ll just try to do the same thing again.
“I usually get to the golf course three hours before and do a gym session and get some treatment, physio and lunch and everything else. And certainly my phone will be away and I'll just sort of get into my routine.”
