A bogey on the final hole gave him a 2-under 70 and a share of the lead with William McGirt (64) and Gary Woodland (69) at 14-under 202.
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Kuchar, who won the 2013 Memorial tournament and has recorded four top-10s in his last five PGA Tour starts, was delighted to benefit from another benign day at Muirfield Village in the prestigious event hosted by Jack Nicklaus.
Matt Kuchar, the 2013 victor at Muirfield Village, had the lead at 16 under when he played too far away from the pin at the par-3 12th and made bogey, and then effectively took himself out of the tournament when it took two shots to get out of a fairway bunker on the next hole in making double bogey.
Day fired a four-under-68 to move to 11 under par at Muirfield Village, sitting four shots off the lead when unsafe weather halted play.
Playing alongside Jordan Spieth for the third day in a row, an early birdie at the second hole set McIlroy up to make a third round surge but a disappointing bogey at the par five seventh left him back where he started.
Northern Ireland’s McIlroy carded a 66 to finish five shots behind the leaders in a tie for 12th, while Spieth had a 68 and was another stroke back in a tie for 22nd.
Having already dropped shots at two of the four par fives, McIlroy added another bogey at the last for a round of 70 to leave himself plenty to do on Sunday. He shot a four-under 68, moving to 13 under for the tournament.
Nordqvist, of Sweden, Ai Miyazato of Japan, and Paula Reto of South Africa all shot seven-under par 64s at the par-71 Stockton Seaview Golf Club course. “I came out on the front nine, I played great, great golf. You can use that”, he said.
“Just wasn’t as sharp as I would have liked to have been”. “I looked up at the board when I was at even and I thought, ‘You know, I’m 12 back”.
Jason Day was thrilled with a 71 because he lost his swing and figured it should have been something in the upper 70s.
Defending champ Anna Nordqvist picked up right where she left off a year ago by firing a 64 on Friday to move into a tie for the lead after the opening round of the ShopRite Classic.
– Karine Icher matched the Bay Course record with a 9-under 62 to take the second-round lead in the ShopRite LPGA Classic.
Stoelting and Talley each parred the par-3 18th on the first extra hole, and Stoelting birdied the hole on the next pass for her third career tour victory.
Eight have never won on the PGA Tour.
CHAMPIONS: Billy Andrade shot a course-record 9-under 63 for a share of the second-round lead with Joe Durant and Todd Hamilton in the Principal Charity Classic in Des Moines, Iowa.
The 21-year-old Fitzpatrick finished at 16-under 272 at Bro Hof Slott.
In a five-way tie for second were Fitzpatrick’s English countrymen Ross Fisher (68) and Andrew Johnston (69), Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium (66), local hope Alexander Bjork (68), and Scott Henry of Scotland (69).
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Japan’s Haru Nomura, a two-time victor this year, and South Korea’s Na Yeon Choi were a stroke back at 11 under.
