The former world number one, who won the Honda Classic and WGC-Cadillac Championship in his last two starts, was five under par for the day before finding water with his approach to the 18th and then seeing his fourth shot plug in a greenside bunker. And then the rain came, temperatures dropped, winds picked up and changed directions and weather suits were put on, taken off, put on … “I love the feeling of being in the lead”.
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Day kept the two-stroke lead with which he began the round, hoping to become the first 36-hole leader to win since Tiger Woods in 2012.
At the time McIlroy finished, his 6-under-par 282 score got him inside the top-25.
“I feel like I stayed patient to grind out a two-under par”, Day told reporters after playing through several rain showers to maintain the lead he has held from the opening round.
Stenson, who felt he had “one hand on the trophy” before failing to convert a two-shot lead in the final round a year ago, moved into the outright lead in brilliant fashion with an eagle from 12 feet on the daunting par-five sixth.
Now, McIlroy finds himself on a total of one-over-par after three rounds, 16 shots behind Day.
He’ll have to get by Day, who said he never could gather any momentum during the round, the result of the weather. I’ve just had some weird stretches where I just can’t get off the bogey train and obviously that’s not very good out here. “It was hilarious. We were having fun with it. I started noticing shots coming out of the gun the right way and I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is kind of fun'”.
“Just because you haven’t played well, you know, a few weeks in a row or finished well, missed cuts, doesn’t mean you’re actually playing poorly”, he said.
And then he got sick Thursday.
The top two were threatening to pull away from the chasing pack with Chappell making a bogey on the seventh to fall back into a tie for third on 11 under with compatriots Jamie Lovemark and Troy Merritt and Rose, who holed from six feet for birdie on the ninth as the forecast rain duly arrived.
The Aussie found the water on his second shot at the 11th and took another bogey but responded at the par-5 16th, just missing a 26-foot eagle putt but tapping in for birdie.
Rory McIlroy doesn’t have much at stake, either.
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But the world’s No. 2-ranked player, the highest in the field this week, will at least leave Orlando to defend his title at the World Golf Championship Match Play next week in Austin, Texas, with that familiar spring in his step when things are going well. I’m exhausted after today but we got one more day to go. “This is going to motivate me to be that close and I am really looking forward to getting back into it in Houston”.
