Rory McIlroy was in a fast forward mode as he raced to 16-under with one birdie, one bogey and two eagles and opened up an yawning six-shot lead over his nearest rival, Rickie Fowler at the end of the third round of the Open Championships here today.
McIlroy, playing some of his best golf, followed up his amazing driving and iron play with excellent putting on the green today to shoot four-under 68 after 66-66 in first two rounds.
Starting six shots ahead of Fowler, he stayed six clear after both were tied at 12-under after 12 holes. Sergio Garcia (69) was third with yesterday's hero Dustin Johnson (71) at nine-under 207.
McIlroy is 16-under 200 and Fowler (69-69-68) is at 206, while Sergio Garcia (68-70-69) and Dustin Johnson (71-65-71) were tied for third at 207. Frenchman Victor Dubuisson of France (68) was fifth and Edoardo Molinari (68) was sixth.
Five players, Matteo Manassero (68), Adam Scott (69), Robert Karlsson (70), Jim Furyk (71) and Charl Schwartzel (72) were tied for seventh at 210.
For the record, Tiger Woods, the last man to win at Hoylake in 2006, is at three-over 219 in tied 58th place and 19 shots behind McIlroy.
Both McIlroy and Fowler are 25 and are considered to be among the two best young talents in world golf, though Fowler is yet to win a Major.
In contrast McIlroy could win his third Major on Sunday and be three-quarters of a way around a career Slam before the age of 25. And he would naturally start as the favourite for Masters next April.
McIlroy, when asked about it said,"It would mean a lot of hype going into Augusta next year (laughing). It would be (great) -- not a lot of people have achieved the career Grand Slam.
And if everything goes the right way tomorrow to get to that three-quarters of the way there is some achievement by the age of 25. I'd be in pretty illustrious company. So not getting ahead of ourselves, here, but yeah, it would mean an awful lot.
