Nov 02, 2019: Rory McIlroy carded a third consecutive round of 67 to take a one shot lead into the final day of the WGC-HSBC Champions.
The World Number Two is going in search of a third World Golf Championships title and he was bogey free in moving to 15 under and edging one clear of Louis Oosthuizen.
“I probably played the best today that I’ve played all week. I drove the ball well. Hitting my irons pretty good for the most part. I feel like I didn’t quite get as much out of the round as I could have but I’m not going to complain. I’m in the lead going into tomorrow, so just need to rest up and try to get out there and play another good, solid round of golf.
I keep saying, I think my consistency this year, I’ve been able to take that to another level to what I’ve been able to do previously. Right now, the game feels pretty simple. I know that it’s not going to feel like that all the time, but when it does, you have to take advantage of that feeling. I’ve given myself another opportunity to win a very big golf tournament, a tournament that I’ve never won before”, said McIlroy.
The South African, Louis has a Claret Jug in his trophy collection but has never won a WGC event – losing out in the final of the WGC-Dell Match Play three years ago.
A victory for McIlroy would be his first European Tour triumph since 2016 and see him join just Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson in having won three of the four WGC events. The Northern Irishman won his second and latest WGC event in 2015 and since then has had nine top tens in the tournaments, including a fourth top five at Sheshan International Golf Club in 2016.
England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick and defending champion Xander Schauffele were at 13 under, a shot clear of another Englishman in Paul Waring.
Sungjae Im and Jason Kokrak were at 11 under, a shot clear of Abraham Ancer and Kevin Kisner, and two ahead of Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Victor Perez and Matthias Schwab.
European Tour Release
