In Round 2, Rory McIlroy relinquished the lead at the DP World Tour Championship after hitting his third shot into the water on the par-5 18th and making double bogey.
He got himself into some more trouble late on Saturday, but he recovered and went into the final round in Dubai with a one-shot lead.
In a battle for the lead with Sam Horsfield, McIlroy’s tee shot at the par-3 17th stayed perilously close to the rocks and just out of the water hazard. McIlroy played his shot from the ball’s resting location after some consideration with his caddie, Harry Diamond.
After his round, McIlroy said, “Yeah, Harry was pleading with me not to hit it – ‘Just go back and we can make four at the last.” “It reminded me of…
When I missed the second hole when playing with Tiger in Boston, I was trying to hit it out of the hazard, and it went straight into the ocean. It occurred to Harry and me both while gazing at it.”
In the third round of the 2020 Northern Trust, McIlroy made the shot he was referring to.
Last year at TPC Boston, McIlroy made triple bogey. On Saturday, his gamble paid off with a bogey. McIlroy scored birdie on the 18th to make amends for his bogey in Round 2; Horsfield made bogey in the group behind him, and McIlroy took the lead going into the final round at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
