Justin Rose heads into the final round at the Frys.com Open today with the title very much in his sights. But it was a very different story for Rory McIlroy, who was thankful to still be standing after a fright by the 17th green.
A blemish-free 68 put Rose, the 35-year-old Englishman, on 12 under par for the week, two shots behind Brendan Steele, the leader. Rose birdied the eighth, ninth, 16th and 17th holes to log another solid score at the Silverado course in Napa Valley, California, after opening with 67 on Thursday and adding 69 on Friday.
The world No 7 held his nerve after leaving himself a testing par putt of almost five foot at the last, and was in a share of fourth place with a group including Jason Bohn, who jumped up the leader board with an eight-under 64.
Steele could not be dislodged from the lead, shooting a solid 69 to reach 14 under.
“The way I like to look at it, if the leader goes out and plays well and stretches out with the lead, good for him,” Rose said. “One way to look at it is you take the leader out of the equation because it’s never easy to play with the lead.
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“There are a whole bunch of guys between 13 under and 10 under par. Someone in that group is going to play well. It’s going to be a day where you’ll have to move out and go forward and make birdies and post a number.”
Scotland’s Martin Laird dropped out of contention after he shot a 74 saw and dropped from a share of sixth place to a tie for 39th. That was the same overall score as Rory McIlroy, the world No 3, who scored 71 yesterday. The Northern Irishman was unhappy with the round, which went from bad to worse when he was almost hit by a flying golf ball.
Emiliano Grillo of Argentina, who was playing in the group behind McIlroy, almost struck the four-time major winner with his tee shot on the short par-four 17th. The 23-year-old South American believed that McIlroy was expecting the incoming shot, but that was not the case and McIlroy said it “missed me by a couple of inches”.
McIlroy, not having the best of days, added that it “would’ve put me out of my misery”.
Asked about the incident, Grillo said: “Everybody agreed that they were going up from the green to the guy standing on the tee. We thought they were waiting for us to hit. I was first, and I kind of heard something that I almost hit him, but I really apologise.
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“Hopefully he’s all right and he continues to play well as always. That would have been bad.”