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McIlroy loses ground with tough finish

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays a shot on the 1st hole during the third round of the British Open Golf Championship in Carnoustie, Scotland, Saturday July 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland (AP) — Rory McIlroy pledged to “go down swinging” in his bid to win a major for the first time in four years. He might have to swing for the fences after the way he finished Saturday at the British Open.

On a day of low scoring, McIlroy bogeyed two of his last three holes for a 1-under 70. Instead of being two shots behind, he was four back, certainly not out of it. And he wasn’t about to change his strategy of being aggressive.

“Go out and hit a lot of drivers,” McIlroy said. “I felt like today the course was perfectly set up to take advantage of it and attack it. Tried to do that for the most part. Maybe my wedge play wasn’t quite as good as it should have been, but I gave myself plenty of chances.”

McIlroy said he felt like he left some shots out on the course, and was disappointed at the way he finished. Still, he’s won the Open before and believes he has a reasonable shot to do it again.

“I’ve got a bit of experience at this,” he said. “Maybe more so than some of the other guys on the leaderboard. But the leaderboard is packed with a lot of very, very good players.”

McIlroy and other players on the leaderboard are keeping an eye on the notoriously fickle Scottish weather going into the final round. The wind is expected to pick up some and if it shifts direction the scores could go a different direction than they did on Saturday.

The best thing, McIlroy said, is there are only five players in front of the group bunched four shots off the lead.

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