Double-bogey blues for McIlroy as Lowry puts on iron play exhibition at Pebble Beach
Rory McIlroy
Rory McIlroy combined flashes of brilliance with two careless three-putts to find himself playing catch-up in the defence of his AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am crown in sunny California.
As Shane Lowry, runner-up to McIlroy last year, produced some brilliant iron play to shoot a five-under 67 at Pebble Beach, McIlroy birdied the last to open with an accidented four-under 68 at Spyglass Hill that left him six shots behind leader Ryo Hisatsune.
The Japanese star fired a bogey-free, 10-under 62 at Pebble Beach to lead by a shot from Keegan Bradley and Sam Burns (both played Pebble Beach) as McIlroy three-putted from inside eight feet twice in the space of three holes on his back nine for double bogeys.
The world number two started brilliantly with birdies at the 10th and 11th, then spectacularly holed a bunker shot for an eagle three at the 14th.
Another birdie at the driveable 17th catapulted him to the business end of the leaderboard as he turned in five under 31. But he combined the brilliant with the bizarre on the way home.
After getting to six under with a birdie at the second, he bunkered his tee shot at the 175-yard third and took four to get down, three putting from around eight feet.
He responded by rifling a short iron to four feet at the third to get back to five under, only to double bogey the 206-yard fifth.
Short of the green in thick rough, he pitched to five feet, missed for par and then lipped out from two and a half feet to rack up another double-bogey five.
A closing birdie eased his pain and left him in the top 30 with three rounds to look forward to at Pebble Beach.
It was a far better day for Lowry, who made up for the occasional mistake with the putter with some sensational iron play.
Two under after birdies at the second and third, the Offaly man missed a four-footer for another birdie at the short fifth, then followed a birdie four at the sixth with a long-range three-putt at the treacherous ninth.
Another shot went at the 10th, where he took three to get down from just off the front edge of the green.
But he bounced back well, making four birdies in his last seven holes for a five-under 67.
After getting up and down from 70 yards at the 11th, he ripped his tee shot to two feet at the 198-yard 12th.
He then birdied the 15th, almost aced the iconic short 17th after firing a tee shot to just eight inches and finished his day by rolling in a 12-footer for a closing birdie.
World number one Scottie Scheffler struggled to score at Pebble Beach, where a closing birdie four helped him card a level par 72.
