Rory McIlroy finding his swagger again at Bay Hill

Rory McIlroy is in prime position to defend Arnold Palmer Invitational title on Sunday, going into the final round a shot off the lead.

A familiar sight returned to Bay Hill on Saturday in the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational: The confident stride of Rory McIlroy, holing birdie putts and making a run at defending his title at this event.

The 29-year-old McIlroy shot six-under 66 on Saturday, jumping all the way from 31st at the start of the round to second place at eight-under, a shot behind leader Matthew Fitzpatrick. McIlroy began his round seven shots behind the leaders before jumping out to a quick start, making birdie on four of his first six holes. After making the turn, he hit his approach on the 15th hole out of the rough to within two feet for another birdie, then got up-and-down for birdie at the par-five 16th. He finished the round by holing a nine-foot birdie putt at the 18th that briefly left him in sole possession of the lead.

McIlroy is no stranger to success at Bay Hill. Last year the Northern Irishman shot 64 in the final round to win by three shots. Nor did he come into this year’s event lacking confidence in his game. In his last four PGA Tour starts he’s finished fifth, fourth twice and second two weeks ago at the WGC-Mexico Championship. He’s finished inside the top-10 eight times in his last 11 starts.

Sunday will be the ninth time in the past year he’s been in the final group. He’s 0-8 in converting those opportunities into victories. While he hasn’t won since that victory here a year ago, he’s confident a new mindset of trying to stay patient will pay off eventually.

“The consistency in my game, consistency in my mindset, my thinking, not getting ahead of myself, staying patient, I think by doing that I’ll find myself in this position more often,” he told Golfweek after his round. “And any time you’ve had success on a course before, that gives you confidence. I feel pretty comfortable with everything out there. The more times I put myself in this position the more I’m going to become comfortable there and sooner or later it’s going to happen.”

He got off to a slow start in his title defense, however. He was even-par after his first round before shooting two-under on Friday. A quick trip to Disneyland with his wife, Erica, after his second round allowed him to refocus in time to make his charge up the leaderboard on Saturday. It wasn’t until late in the round that 24-year-old Englishman Fitzpatrick passed him after a bogey-free round of 67.

“I was a little scrappy Thursday and Friday, and definitely felt a lot better today,” McIlroy said. “Hopefully I can continue and bring that into tomorrow as well.”

A win this week would be McIlroy’s 15th in his PGA Tour career, which would make him only the third golfer along with Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods with 15 wins and four major championships before the age of 30. And with the Masters coming up next month, finally getting a victory would be a big confidence boost as he chases the career Grand Slam at Augusta National.

The subject of the Grand Slam was a major focus of McIlroy’s media session earlier this week. He admitted the same mentality of staying patient that helped him at Bay Hill on Saturday also helps him deal with that pressure better.

“I’ve become more comfortable with it,” he said on Wednesday. “The extra stress that I put myself under that first couple of years…I guess I’ve become a lot more comfortable with the fact I’m going to fail more times than I succeed at that certain conquest or whatever you want to call it.”

When McIlroy is playing his best, as he is right now, he’s arguably the toughest player in the world to beat. Now he just has to hope another Sunday at the top of a leaderboard finally turns into him hoisting the trophy at the end of the day, something he hasn’t been successful at doing recently.