Rory McIlroy bounces back in big way to take WGC-FedEx St. Jude lead

A week after a tragic missed cut at home in the Open Championship, Rory McIlroy is back at the top of the leaderboard in Memphis

It was the tournament Rory McIlroy had been waiting for his entire career, a major championship in his home country of Northern Ireland.

McIlroy went to the Open Championship at Royal Portrush, just 50 miles from his hometown of Holywood, last week with great expectations but also a lot of pressure. Unfortunately, right from the first tee shot, that pressure got to him when he drove it out of bounds and made quadruple bogey. He shot 79 in the first round but made a valiant effort to make the cut with a second-round 65. But it wasn’t enough, and McIlroy made a quick exit from the tournament he wanted to play in his whole life.

With a week to dwell on that disappointment and prepare for the WGC-FexEx St. Jude Invitational at TPC Southwind in Memphis, McIlroy was hoping for a rebound this week and got it in a big way. The 30-year-old shot an eight-under 62 in Saturday’s third round to take the 54-hole lead at 12-under.

McIlroy began his round with an early birdie, hitting his approach at the first hole to six feet. After another birdie at the par-five third hole, he made a 23-foot birdie putt at the seventh and two more birdies at the eighth and ninth, making the turn with three straight birdies and a five-under 30.

His first big mistake came at the 12th hole when his tee shot found a water hazard. McIlroy then hit his third shot into a bunker behind the green and settled for his first bogey of the round. He rebounded with a birdie at the par-three 14th, hitting his tee shot from 190 yards to five feet. At the 17th his approach found the center of the green and he rolled in a 16-footer for yet another birdie, his eighth of the round. Finally, after driving into a fairway bunker on the 18th, McIlroy managed to find the front-left edge of the green with his second shot and ended his round by making a 27-footer. McIlroy was hot with the putter today, not missing a putt within 10 feet the entire round.

He’ll take a one-shot lead over Brooks Koepka in the final round on Sunday. Matthew Fitzpatrick is in third place at 10-under, while Jon Rahm is part of a group at nine-under, three behind McIlroy.

Just eight days ago, McIlroy was choking back tears at Royal Portrush while trying to come to terms with the fact that he wouldn’t be playing the weekend in essentially his own backyard.

“It was awesome. Sort of emotional. I feel like I get a lot of great support anywhere I go, but I really felt it today,” he said last Friday.

But McIlroy has shown the capacity to come back from a bad week already this year. The last time he missed the cut on the PGA Tour, at the Memorial Tournament, he came back to win the RBC Canadian Open by seven shots the following week. He’s been no worse than 12th the week after his last four missed cuts dating back to last season.

After his second round last week, when his run to make the cut came up one shot short, McIlroy almost predicted the success he would find in Memphis. “Played a really solid round of golf today. Wasn’t quite enough, but the good thing in this game is there’s always next week,” he said.

He showed that today, and now McIlroy is just one round away from putting the disappointment of the missed cut at the Open behind him with a WGC title.