ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Rory McIlroy’s charge at the Abu Dhabi Championship faltered when he found water off his drive and made double bogey on the last hole on Saturday, leaving him five shots off the lead held by Paul Waring heading into the final round.
Nine strokes off the lead after 36 holes, the No. 3-ranked McIlroy had closed to just three shots back in the third round when he pulled his tee shot on the par-5 No. 18, the ball bouncing off the rocks lining the fairway and ricocheting into the water.
After a drop, McIlroy then hit an approach — his fourth shot — into the greenside bunker and could only make a 7, for a 3-under 69 and 13 under overall.
With 12 new clubs and ball, Shane Lowry leaps into contention in Abu Dhabi
Lowry shot 6-under 66 Saturday and is just three shots back of leader Paul Waring.
“The leaders weren’t getting away and I was making a little bit of a charge,” said McIlroy, who made six birdies after opening his round with a bogey. “And one mistake — that drive on 18. Untimely mistake.”
It was all the more frustrating for McIlroy because the 229th-ranked Waring — the leader by five shots after the second round — was one of only two players in the top 29 to shoot over par on Saturday.
With a 1-over 73, Waring saw his lead trimmed to one stroke and was 18 under for the tournament. Niklas Norgaard was alone in second place after shooting 69, with Tommy Fleetwood (71), Thorbjorn Olesen (71), Sebastien Soderberg (68) and Shane Lowry (66) tied for third place.
“You’ve got to have an average day, haven’t you?” said Waring, whose 19-under score after two rounds was the lowest 36-hole score to par in European tour history. “A little bit disappointed. I felt like could I have really moved forward today and put myself out of sight.
“But four rounds of golf, you’re always going to have an iffy run of holes, iffy round of golf, whatever you want to call it,” the 39-year-old Englishman added. “If beginning of the week you’d given me a one-shot lead going into tomorrow I’d snatch your hand off.”
McIlroy was in a tie for 13th place as he seeks a win that can clinch him the Race to Dubai title for a sixth time, tying him with the late Seve Ballesteros and putting him just two off the record eight of Colin Montgomerie.
“I dug myself a bit of hole to get out of,” McIlroy said, adding he still goes “into tomorrow feeling like I have half a chance.”
McIlroy also made triple bogey on No. 17 on Friday.
