Double Major winner Rory McIlroy again took the sting out of the TPC Sawgrass back nine in a third round 69 to move to a then share of 32nd place on three under par.
However for a third day running the 25-year old battled over the Players Championship outward nine.
In fact, McIlroy is nine over par for the outward half over the three days of the $US 10m championship but in comparison he’s 12 under par for the homeward half.
McIlroy went into the third day’s play having just made the cut by holing a birdie on 18 to get back to level par.
However he soon dropped a shot at the first and doubled the par four sixth hole when he put his second shot from the rough into water guarding the green before also walking off the sixth with a bogey, and to be now four over par in playing the sixth.
But McIlroy then began exhibiting the golf we know he is capable with birdies at seven and eight before three in succession from the 16th including holing a great 30-footer for birdie at the par 3 island green 17th.
And then for a fourth day running, if you include his Wednesday practice round, the current World No. 11, hit a great second to two feet for the sixth birdie of his round, and to be six under par over his closing dozen holes.
“I don’t know, Kryptonite, maybe?” McIlroy replied with a smile when asked to explain his chalk and cheese performance.
“It has definitely been a game of two halves for me this week,” he added.
“I don’t know what it is – I can’t seem to get my head around the front nine here but the back nine I am really comfortable on. I have played the front nine in nine over and back nine in 12 under, which is something I can’t explain.”
McIlroy had just 27 putts for his round after earlier needing 29 putts on Thursday and 30 on day two.
“If I had just kept it around even par for the front nine, I’d be up near the leaders,” said.
“But it’s been ‑‑ I’m really happy with how I’ve been able to come back the last couple of days, but it’s also a little frustrating that I’ve had to come back because I feel like I’m playing good enough to not have these little stretches of bad holes.
“Maybe tomorrow I can put it all together and start strongly and finish strongly like I have the last few days.
“I felt like I wasn’t playing as badly as the score was suggesting today.
“I’d hit five greens in seven holes, and I was 4‑over par. I hadn’t really done much wrong. It was nice to see a putt go in. I had three really big lip‑outs on the front nine, but it was nice to see a putt go in on 7, holed one from off the green, which was a bonus. I was in a decent frame of mind going into the back nine.”
