TPC River Highlands, CT ..
Rory McIlroy found the start to his Travelers Championship third round interrupted by a nosy squirrel, who forced him to back off on the first tee.
The furry fan had both McIlroy and the crowd into hysterics and, though his bushy-tailed beastie was twice ushered away, it managed to defy the stewards and returned to the tee in time to watch the drive.
McIlroy hit his opening drive into the trees for a bogey and he went on to card a 69 and lie eight shots adrift of the leader.
An Irish Open winner leads the Travelers Championship but it’s not Rory McIlroy or Padraig Harrington.
Rory McIlroy shows his frustation on day three of the Travelers Championship. (Photo – Gettys)
McIlroy heads to the final round of his last event in the States ahead of hosting the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open trailing eight shotd behind fellow Irish Open winner, Paul Casey.
Casey captured the 2013 Irish Open at Carton House and he’s now set to walk away with a second PGA Tour title this season in taking a commanding four-shot and a 16-under total into the final round at TPC River Highlands.
Casey also is striving to become the first Englishman to capture the Travelers Championship since the inaugural event in 1952.
Casey, 40 brilliantly muscled his way to the front with sizzling third round eight-under par 62 to move to 16-under par.
The now Phoenix-based Casey capped his round in driving the green at the short 295-yard par-4 15th hole and then drained his 23-foot putt for an eagle ‘2’.
Casey went into the third round of the $USD 7m event sharing third place one eight-under par but raced into the lead thanks to back-to-back birdies at two and three and also at the eighth and ninth holes.
The current World No. 13 then moved to five-under for his round in birding the 13th before jumping to seven-under courtesy of the 15th hole eagle.
Casey then played a super second into the final green, a wedge from some 128-yard out to just three feet for a closing birdie.
The effort was Casey’s lowest score on the PGA Tour in well over three years since a similar 62 on day one of the 2015 Sony Hawaiian Open.
“There are a lot of things I like about this golf course including I like the fact that, as I said maybe yesterday or the day before, it’s a golf course which is open to all styles of play, having seen that with Bubba Watson, Corey Pavin play-off,” he said.
“There’s Jim Furyk shooting 58 two years ago and he’s not the longest guy on Tour.
“So, there is multiple ways of playing it. Good architecture, fantastic conditions, plus just a feeling of liking this event. You know this event where it sits in players’ kind of heart as their enjoyment of it. That’s just another factor of playing well.
“If you don’t like playing a tournament, you’re not going to play well because you don’t want to be there. And this is just a good vibe all the way around.”
