• Home
• /
• Sports
• /
• Golf

McIlroy pounces at HSBC Champions in Shanghai

Shanghai - McIlroy has climbed up the ranks thanks to his best season in years

A rock-steady Rory McIlroy said he was poised to seize his first WGC-HSBC Champions title after strolling into the lead with his third straight 67 on Saturday to continue his assault on the world's top ranking.
Now the world number two, McIlroy has climbed up the ranks thanks to his best season in years and said this week in Shanghai that he hopes to soon regain the number one ranking for the first time since 2015.
The 30-year-old Northern Irishman played bogey-free on Saturday and took sole possession of the lead with his last shot of the day, rolling in a birdie on the par-5 18th.
"Right now, the game feels pretty simple. I know it's not going to feel like that all the time but when it does you have to take advantage of that feeling," he said.
Past experience has shown him that when victory is within reach "you just have to grab it with both hands, and that's what I'll do tomorrow".
McIlroy moved to -15 at the Sheshan International Golf Club.
Teeing off with him in the leader's trio on Sunday will be fellow Major winner Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, who shot the lowest round of the day at 65 after birdying the first five holes to move to -14.
Last year's winner Xander Schauffele of the United States, two strokes off McIlroy's pace, will join them as well.
World number one Brooks Koepka earlier this month raised eyebrows by dismissing the notion of a burgeoning rivalry with McIlroy, pointing out that the Northern Irishman hadn't won a Major in five years.
McIlroy, who last sat on golf's pinnacle four years ago, has repeatedly played down the comments.
Asked whether Koepka's absence from the HSBC Champions was a missed opportunity to go head-to-head, McIlroy said he had "massive respect" for Koepka but that the American was the furthest thing from his mind.
"There's no part of me when I'm out there this week, trying to win this golf tournament, am I thinking about Brooks Koepka," McIlroy said.
"I'm thinking about myself. I'm thinking about trying to do the best that I can and I'll leave all those other discussions to other people."
China's top-ranked golfer Li Haotong, who delighted crowds by surging to the first-round lead with an impressive 64, has come crashing back to earth.
After an even par in the second round, a disastrous triple bogey on the par-four 13th hole on Saturday knocked him from the top of the leaderboard.
He finished with a two-over 74, and will start Sunday eight strokes off the leaders.
McIlroy's consistently strong play in 2019 saw him take home the FedEx Cup and the PGA Tour Player of the Year award.
He is yet to win the Shanghai event's $1.7 million victor's reward.
Oosthuizen, the world number 26 who won the British Open in 2010, broke a near three-year winless drought earlier in 2019 by taking the South African Open.
The tournament features 15 past Major winners including Justin Rose, Bubba Watson, Sergio Garcia and Jordan Spieth.
Notable absentees however included a resurgent Tiger Woods, who won a record 82nd PGA Tour victory on Monday in Japan.