Rory McIlroy 2026 Amgen Irish Open Rounds 3 and 4

Par-par start then the ball left in the marram grass it would be lost unfortunately for Rory McIlroy who'd had a provisional he would get that one home in the green but this was for the bogey putt not to be left so par-par double bogey start for the world's number two. Fat stage this though well an easy birdie yeah 371 this is drivable would you believe down the left is not ideal first shot first ball found for Rory and it wasn't a gutter remember this is a bogey putt for Rory McIlroy shame i thought he'd come this week with a little bit more of a spark obviously he's home open certainly looked like it but that sort of enthusiasm seeping out of him gradually as uh one or two shots go right McIlroy to tidy up this for par at seven couple is left well out to the right not squaring the blade up caught that one a little bit out of the bottom left hand side he lofted off the down slope par 510 third shot here for McIlroy a short right again absolutely careful that's just what he was McIlroy saw the chip this is for birdie that's the most difficult hole on the golf course again today quite incredible only 187 yards today as Rory continues to scramble to get somewhere close to par for his day setting here 13 up the hill again the tee box moved up still a formidable hole yeah 58 it's moved on already in the par 3 14th saw the approach this is the birdie putt for McIlroy at 15 to get back to level par for the championship the defending champion Rory McIlroy coming to the end of his day not been a good day i'm afraid four over par playing the 18th can he finish with a flourish what was it like playing out there today with the buzz of air force one landing the choppers landing president arriving yeah i mean um quite the um i guess not the experience we're used to you know in a way i think it's air force one's maiden voyage i think um that was pretty cool cool to cool to sort of see all that going on um i was trying to avoid making doubles at that point so i was trying to concentrate on my own stuff as well Rory you tip things in your stride for most of the day unfortunate couple holes on 16 and 17 but what do you take for a week out on the links yeah i think um overall you know i've seen enough good stuff this week to give me encouragement um going into next week a golf course that i know well um greens that i know well and a golf course that i've had success on so um yeah i obviously wasn't the week that i wanted but at the same time um you know i don't i don't feel too far away and and you know i i feel good about that going into into Wentworth next week yeah what are some of them positives that you can take into Wentworth yeah um i thought i hit the ball pretty well for the most part um there was a couple of destructive shots a couple of bad decisions off the tees yesterday but um overall iron play was a lot better um that's that's getting there wedge play was was was pretty good for the most part this week um obviously it was just i struggled on the greens and that was that was the the big um the big reason why i wasn't able to get myself in the contention so a little bit of time on the putting green over the next couple days um get familiar with the greens at Wentworth again and you know i should be in a good spot heading into next week we've seen the irish open really grow the last couple of years haven't we so how important has amgen's involvement been to elevate this tournament yeah i mean look every every tournament needs a great sponsor and amgen stepped up and um yeah they've been uh they've been amazing the last few years um i think the venues that we've had as well have have been good too um and then i think it's a it's a it's a better date in the calendar um looks like it won't be this date next year because of the rider cup but um you know i think this date in the calendar is uh has has done well for the tournament as well and just quickly lastly to touch on shane what would it mean to you for him to lift the trophy today yeah it would look it would be absolutely incredible um you know he had you know he had a couple of chances he had a big chance earlier this year at the honda or cognizant um i feel like he never really got going with his season after that um sort of knocked him back a little bit so to to see him in contention this week and you know go out there with a four shot lead today obviously the whole country would love to love to see him get it done uh me included obviously