Rory Roundup: History And Big Money For Dad On The Line

I'm not sensing Rory McIlroy will do anything but dominate tomorrow. It's shocking to think this is the same golfer who was utterly lost playing links golf last year at Muirfield, but the lad has convinced himself to like wind, links and playing the Scottish Open to prepare. With nothing crazy in the forecast (writes Ryan Lavner), some wind peaking at leader tee off time might make things fun, but a runaway seems in the cards.

So television may have to settle for showing lots of dad Gerry or Tiger if he puts together some birdies. I'm going with Gerry. So is Gene Wojciechowski, who lists the things it'll take to derail Rory. All in good fun of course.

It seems the elder McIlroy placed a 400 pound 500-1 bet that can only be cashed if Rory wins tomorrow. For Americans, Rex Hoggard translates. That's $342,000.

Brian Keogh first reported this in 2006. Give him some hits. It's a beauty!

As for the implications of McIlroy's six-stroke lead and history, well, the UK papers and some others tackled that.

Oliver Brown of the Telegraph:

But McIlroy Snr might like to consider another thought: that his son could be about to become only the third 25-year-old golfer in history to hold three major titles. The other two were Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. The Holywood lad with the Hollywood game truly is touching that level of greatness. For an illustration, we needed look no further than his glorious, gasp-inducing coup de grâce on Sunday of two eagles in his closing three holes. Just to underscore McIlroy’s pre-eminence, not a single other player in the field managed an eagle at either the 16th or 18th all day.

Rory is not looking ahead to what might be: an Open win. Ewan Murray of The Guardian on what lesson from the BMW at Wentworth McIlroy will carry with him into Sunday's final round:

“I’ve won from seven back this year, so I know how leads can go very quickly,” McIlroy said. “I’m not taking anything for granted. If the guys in front of me had just finished a little better, finished the way I did, then my lead wouldn’t have been as much as it was.

“It seemed like Sergio and Rickie struggled down the closing stretch a little bit. But that could have been a completely different story. Instead of a six-shot lead it could have been a one- or two-shot lead. A lot can happen."

Alasdair Reid of the Telegraph reports on the devastating blow delivered by Rory late in the round for rivals Sergio and Rickie.

A mighty roar greeted Sergio García and Rickie Fowler as they strode purposefully down the 17th fairway. Or rather, a mighty roar was heard, for it really had nothing to do with them at all. Apart, that is, from telling them they had nothing to be purposeful about any more.

It came from the 16th green, where Rory McIlroy, having reached the putting surface with two imperious strikes, had just rolled his ball into the cup from 30 feet for an eagle. Goodness only knows if García and Fowler did the maths at that point, but it is hard to believe that the matching bogeys they subsequently recorded at the penultimate hole had no connection to what McIlroy had just done.

A sharp tap in the privates with a nine iron could scarcely have brought more tears to the eyes of Fowler as he headed for the 18th tee. Over the previous 40 minutes, he had gone from sharing the lead with McIlroy to trailing the Northern Irishman by five shots. Fowler had hit a couple of loose shots in that time, but otherwise he had not done a great deal wrong. Yet he had just been wiped out by golf’s equivalent of a runaway train, the Holywood Express himself.

Ian O'Connor reminds us of some fascinating history on the line, including this one:

At 16 under, carrying a lead of a half-dozen strokes entering the final round, McIlroy can break Tiger Woods' Open Championship scoring record of 19 under set at St. Andrews in 2000. You know Rory wants a piece of Tiger. You know Rory wants to become the first man to push his final score to 20 in any of the four majors.

And Derek Lawrenson with this in his Daily Mail account:

Only Tiger has ever won three majors by seven shots or more but, having won his first two by eight, that's certainly within McIlroy's compass.

Like all the great ones he saved the best for last, and a towering drive and five-iron to the par-five 18th that finished just 11 feet from the hole. That second shot from 237 yards was as pure a golf shot as you will ever see and when he duly rolled in the putt, it meant he had played the last five holes in the following: birdie-par-eagle-bogey-eagle. He is now 11 under for the par fives alone.