150th Open Championship: McIlroy and Hovland set for final round shoot-out after pair of sparkling 66s
- Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland tied at top of leader board on 16-under par after shooting identical 6-under on Saturday
- Hovland could become first male Norwegian golfer to win a major
Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland share the lead going into the final round of the 150th Open Championship on Sunday with St Andrews poised for a shoot-out between the two to decide who takes the Claret Jug.
The pair are tied on 16-under par and are four clear of their nearest challengers, Cameron Young of the United States and Cameron Smith of Australia, who had led at the halfway stage.
McIlroy and Hovland will go out in the final pairing on Sunday at 2.50pm local time (9.50pm HKT), with Smith and Young teeing off together 10 minutes earlier, by which time forecast morning showers are expected to have cleared.
The loudest support around the Old Course is likely to be for McIlroy, who was the favourite coming into the week and has so far lived up to the hype with rounds of 66, 68 and 66.
That is identical to his first three rounds at Hoylake in 2014, when he won his only Open Championship to date.
McIlroy followed that victory by winning the PGA Championship a few weeks later, but he has not added to his tally of four major titles since then, famously missing the chance to defend his title in the last Open at St Andrews in 2015 after injuring an ankle playing football.
Yet his recent form suggested he has been building up to this, as the 33-year-old came second at the Masters in April, tied fifth at the US Open and won the Canadian Open in between.
“I’m playing a golf tournament and I’ve got myself in a great position after three days. I’ve finished off enough golf tournaments in my time to feel like I know what to do tomorrow,” he said.
