McIlroy Running Away with Dubai Desert Classic


The way he's played the first three days with rounds of 66, 64 and 66, it's going to be tough for anyone to catch Rory McIlroy. The 25-year-old Northern Irishman carded six birdies Saturday at Emirates Golf Club to extend his lead to four in the European Tour's Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

In 54 holes the top-ranked player in the world has recorded just one bogey. Entering Sunday's final round he stands at 20-under 196, four shots clear of Denmark's Morten Orum Madsen.

McIlroy began Saturday with a one-stroke edge over Scotland's Marc Warren. But the two-time major winner in 2014, who swept the year's player-of-the-year honors, quickly distanced himself with the field, making the turn in 5-under 30 thanks to five birdies.

Though he cooled down on the back, with eight pars and a birdie on the 17th, McIlroy had made his move and it was impressive, if not decisive. "To be bogey-free again today was important to me, especially when you're going out with the lead," McIlroy told the European Tour's website.

"Not to make any mistakes makes it that much harder for anyone else - just to get that up and down on the last was big for momentum going into tomorrow. I'm very happy. I feel like I could be a little bit more but I'm not going to complain - I'm four ahead going into the final day, so I've put myself in a great position to win tomorrow.

"I just have to go and try and play similar golf to the way I have the first three days," he added. "I've been in this position many times before and I know the pitfalls that are waiting out there; it's just a matter of sticking to the same game plan, being aggressive, making committed swings and giving myself as many chances for birdies as I can."

Madsen knows he's got his work cut out. "Obviously he's going to be tough to beat," said the Dane, who played his college golf at Oregon State. "He looks like he's playing pretty solidly out there, so I'm just going to go out tomorrow and see if I can play some of the same golf that I played today. I won't be too disappointed if I don't win tomorrow.

"I'll be happy if I do what I set out to do and play pretty solidly. Rory is the best golfer in the world right now and it's not looking like he's going to falter but if he does, someone's going to be there to take it," added the 2013 South African Open winner. "I'll try and stay as close to him as I can - hopefully he's not going to run away too far before the end of the day."

Trailing McIlroy by six is Lee Westwood (69), while tied for fourth at 203 are England's Andy Sullivan and Danny Willett, Scotland's Stephen Gallacher - the defending champion - and Austria's Bernd Wiesberger. All four players carded 70s.

Warren dropped into a share of eighth at 204 following a 73. He's joined at 12-under by Peter Uihlein, Graeme McDowell, Renato Paratore, Alex Noren, Emiliano Grillo, Robert Rock and Pablo Larrazabal.

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2015/tournamentid=2015006/leaderboard/index.html.