Rory McIlroy was eliminated from the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am after suffering a triple-bogey nightmare in the third round on Saturday.
The defending champion got off to a good start with two birdies in the first three holes, but collapsed on the fourth hole.
A combination of wayward drives, sloppy recoveries, and poor bunker shots resulted in a dreadful 3-over-par 7.
With four more birdies, one bogey on the 10th, and a double bogey at the end, McIlroy reached break-even with a total of 19 under par, closing in on the lead held by American world No. 48 Akshay Bhatia by 10 strokes.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler had a good result with a bogey-free 67, but was still eight strokes behind the leader. His biggest hope appears to be extending his streak of top 10s on the PGA Tour to 18.
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Rory McIlroy suffered a triple bogey on the fourth hole in the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, dropping three strokes.
Collin Morikawa shot a 62 on the day, placing him in a tie for second place with Jake Knapp and Sepp Straka, two strokes behind Battier.
England’s Tommy Fleetwood is tied for seventh place, five strokes behind the leader.
Co-leader Bhatia, who built a five-shot lead by the turn thanks to a strong start with birdies on six of the first seven holes, was 2-over over the final 10 holes and enters Sunday with four players within three strokes.
“Overall, yeah, it was a weird day,” Bhatia said. “I felt like we were behind a little bit towards the end, but I realized that for some of the players who were at the last tee time, they just played a lot harder.”
And the worst may yet be yet to come, with Sunday’s start time moved up an hour for the final round due to strong winds and rain expected.
“It’s not always going to be great. Funky things are going to happen and you just have to deal with it,” Knapp said.
“I think whenever bad elements and things like that come up, you have to do a good job of not letting it bother you.”
The prelude to Sunday may have come in the final hour.
Jacob Bridgeman, who shot a 68 and came within three, played from the beach on the 18th. Min Woo Lee (70) was 75 yards past the fairway at the hedge, but made a penalty drop on the cart path at the end. And his golf ball kept moving with his putts. It took about 50 minutes to play that hole.
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Ryo Hisatsune battled the conditions in the third round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but almost got a helping hand.
Hisatsune, who shot a 74, was forced to replace his golf ball several times as it kept moving on the 18th green. He missed his 6-foot par putt and waited more than 10 seconds because the wind threatened to knock it into the cup.
Watch the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am live all week on Sky Sports. Live coverage ends on Sky Sports Golf from 4pm on Sunday. Get Sky Sports now and stream without a contract.
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