by Jeff Skinner
Rory McIlroy is a big tease. He played with us and Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia and everyone else who teed it up or watched The Open Championship from their couch.
Rory started with a four stroke lead and the chatter was that it will be another run away win for the young man from Northern Ireland. He was going to streak out to a bigger lead and get another step closer to his third major victory.
But a bogey at the first and a lackluster front nine of even par actually had Rory backing up to the field. Even though the weather was predicted to be mean Royal Liverpool’s lack of wind allowed the course to be taken once again today.
While Rory was treading water his competitors were making a charge at him. Fowler opened with four birds in six holes. Garcia shot a front nine of 32, three under par and started the back with three straight birdies. Victor Dubuisson had four birdies in five holes on the front nine.
When Rory followed his birdie at eleven with a bogey at twelve he had fallen into a tie for the lead with Fowler, the field was back in it and the game was on, but not for long.
As Rory failed to get any further into red numbers I began to wonder if we could actually call an even par round a meltdown. But Rory soon extinguished any need for that thought. 
It appeared that Rory needed some time to warm up because he started to put the heat on mid-way through the back nine. He sank a monster birdie putt at fourteen then eagled sixteen. During that run Fowler had stumbled with three bogeys in four holes and Garcia was stuck in neutral. And Rory, the big tease was easily back in the lead.
A hiccup of a bogey at the seventeenth still had him with a five stroke lead over Fowler but the best part of the Rory Show was yet to come. He killed a drive (340 yds) to the center of the par five eighteenth fairway and fired a laser of a five iron (237 yds) to the green leaving him a makeable eagle putt.
As calmly as we had seen him all day he stroked it dead center and he was in the house with a six shot lead. Two eagles in three holes with shots few professionals could make had our heads spinning at what just happened.
Needless to say I think Rory is over that equipment change and that breakup and that lawsuit and all the rest of the stuff that has been holding him back.
He was candid about what waits for him Sunday. “A lot to play for tomorrow. It’s a huge day for my career. I feel like I am up to the task.”
He knows what a win here would mean, “An awful lot at stake …first Open Championship. Three quarters of the way to the career Grand Slam. That would be nice going into Augusta next year.”
Yes, it would but he has one more round of links golf left. But I don’t think he’ll be teasing anyone tomorrow. This one is in the books.
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