By ,
Published February 05, 2015
Hoylake, England (SportsNetwork.com) - Rory McIlroy has stumbled to back-to- back bogeys at five and six and his lead at the Open Championship is down to three strokes over Sergio Garcia.
McIlroy found the rough off the fifth tee, and his second also landed in the right rough. He hacked his third from long grass over the green and he chipped to 12 feet.
The two-time major champion missed his par putt to slip to 16-under par. McIlroy's tee shot at the par-3 sixth rolled off the left side of the green. He chipped inside six feet, but he missed that putt as well.
McIlroy has dropped to 15-under par.
Garcia, the 2007 Open Championship runner-up, birdied the first and third to reach 11-under. He kicked in a short birdie effort on the par-5 fifth for his fourth birdie in four days on that hole to reach minus-12. He was five back at that time.
After a pair of pars and McIlroy's struggles, Garcia has inched within three of the lead.
Rickie Fowler made an 8-foot birdie effort on the second. The U.S. Open runner-up has parred his other five holes and is tied for third with Robert Karlsson at 11-under par. Karlsson is 5-under through 10 holes.
Shane Lowry birdied the 18th to match the low round of the day and of the week. Lowry fired a 65 to match Chris Wood's score from earlier in the day. Lowry stands at 10-under 278 and is the leader in the clubhouse.
Wood was joined at 5-under 283 by last year's champ Phil Mickelson, who birdied the last for a 68.
Five-time winner Tom Watson fired a 68 on Sunday to end at plus-1, while three-time champion Tiger Woods struggled to a 3-over 75. He ended in 69th place at 6-over 294, which was his worst finish in a major as a professional.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/struggling-mcilroys-lead-dips-to-3