BMW Championship – third-round leaderboard
-17 W Clark (US); -12 R McIlroy (NI), P Cantlay (US); -11 C Gotterup (US), G Woodland (US); -10 C Morikawa (US); -9 S J Im (Kor); -8 M McNealy (US), R Hisatsune (Jpn), E Cole (US), JJ Spaun (US)
Selected others: -5 R MacIntyre (Sco); -4 A Rai (Eng), M Fitzpatrick (Eng); -1 J Rose (Eng), A Fitzpatrick (Eng); +2 T Fleetwood (Eng)
Rory McIlroy shot a five-under 65 to move to joint-second after three rounds of the BMW Championship, but said it will take a “heroic effort” to chase down leader Wyndham Clark.
Northern Irishman McIlroy improved from a second-round 69 that cost him his first-day lead, birdieing four of the last six holes to move to 12 under.
Patrick Cantlay is level with McIlroy after carding a 66, while fellow American Clark extended his lead at Bellerive Country Club in St Louis to five shots with a 65.
“I needed to be patient the last three days, because my game has been good in parts, but then it has been a struggle in other ways,” McIlroy said.
“I didn’t hit my first fairway today until the 10th hole.
“Playing this golf course from the rough isn’t fun, but I hung in there, my short game saved me a couple of times and I got some momentum coming in.
“I am in a good spot in terms of where I am at on the leaderboard, but it’s going to take a heroic effort from one of us to catch Wyndham.”
Clark double-bogeyed the opening hole but was superb thereafter, birdieing twice and then hitting an eagle on the eighth to go into the turn on two under.
He birdied four of the next five holes before bogeying the last.
Americans Chris Gotterup and Gary Woodland are on 11 under, with compatriot Collin Morikawa on 10 under and South Korea’s Im Sung-Jae on nine under.
Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre and American world number one Scottie Scheffler carded 68s to finish in a group of eight on five under, with England’s Aaron Rai and Matthew Fitzpatrick a shot behind.
Justin Rose shot 73 to leave him on one under, while fellow Englishman Tommy Fleetwood’s 74 left him on two over.