Live scoreboard: Day 3 of Presidents Cup

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. – European lynchpin Rory McIlroy has been benched at the Ryder Cup for the first time in his career after a dreadful Friday at Whistling Straits. RELATED: Full pairings, preview for Saturday morning Foursomes | Recap from Day 1 McIlroy was left out of Saturday mornings Foursomes pairings by Captain Padraig Harrington after two heavy and demoralizing defeats on the opening day. The 32-year-old lost 5 and 3 with Ian Poulter in Friday Foursomes against Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay before backing up in Four-ball with Shane Lowry – only to be dominated 4 and 3 against Tony Finau and Harris English. It was the first time in his Ryder Cup career McIlroy had lost twice in one day. But he wasn’t the only European player to find the going tough with the U.S. taking a commanding 6-2 lead as they look to win the Cup back for just the second time in the last six attempts. McIlroy has played every possible session in his Ryder Cup career since making his debut in 2010. He did miss the second Four-ball session at Celtic Manor in Wales that year but only due to bad weather affecting play. Captains were forced to adjust on the run leaving players with a maximum of four sessions as the schedule condensed before a Monday finish. Despite the shellacking Harrington claimed the two-time FedExCup champion would bounce back and he had no concerns with McIlroy’s leadership. “He’s already a leader. You saw him out there after a tough day, he was out following those matches and supporting his team,” Harrington said. “He is very much a leader amongst his peers and I couldn’t have asked more from him during the year, I couldn’t have asked more from him today. “The golf didn’t go as well as he would have liked, but I’m not second-guessing him for a second in terms of his leadership and what he does for my team.” McIlroy found himself behind the eight-ball from the get-go and never recovered. Ryder Cup rookies in recent FedExCup champion Cantlay and Olympic Gold medalist Schauffele won the first five holes in their Foursomes encounter and despite a small lull mid round, came home with a vengeance. They birdied their last four holes to close out the match on the 15th. “The start wasn’t great. I don’t know if anyone could have beat Xander and Patrick today. They played really good,” McIlroy lamented. “They were a great pairing today, and all you can do is praise them for the way they played.” In the afternoon session McIlroy looked primed to turn his day around when an eagle at the par-5 5th produced a 1 up lead but it went pear-shaped from there. He failed to find a birdie from that point on and made two bogeys. Lowry could only manage a string of pars while Finau fired up. After driving the par-4 6th green to secure a birdie Finau added more on nine, 10 and 13 while English chimed in with one on the par-4 8th to rout the Irish/Northern Irish connection. “The last two sessions, Xander, Patrick, played wonderful, and I haven’t seen Tony putt as good as that in a long time,” McIlroy said. “When you have got a couple of pairs like that on form, on a difficult golf course where it’s sort of hard to make birdies and they go on runs, if you’re not quite a hundred percent on top of your game, it’s tough.” Despite the poor start McIlroy was still of the opinion Europe could stage a comeback. That effort will have to start without him though. “We can come back from 6-2. If it’s 6-2, we can come back,” he stressed.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – TPC Sawgrass’ eighth hole isn’t as famous as its sibling on the course’s other nine, but it presents its own challenges. There’s no water on No. 8, the longest par-3 on the course, but its scorecard yardage of 237 yards is 100 more than its more-famous sibling. Viktor Hovland played the hole to perfection Monday morning, making an ace there with a 4-iron on his second-to-last hole of the third round. It was the eighth ace on No. 8 since 1983 and Hovland’s second on TOUR. He also made a 1 on Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s 14th hole in the second round of the 2020 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The hole-in-one was Hovland’s second eagle on that side, as well. He also eagled the par-5 second, making a 22-foot for eagle on his final hole of Sunday. He made two eagles and seven pars on TPC Sawgrass’ front nine, his final nine of the round, to shoot 68 and get to 4 under par. “I’ve been playing really well the whole week. I just haven’t really been able to capitalize on any putts,” said Hovland. “Maybe if I get a few putts going early and maybe start blowing in the afternoon and gets a little shaky, then maybe, but got a lot of work to do.” He hit 17 greens in the third round after hitting 14 in each of the first two rounds. He’s gained more than four strokes with his approach play while losing more than four strokes on the greens. Hovland’s hole-in-one came a day after his Ryder Cup teammates, Shane Lowry, made an ace on TPC Sawgrass’ most famous hole. Both 1s occurred in the third round, however, which began Sunday afternoon after weather delays throughout the week. This is the fifth time since 1983 that there have been multiple holes-in-one in one round at THE PLAYERS.

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