Rory McIlroy’s campaign to win his second Australian Open title suffered its banana peel moment… from an actual banana peel! The world No 2 from Ireland had to hit a shot in the third round with the ball taking cover under a banana peel, which was possibly thrown on the golf course by a fan. But what was even more strange about the incident was that McIlroy had to play the shot without removing the banana peel.
Why?
In McIlroy’s own words: “It’s a loose impediment and it was resting on the ball so if I moved the banana peel, the ball would have moved so I just didn’t even didn’t even try. I mean, I shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but, yeah, I wasn’t the best to start.”
Translation: if the ball had moved while he tried to pick up the banana peel, McIlroy would incur a one-stroke penalty.
“I feel like this is a week of firsts and in a lot of ways,” McIlroy said.
How had McIlroy ended in that awkward situation anyway? On the par-4 second hole, golfer missed the fairway and his ball ended up under a small tree and under a banana peel.
The golfer eventually shot a 3-under 68 on Saturday which left him nine strokes behind leader Danish player Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, who made birdie putts on the 17th and 18th for a 66 and a 54-hole total of 14-under 199.
Meanwhile, Cam Smith, the 2022 British Open champion who ended his streak of missing seven consecutive cuts this year on Friday, also shot 66 Saturday and was tied for second, two strokes off the lead.
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“I didn’t get off to a great start, but I played well from there,” said McIlroy, who made five birdies on his final 10 holes Saturday.
“I am probably going to be too far behind to challenge tomorrow,” he added. “But I’d love the course to keep getting firmer and firmer . . . and if it does I think I could go out there and shoot something very low, 8 or 9 under.”
(With inputs from AP)
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