Duff on the Nile? Rory McIlroy still off the pace in Egypt
He's playing at a level far below that which he's accustomed to, but so far Rory McIlroy isn't exactly running rings around his Challenge Tour rivals.
At this week's Egyptian Open, which the Ulsterman is playing for "promotional purposes" - i.e., someone paid him more than a few shekels to turn up - McIlroy just about made the cut on the second day, but after the third round he is still way off the pace.
While Scotland's George Murray currently tops the leaderboard on 12-under, the undeniably talented McIlroy was still underwhelming today, even if a score of six birdies and three bogeys to finish three-under par 69 is a significant improvement on his earlier play.
That's streets ahead of yesterday's round of two-over, but hardly the buccaneering display that McIlroy's admiring benefactor must have been hoping for when they forked out to see him turn up in Cairo. True, the windy conditions at the JW Marriott Mirage City Golf Club are not ideal, but the youngster will nonetheless want to finish strongly tomorrow.
McIlroy is two-over for the tournament, and while a failure to clinch first prize is unlikely to unduly concern the 21-year-old - the winner reaps a relatively humble £25,000 - the lad from Holywood needs to get his game in shape quickly, if only for the Shanghai-based WGC HSBC Champions in two weeks.
The world No. 9 is currently in the process of fine-tuning his swing - not with a view to producing something new, but rather in order return to its former glory; in McIlroy's own words: "it's kind of got away". If that's so, let's hope he can find it again quickly.
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