Well Behind the Leader, an Exciting Tournament Takes Shape - Golf

BETHESDA, Md. - When the time came on the back nine Saturday to Rory McIlroy put a little walk from all the talk, take a few steps on the narrow path to the history of the United States Open, he delivered so golfers who make the majors do.

Coming off a bogey and facing the prospect of another, with his ball sitting 187 yards from the hole in the deep rough left of the fairway 11, McIlroy hit one of the purest shots he - or anyone for other - could have affected moisture, matted grass.

Ignoring the pond on the right and a deep bunker on the left, McIlroy sent a 7-iron shot on the flag, stopping 12 feet past. His birdie went right in the middle, and McIlroy, 22, showed some emotion, cutting loose with a hard right hand, cut a hole in the air and sending a message to the rest of the field at Congressional Country Club.

If no other player hoping to win, they will pick him because McIlroy is not back.

He added another birdie to go with from two to nine before a round of three-under 68 that gave him a 14-under 199 and widened his lead to eight after three rounds of shots YE Yang, who played 70 .

McIlroy 54-hole total is one stroke better than the record U.S. Open set by Jim Furyk at Olympia Fields in 2003 in his victory. It is neither here nor there at this time for McIlroy, who focuses solely on the task at hand.

"I expected some pressure today and there were some," said McIlroy. "But I felt I dealt with it well. In the position I am, you can not complacent - no lead is big enough. I tried to set targets by little, small goals.

"To bounce back on 11 was huge for me. This is one of the toughest holes on the course, and when you birdie that you feel as if you pick up a ball and a half on the ground. It was important for me to birdie it and kept my momentum for most of the back nine. "

McIlroy will catch a daunting task. Pursuers will come from nearby, such as Yang, by far, as Jason Day of Australia and Lee Westwood of England. Westwood shot a 65, his lowest score in 14 years to play the U.S. Open or any major championship. It is nine strokes behind, tied with Day and the American Robert Garrigus.

"It's hard to play with a big lead," said Westwood, sounding the hope that McIlroy would give up some ground coming in. "He had a big lead in a large and did not deal with him before.

"There is pressure on him regarding this. So we'll see. All I can do is control my game and try to shoot a score as low as possible for me. "

For Westwood or anyone else to have a chance, McIlroy will make more errors in the final round than he has in the previous three. His mistakes to date: a double bogey at once in the water at the 18th hole Friday and one bogey default up and down to 10th on Saturday. The odds are long on shooting him 43 on the back nine Sunday to Congress, as he did at the master heading for a final round 80.

"Yeah, I think the experience I had in Augusta, I now know how to approach tomorrow," said McIlroy. "I think it's the most important thing. I feel like I know what I should do tomorrow."

A golfer who knows the champion McIlroy is open, Graeme McDowell, a fellow Northern Irish. McDowell said he thought McIlroy resist the pressure very well.

"I played great golf with Rory, I played a lot of practice rounds with him, and I got to know very well the last three or four years," McDowell said after shooting a 69. "I said several times that he is one of the most phenomenal players I've ever seen. It can be, hands down, the best player I've ever seen hit a golf ball.

"This is a phenomenon. Obviously we were disappointed for him at Augusta. What did this week was an accident waiting to happen. He was threatened to do this for many years, and c ' is just great to see him fulfill his potential. "

Matt Kuchar, who shot a 69, could not but admire the show set up by McIlroy, this week, and immediately after the Masters.

"This is certainly a great story," said Kuchar. "This is something that you feel for a guy to have what happened to him at the Masters, and you would like to see a guy like that bounce. It looked like the next week, I can not remember where he played in Europe, but it seemed he rebounded pretty well, had a good week. What he did here in the U.S. Open is dominant, the impressive work. "

McIlroy said he had work, he was ready to fill. He laughed and put his head in his hands when he learned that Padraig Harrington said McIlroy was not only the next Tiger Woods, but the golfer most likely to first beat the record of Jack Nicklaus's 18 major championships. Woods has 14.

"I'm always looking for my first," said McIlroy, still chuckling. "That's all I can say. I am looking for my first. I put in an excellent position to do tomorrow and then we'll see what happens from there. "

A Place to Laugh, Cry, Hide, Complain and Verify a Scorecard - Golf

It is called the scoring tent, and there can be no space like it in sports. Although it is sometimes room cabin, cottage or trailer instead, the score is still trying for the station and just steps from the 18th green, where golfers all report directly to the championship after a round of golf U.S. Open and others.

Sequestered in the tent, which may not have windows, some players and officials rules are hidden from view as they check their scorecards. It is part shrine, part of a sanatorium. A stressful round of golf history euphoric or may have just concluded. And the drama may continue.

As Paul Casey, 10th in the world rankings of golf, said Wednesday: "I have often thought the tent should be scoring a padded cell."

When the 111th U.S. Open begins Thursday at Congressional Country Club, hundreds of rounds will be digested inside the tent to score. The opponents will sit shoulder to shoulder after a second event, celebrating or feeling sorry for the odd, yet archaic ceremony to ensure that their scores are correct.

"It's a green room after a performance rather than before," said Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 U.S. Open champion. "And you'll see all sorts of human emotions inside. The guys are throwing their scorecards across the room, kicking the table and then suddenly start laughing. Maybe they will bury their heads in their hands. All in the space of a minute.

"It's very much like golf that way. You're on your own even when you're always there with your partners. "

Padraig Harrington, winner in major championship three times, called for the scoring tent as a shelter.

"There are tears of joy and tears of sorrow," said Harrington. "You have been competing in the spotlight for four or five hours, maybe try to win a big tournament, but in this small room as the reality of nature after the house hits. Sometimes you need to absorb the silence. "

Unfortunately, the scoring tent is not always so calm.

"There may be heated altercations," said Casey. "There are insults and accusations. These rules must have bad officials heard all sorts of curse in several languages ​​by now. It can be loud and crazy.

"Of course, sometimes you go out there and the rules officials are sitting there behind the counter in coats and ties and you feel like maybe you've been dragged before the principal. You wonder if maybe you forgot your homework. "

There is a remarkable work to be done inside the tent. One of the unusual things in golf is that the partners hold each other play the score. After one round, the scorecards are exchanged and verified. Caddies will enter the room, as they often keep another scorecard.

The official scorecards were also a band that can be peeled off, each player keeps his own score on this band to compare the score held by its partners. There is a computer screen in the tent with the score of each player that players can see. Finally, the United States Golf Association has a scorer walking with each group of golfers recording every race.

Nevertheless, errors still occur, although rarely, especially in the majors. He was 43 years of Roberto De Vicenzo signed an incorrect scorecard and was denied a chance at a championship Masters

Bernie Loehr, U.S.G.A. executive who has lived in the tent score U.S. Open since 2008, said some golfers will use every available means to ensure that their score is accurate.

"I saw Padraig Harrington check his scorecard in four different ways and then also let me read scores of the computer screen back to him as he checks his scorecard," said Loehr.

Some of the conversation led to the USGA officials are not civil society.

"Guys will come in the tent and growl, as the placement of pin 14 is just ridiculous," said Ogilvy. "The poor guy rules have nothing to do with it, but the guys waited five holes to complain."