British Open results 2014: Rory McIlroy dominant again, holds off Rickie Fowler charge

Rickie Fowler tried to make it interesting at the British Open, but it appears we’re headed for yet another major championship blowout thanks to the overwhelming brilliance of Rory McIlroy.

McIlroy started the day four shots in front of Dustin Johnson. He finished six shots in front of Fowler.

But it wasn’t an easy march for Rory. At one point on the back nine, Fowler caught him to share the lead at 12-under. That only held for a hole, however, as McIlroy responded and closed out his round with two eagles in his last three holes. He’s headed for a Martin Kaymer U.S. Open-like Sunday cruise at Hoylake.

Rory was not flawless in his third round, hitting some loose shots throughout the front nine. It was always going to be hard backing up those first two rounds of 66, and he started his third round off with a bogey. His playing partner and closest chaser, Dustin Johnson, birdied the first hole for a two-shot swing. The four-shot lead was cut in half on the very first hole and it looked like we would have a battle between those two bombers.

After that bogey at the first, McIlroy continued to spray it a bit. But each time he hit a poor tee shot or wayward drive, he’d make up for it with a brilliant recovery shot or clutch putt to save par. At the 7th, he rocketed his drive into the high fescue down the right side, almost an automatic one-shot penalty. But after hacking out into the fairway, he got down in two, drilling a lengthy putt for a world-class par save that kept the chasers at bay. At the 9th, he doinked his drive into a golf cart camera operator. But again caught a fortunate break, dropping his ball in a cushy spot and getting up-and-down for a ‘miracle par,’ as Paul Azinger termed it.

So there were several shaky moments, allowing the streaky Fowler to jump up into a share of the lead. The course at Royal Liverpool was playing as easy as it had all week, with rains dampening and softening up the greens so the players could take dead aim at all the flagsticks. The storms and rain were expected, that’s why the R&A made the shocking decision to move the schedule up and send players off split tees for the first time in 143 years at this championship. But the attendant wind with that rain was nowhere to be found, so the soft but calm conditions set up perfectly for low scores.

Fowler took advantage of those conditions to roll in birdies on four of his first six holes. It looked like he was well on his way to the round of the day, his irons were pure and the putter was steady. By the 12th hole, he had closed the six-shot gap between himself and Rory at the start of his day, and it was impossible to avoid his newfound standing on the leaderboard.

An hour later, Rickie would be out of the share of the lead and down six shots.

McIlroy was also aware that his once four-shot lead was gone, playing the first 13 holes in a pedestrian even-par given the good scoring conditions. From the 14th hole in, however, he turned it on and put himself in position for a third runaway win at a major championship. The closing run started at the 14th, where Rory rolled in a birdie putt just moments after a Rickie bogey for a two-shot swing and some cushion at the top.

Hoylake is one of the rare remaining major venues with four par-5s. The length of the modern players has made many par-5s obsolete, but Liverpool has four gettable scoring par-5s, two of which are among the final three holes. These are definitely birdie holes -- the winner was always going to post plenty of red numbers here. Tiger played the par-5s in 14-under when he won in 2006 at this course.

Rory turned them not just into birdie chances, but rather eagle opportunities. He was on in two at the 16th, his margin now three shots with a lengthy attempt at eagle. A made-putt might slam the door on the entire championship, and McIlroy put it dead center.

It was an enormous shift, and one that seemed to lock things up for the remaining 20 holes. But Rory would pile it on at the next par five, increasing his lead to six shots with another brilliant eagle on the last. This time, he did his best work with an flawless iron right up the chute that tracked the flagstick.

The shot was unfair, and had to be deflating to Fowler, Sergio Garcia, and anyone else who was entertaining thoughts of a Sunday comeback. Rory poured that putt in to get 16-under. For all the early morning drama, the leaky shots, lost sole possession of the lead, everything had circled around to Rory being way out in front by the time it was over. He’s now got a shot to become just the second wire-to-wire winner (no ties at the end of each round) in the 143-year history of golf’s oldest championship.

We’ll still get the Rickie-Rory final pairing we were hyping back when they were tied for the lead and exchanging blows in the middle of the round. But it will be with less hype on that potential rivalry and more hype on a 25-year-old marching to the third leg of the career grand slam. The first two came by eight shots at Congressional and Kiawah. Sunday may end with the same drama-free dominance.

Here’s your leaderboard after 54 holes at Hoylake: