Rory McIlroy almost topples backwards into a water hazard during rough day at Honda Classic

While you were placing your bets on Tiger Woods to win the Masters as he moved up and down and back up the leaderboard on Saturday at the Honda Classic, his former Nike stablemate, Rory McIlroy, was just trying to hang on — literally.

McIlroy, who went out in a 5-over 40 on his first nine on moving day at PGA National, finished his third round with a 3-over 73, and, at 7-over for the week, was just three shots from DFL of players who made the 36-hole cut in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

If there were one shot that summed up the day for McIlroy, who went bogey-bogey-double-bogey-bogey on holes four through eight, it was when he came oh so close to falling backwards into the water after chipping from the dirt in front of a rock wall on the par-3 fifth.

Just one hole later, McIlroy played a bit of “Where’s Rory?” when he had to drop to his knees to play his third shot out of the shrubbery on his way to a double bogey-6.

It’s a good thing McIlroy, whose last victory came at the 2016 Tour Championship, believes a pre-Masters W is not a prerequisite to his earning his first green jacket and completing the career grand slam.

“I feel like that’s putting yourself under an awful lot of pressure. You don’t have to win a tournament,” McIlroy said on Wednesday, before going 72-72-73 in his first three rounds at the Honda.

“I don’t think it’s imperative,” added McIlroy, who noted that the last two winners at Augusta (Sergio Garcia and Danny Willett) had indeed chalked up first-place finishes ahead of the Masters. “But, obviously to get a win under your belt, it does make you feel a bit better going into it. Yeah, I don’t want to put myself under the pressure because there’s enough going into Augusta, anyway.”

McIlroy, who has dropped to No. 10 in the world, last hoisted a trophy at the 2016 Tour Championship, missed the cut in his 2018 PGA Tour debut at Pebble Beach, and tied for 20th at last week’s Genesis Open.

With all that, despite what the 28-year-old Ulsterman is telling the media, we’re guessing there has to be some internal pressure roiling the four-time major champion, who has three more chances before April 5 — the Valspar Championship (March 8-11), Arnold Palmer Invitational (March 15-18), and match play (March 21-25) — to capture that elusive pre-Masters triumph.

Woods, by the way, got himself to 2-under for the day before a couple of late bogeys at the Bear Trap (holes 15 and 17) threatened to mar his round. With a birdie at the last, however, Tiger shot a third-round 69 and ended his moving day in a tie for 11th at even-par for the week.