Shane Lowry shot a four-under-par 68 on Saturday at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links GC but lost ground on leader Aaron Rai, as he heads into the final day five strokes behind.
The Irishman started strongly on a low-scoring day with three birdies in his first seven holes but was left ruing some missed chances on the back nine as he came home in 35 strokes to finish the day in tied eighth position on 15 under.
Rai on 20 under leads by one stroke from fellow Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, who is looking to win back-to-back DP World Tour events, and Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard. Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, is up to 14 under after an impressive 66 that featured seven birdies.
“I gave myself some chances,” McIlroy said. And yeah, it sort of feels like a week that I left a few out there every day. Even today, I felt like today was the best that I played. After 11, it could have been a really good round, and stalled a little bit, and that’s the reason that I’m six back from Aaron at this point.
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“[I will] try to shoot another good one tomorrow and move up the board and try to obviously accumulate as many points as possible heading into next week.
McIlroy made ground on Race to Dubai rival Marco Penge, who only shot a 70 on day three, damaged by a costly double bogey on his final hole.
Tom McKibbin is in tied 64th place after a three-under-par 69.
