Can Viktor Hovland halt Rory McIlroy’s pursuit of 5th major?

Rory McIlroy has a chance to win his fifth major championship at the British Open.  That would get him in rarefied company along with five legends: Seve Ballesteros, Peter Thomson, Byron Nelson, James H. Taylor, and James Braid.

But first, McIlroy has to get through the final round.  If the third round is any guide, he looks as though he can do it.

“I just have to just stick to my game plan, stick to the process,” he said to media after he finished the third round.

"“The more people bring up the result, the more I’m just going to harp on about process.”"

Whether it’s a new maturity, whether it’s as Paul McGinley said on Golf Channel, Bob Rotella’s mental advice and Brad Faxon’s putting tips, we won’t know unless he tells us.

“I’m trying to play with discipline. I’m trying to play the percentages,” he explained about his approach to The Old Course.

"“Where they’ve put some of these pin positions this week, it’s about playing away from them, taking your 30-footer, knowing that par is a good score on a lot of holes.”"

In addition, he’s blasting his drives to several of the reachable – yes reachable – par fours and what have become two-shot par fives.

Rory McIlroy was solid for 16 holes.  Then he had to hit out of an old divot on the 17th hole. He said it came out hot.  The result was that the ball bounced into the wall over the road and bounded back off the wall on the Road Hole, leaving him two to three feet to take a swing.

"“It could have been way worse. It could have been up against the wall. It could have been anywhere,” he said. “I was happy enough to get out of there with a 5.”"

His playing competitor, Viktor Hovland, had come out aggressively on the day, making four birdies in a row.

Rory McIlroy had to stay patient and wait for his chances to materialize, and they did at the 5th, which was a par five that he birdied, the 6th, where he hit his second shot to two feet, and at the 9th, where he capitalized on driving the par four.

Then Rory McIlroy had a spectacular hole out from a bunker at the 10th for eagle.

McIlroy birdied the last par five, the 14th, with standard play. Two good shots to the green and two putts. And at the last, he drove to an area just in front of the green, chipped, and made a three-footer for his final birdie to finish in a tie with Hovland.

His goal is to stay in what he calls his competitive cocoon during the round tomorrow so that he doesn’t lose focus. He said that is what happened to him at Augusta National in 2011.

“I got out of my process. I got out of what I did for three days, and it was a tough lesson. It was a really tough pill to swallow,” he admitted about the loss there.

He’s trying to take enough time to acknowledge the massive crowd support that he has received this week, but he has to quickly go back into his own bubble to get the best play out.

“It’s put me in this position. I just need to do it for one more day,” he said.

Will it guarantee him a 5th major? No. There’s no guarantee.  He has to score better than the closest competitors.

Make no mistake, they are all trying to take him down, and he’s trying to overcome it all and finally grasp his next major after an eight-year drought.

But if there was ever a time for McIlroy to win at what he called the Holy Grail of golf, this is it.  His game is on. The fans are behind him.  And when he gets to the 18th green, he knows he will be able to see Erica and Poppy in the window at Rusacks, the hotel across the street where they are staying.

Historically speaking, should McIlroy succeed, he will tie Ballesteros, the only one who is recent, and that was 40 years ago. He will also tie Nelson, who played in the 1930s and 1940s. Thomson, playing in the 1950s. Taylor and Braid won their tournaments between 1894 and 1913.  That was more than 100 years ago.

A fifth victory would put him just behind Phil Mickelson, Nick Faldo, and Lee Trevino in the modern era.  Above that level, it gets really legendary.  Arnold Palmer, Gene Sarazen, and Bobby Jones kind of legendary. And many people believe he will get there, too.