Rory McIlroy Ties Lead Heading Into Memorial Tournament Final Round

Rory McIlroy holds a share of the lead heading into the final round of the Memorial Tournament as he seeks his second victory of 2023 following January's Dubai Desert Classic triumph.

The Northern Irishman carded a two-under-par 70 on Saturday at Muirfield Village to sit at six-under with 18 to play alongside David Lipsky and Si Woo Kim.

McIlroy will play in the final round with Lipsky, who finished bogey-bogey on Saturday afternoon to drop back into a tie for the lead.

"It would mean a ton to me to win this tournament," McIlroy said. "I've played pretty well here over the years without really having a realistic chance to win. So to be able to walk up that hill from 18 and get that handshake from Jack would be pretty nice.

"I won Arnold's tournament a few years ago, but he had already passed by the time. So it would be so nice to be able to do it and have Jack be there and stuff. It would be really cool."

Following his battling T7 finish at the PGA Championship a fortnight ago, the four-time Major winner still doesn't quite have his best stuff but is managing to post the numbers this week at Muirfield Village.

"Similar, I would say," he said of how his swing felt on Saturday.

"Felt like I have hit the ball pretty well this week. The big thing for me around here with how penal it is off the tee is just getting the ball in play. So throttling back, hitting a lot of 3-woods, irons off tees.

"Using the driver sort of sporadically. That's been the game plan and that's what's really worked over the last three days."

McIlroy scrambled excellently on Saturday where he had just 21 putts. He made four birdies and two bogeys in his third round, with the highlight being a chip-in 2 at the par 3 12th hole.

"It's a big tournament and I've got quite a bit of experience in that and you would like to think that that gives you a little bit of an advantage," he said.

"So everyone's going to go out there tomorrow and, regardless of where you are in the tournament, this golf course makes you a little uncomfortable anyway. So everyone's going to be feeling like that.

"With the way the leaderboard is and how bunched it is, it's just going to come down to who can sort of hold their head the most coming down the stretch."

A win would see him pick up his 24th PGA Tour title and give him a huge confidence boost ahead of the US Open in two weeks' time and the 151st Open Championship next month, which returns to Royal Liverpool and the scene of his Claret Jug triumph in 2014.

He'll have to hold off Lipsky and Kim as well as Viktor Hovland and many other star names.

Memorial Tournament leaderboard after round 3:

• McIlroy, Lipsky, Kim -6
• Hovland, McCarthy, Hubbard, Hodges, Clark -5
• Bradley, Matsuyama, Cantlay, Morikawa, Rodgers -4