Rory McIlroy says he is excited to be playing in the final round at the WGC: FedEx St. Jude Invitational with world number one Brooks Koepka and hopes they can "go toe-to-toe".
The County Down man went into the third day in Memphis on four-under-par and went out with a target in mind, "I wanted to get to double digits under par by the end of the day." He finished the round with an eight-under-par 62, leaving him on 12-under-par for the tournament.
Speaking after the round on Saturday to Sky Sports, McIlroy said he "made six more birdies than I did yesterday, which was nice - one more bogey. Yeah, I got it going today, which was nice. I got on a nice run at the end. Obviously in a great position heading into tomorrow."
After the front nine, he was five under par for the day, with the one-and-only bogey coming on the par-four 12th hole. Last week he missed the cut at the Open Championship in Royal Portrush - the first time the tournament had been held on the island of Ireland in 68 years. McIlroy says playing this week is better:
"These greens are so pure, and I'm not saying the greens we putted on in the last two weeks weren't. But, they're such a nice speed, you get it in line and you let gravity do the rest. It's nice to see a lot of putts drop this week. I know I'm in the top-10 in strokes-game putting going into today, and I'm sure I went up in that category as well. You know everything today went well, really happy with the wedges - dialled them in a bit more. An I think that's the reason why I'm five shots lower today".
Rory McIlroy begins his final round on Sunday at 7pm Irish time alongside the world number one, he says it is exciting to play with Koepka, "Obviously, he is the number one player in the world right. He's won four majors in the last three years, he is the man right now.
"I got to play with him in the last couple of days and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed seeing what he can do. If we get out there tomorrow and it will be awesome to see if we can go toe-to-toe."
