UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. -- When he arrived at Chambers Bay a week ago, Rory McIlroy immediately took to the place. He saw plenty of room off the tee, and the ability to launch his driver. He liked the links-like qualities of the course.
But through three rounds of the U.S. Open, the four-time major champion has been left frustrated by his inability to get enough putts to drop. He didn't blame it on the controversial greens, although surely that hasn't helped.
After opening the tournament with rounds of 72-72, McIlroy had it going early Saturday before stalling. On the back nine he gave himself seven chances, unable to make any in a round of even-par 70. He is at 214, 4 over par, and was 9 strokes back of the leaders before they had even teed off.
"I'm pleased with how I've kept it going," McIlroy said. "But the way I feel like I'm playing, it's a lot easier to do that than when you're not hitting fairways and not hitting greens. I'm hitting great shots and great drives and giving myself chances the whole time. So it's just hard to stay patient whenever I'm not holing anything. I feel mentally I've accepted most things this week, which is good.''
McIlroy has yet to have a round with under 30 putts. He saw the tournament get away from him Friday when he four-putted the 17th for a double-bogey and then bogeyed the 18th.
"I was very frustrated to drop 3 shots on the last two holes and go from somewhat in contention -- 6 shots back -- to 9 shots back,'' McIlroy said. "It's a big difference, especially here when it's so hard to make up shots, so hard to make birdies. So I was disappointed, but at least I had a chance today to go out and try and shoot a good score and get myself somewhat back into it. And for half of the round today it looked like I would. And it was just another disappointing finish."