Rory's giving it his most dramatic shot at glory

EVEN by his own very dramatic standards, it was an hour or so of truly surreal golfing theatre.

- ANDY DUNN

Strike TWO balls with one swing of the club? Tick.

Hole a 56-foot eagle putt? Tick.

Hit the flag from 160 yards out? Tick.

Escape from a valley of pain on a hole named Calamity? Tick.

This is why they flock in their thousands to see a flash of Rory Mcllroy.

This is why the galleries are ten deep.

The chances of the 36-year-old from Northern Ireland winning his second Claret Jug are still slim but Mcllroy's cavalier presence over the weekend has already lit up this Championship weekend.

Rest assured, there will be more pyrotechnics from Mcllroy on this glorious stage on Sunday.

His third round of 66 sees him standing at eight under and with a puncher's outside chance of adding the 153rd Open to his tally of five Majors. And no one punches harder on a golf course than Mcllroy.

And in Tiger red, he came out fighting yesterday.

Throughout the first two rounds of this tournament, Mcllroy was a model of conviviality, chatting away to playing partners Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas in Sunday-morning-at-the-club style.

But this was all business.