Rory McIlroy v Danny Willett – The Irish Open is Exploding

McIlroy’s three-stroke victory over Scotland’s Russell Knox and Bradley Dredge of Wales wasn’t smooth sailing. Action Images via Reuters / Paul Childs.

Four-time major victor McIlroy led Willett by two shots when proceedings were delayed for the first time at 15:25 BST, and extended his advantage on the resumption of play nearly two and a half hours later, picking up a shot at the 10th.

The World Number Three will return to the 16th hole at 7.30am local time on Sunday morning to complete his third round, as will overnight leader Willett, who dropped back to six under par after mixing three bogeys with one birdie in his 15 holes.

England’s Tyrrell Hatton has two holes to play of his third round but has moved into fourth place on -4, while eight players, including Jamie Donaldson sit on -3.

If he can see out the win, the Irish Open would mark the first win of the season for McIlroy.

Rory McIlroy has never won his national Open, but will be the firm favourite to break his drought after a superbly controlled performance in testing conditions.

And, although Willett’s challenge stalled in the final round with 13 straight pars before he collapsed to a closing 77, Knox ensured McIlroy would not have things all his own way.

McIlroy turned on the style at the last, giving himself a simple putt for an eagle with a sublime 253-yard approach shot from the fairway and making no mistake to pick up a €666,660 winning cheque, which he will donate to his charity The Rory Foundation.

“I just have to approach it like I did today, just take whatever comes and just make sure I’m ready to go whenever they tell us to go play”, he said.

“It’s amusing, I had the exact same distance in the pro-am and JP (Fitzgerald, his caddie) tried to get me to hit a four-iron but I didn’t like it”, McIlroy added.

Germany’s Martin Kaymer produced the lowest score of the final round with a seven-under-par 65 to share fifth place at six under.

As Warren bogeyed the first after driving in to trees and Willett missed his par-save from three feet at the second, McIlroy briefly took the outright lead in the group behind with a two-putt gain at the fourth.

But then at the par-5 18th, the tournament host almost holed out from 252 yards for an albatross.

“I had a good hybrid distance on 16 and I just chunked it. I had given up on it to be honest and when I saw it hit the rock, I was like, that’s going forward”.