Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy will exchange their roles from two weeks ago at The Open Championship, as the hunter becomes the hunted going into the final round of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
A fortnight ago at Royal Liverpool, Garcia made a valiant attempt at chasing down the eventual champion McIlroy on Sunday, and he will now attempt to hold off the Open champion as he leads the tournament by three shots following a weather-interrupted third round at Firestone Country Club.
The Spaniard has the opportunity to put that near-miss at Hoylake behind him by claiming his first World Golf Championship title.
Tee times had been brought forward several hours due to forecast thunderstorms, but the final group had just finished the 15th hole when the threat of lightning forced players off the course.
Garcia held a five-shot lead over McIlroy and Marc Leishman at the time, but when play eventually resumed three hours and 15 minutes later, the 34-year-old struggled to recapture his rhythm and had to battle to par the final three holes.
In contrast, McIlroy missed a good birdie chance on the 16th, but picked up shots on the 17th and 18th to card a third round of 66 and finish at 11-under par, three behind Garcia, who returned a 67.
“I came here this week talking about wanting to just keeping the momentum going and not really dwell on The Open too much and keep moving forward. I have done that really well this week,” McIlroy said. “I’m obviously really excited to give myself another chance to win a tournament tomorrow.”
Leishman and world No1 Adam Scott were two and three shots behind McIlroy respectively, the Australian pair having finished joint fifth together in the Open. “It’s great to see all the guys continue their good play,” McIlroy added. “Sergio was chasing me down at Liverpool, I’m going to try and chase him down this week and we’ll see what happens..”
Justin Rose had been Garcia’s closest challenger when he recovered from just his second bogey of the week on the eighth with birdies on the ninth and 10th, but then three-putted the 13th from 20 feet and did the same on the next, amazingly missing from 12 inches.
The former US Open champion parred the final four holes either side of the delay to card a round of 70 and join Scott and Keegan Bradley on eight-under, six off the pace.
Garcia had started the day with a three-shot lead after a sensational second round of 61, the Spaniard equalling the course record thanks to a back nine of just 27 shots which featured eight birdies, seven of them in succession from the 12th.
He was soon back into his stride when play resumed yesterday, picking up shots on the second, fourth and sixth to reach the turn in 32.
The 11th was the only hole Garcia failed to birdie on the back nine on Friday, but the world No5 made amends with a superb approach to two feet to move to 15 under par.
That was briefly good enough for a six-shot lead when McIlroy, who had also gone out in 32, missed from similar length on the 11th and followed that with a bogey on the 12th after failing to get up and down from a greenside bunker.
However, Garcia then carded his first bogey when he pulled his approach left of the 14th green. The siren sounded to suspend play after the final group had just completed the 15th hole.
Defending champion Tiger Woods had already struggled to a 72 to lie one-over par for the tournament, further reducing his slim chances of qualifying for the FedEx Cup play-offs.
