Surging McIlroy within one shot of Turkish Open leaders

REUTERS – World number three Rory McIlroy fired his third five-under-par 67 of the week to surge to within one stroke of the leaders after the third round of the Turkish Airlines Open in Antalya on Saturday.

The 26-year-old returned five birdies, an eagle and two bogeys as he finished with a 15-under-par total of 201, one behind South African Jaco Van Zyl (70) and 2013 winner Victor Dubuisson (67) of France.

Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat (66) was sharing third position with McIlroy on 201.

“The eagle on 13 was the spark that I needed to get myself up the leaderboard,” Northern Irishman McIlroy told reporters at the $7-million European Tour event.

“I feel if I play the same way and execute a little bit better there is definitely a lower score out there for me.

“I’ve played very much within myself so if I can get something going and get some momentum out there tomorrow there is no reason why I can’t go lower than that,” added McIlroy.

“I’ll be setting myself a target somewhere a little lower than 20-under and we’ll see where we go from there.”

European Ryder Cup player Dubuisson has had a mediocre season but is glad to be back at the Montgomerie Maxx in south-west Turkey.

“This is a course that I feel great on,” said the Frenchman. “My long game has been really good since the beginning of the year but my short game was just really bad.

“I changed my putter about six weeks ago and it has been getting better and better since then so my game feels in good shape. I’m very excited about tomorrow.”

(Writing by Tony Jimenez in London; editing by Clare Fallon)