Rory McIlroy shrugs off his critics to stay in contention at Memorial Tournament

Rory McIlroy came under siege on social media from Phil Mickelson on Saturday, but the Northern Irishman at last answered the criticisms via his clubs rather than the microphone.

McIlroy goes into the final round of the Memorial tournament in a three-way share for the lead on three-under — with David Lipsky and Kim Si-woo — and the obvious favourite to put his frustrations yet more firmly back on track after his damaganing missed cut at the Masters in April.

That was a huge setback for the 34-year-old — mentally as much as anything — but after a battling tie for seventh at the US PGA two weeks ago, McIlroy seems ready to shrug off his critics once more. 

One of these is Mickelson who was asked on social media on Friday if he believed that LIV’s limited 14-event schedule would benefit McIlroy after the Northern Irishman had indicated that the packed schedule on the PGA Tour had led to the gremlins in his swing that saw him miss the Augusta cut by five shots.

“As worn out as McIlroy was after the Masters and his need for an off season, LIV would be perfect for him,” Mickelson replied. “Problem is I don’t think there’s a [LIV Golf] team that wants him on it because they’d have to deal with all his bs [bulls--t].”

McIlroy spelt out his concerns about the lack of down-time after his fine second-round 68.

“We’ve all been advocating for an off-season,” McIlroy said. “It’s very hard to try to play your best golf when you’re really thinking about your swing, so that off-season would be nice to work on your fundamentals. I don’t feel I had the necessary time to do that [this year].”

Of course, McIlroy has already turned down an offer for LIV — believed to be upwards of $400million — and, obviously, as the most outspoken critic of the Greg Norman enterprise, would be one of the last big names anybody would expect to be enticed across.

Yet Mickelson’s latest broadside highlights that as much as McIlroy would love to escape the LIV dialogue — and he has pledged to sidestep the issue from now on - he will keep being drawn back in.

With the US Open in two weeks’ time and the Open four weeks later, McIlroy must surely yearn for the noise to die down as he tries to end his nine-year barren run in the majors. He is still battling his swing but he is managing to score. He will go out in the final group on Sunday, but he acknowledges that with 31 golfers within four shots of the lead, this will be a shootout.

“With the way the leaderboard is and how bunched it is, it’s just going to come down to who can sort of hold their head the most coming down the stretch,” McIlroy said.

“It’s a big tournament and I’ve got quite a bit of experience and you would like to think that that gives you a little bit of an advantage.”

“But everyone’s going to go out there tomorrow and, regardless of where you are in the tournament, this  course makes you a little uncomfortable anyway. So everyone’s going to be feeling like that.”

Sunday could be a fine day for McIlroy’s home course of Holywood, Belfast, with Tom McKibbin looking for his first victory on the DP World Tour at the European Open in Hamburg. The 20-year-old is in a six-way tie for the lead going into the final round.

It was a seesaw day for McKibbin — who graduated from the Challenge Tour last year as he began with a birdied but then traded bogeys with more birdies to shoot a 72 and join Dane John Axelsen, England’s Jordan Smith, Sweden’s Alexander Björk, Scotland’s David Law and France’s Julien Guerrier on six-under.