Nightmare start for McIlroy in Open third round

Troon - Rory McIlroy's hopes of making a charge up the leaderboard in the third round of the British Open were undermined by a nightmare start at Royal Troon on Saturday.

The Northern Irishman sat at two under par at the halfway stage, eight shots adrift of leader Phil Mickelson.

Playing with South Korea's KT Kim, the 2014 Open champion bogeyed the par-four first after finding the rough to the right with his tee shot.

After a par at the second, McIlroy then contrived to drop another shot at the par-four third after three-putting.

That saw him slip back to level par as the rain started to come down for the first time on Saturday.

Mickelson and Sweden's Henrik Stenson, second at nine-under, go out in the last pairing.