• Hong Kong Open, Round Three

McIlroy endures brush with a tree in poor third round

Rory McIlroy encountered one or two problems during the third round of the Hong Kong Open © Getty Images

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Rory McIlroy posted his worse round of the tournament to slide down the leaderboard on day three of the Hong Kong Open on Saturday.

McIlroy, who shared the overnight lead with Alvaro Quiros, now finds himself three strokes behind the Spaniard after a level-par 70. Unwanted diversions to a bunker and behind a tree made life difficult for McIlroy, who remained on seven-under.

Things began to go wrong at the fourth for the Northern Irishman, who flirted with the edge of the hole from 10 feet having played his way out of sand. Another bogey quickly followed at the fifth when he was forced to chip out from behind a tree, and he actually did well to get up and down for the loss of only one shot.

McIlroy had to wait until the 13th for his first birdie, and another at 17 ensured he achieved par for the day, but he has plenty of work to do on a low-scoring course if he is to triumph on Sunday.

Quiros remains favourite after another solid round of golf, carding a three-under 67 to move to 10-under. However, Peter Hanson is the man with most momentum after a superb 65 lifted him to within one stroke of the leader.

"It was nice," Hanson said. "To sum it up, it was very good putting. I had a bit of a slow start making a bogey on the second but from there it was very solid and there were a couple of good bunker shots that saved some pars through the through the middle part of the round."

Equally as impressive was YE Yang, who is tied for third place with Pariya Junhasavasdikul after matching Hanson's 65. Six birdies and just the solitary bogey ensured Yang has to be watched closely by Quiros going into the final round.

Elsewhere, England's David Horsey is two strokes behind McIlroy on five-under, while defending champion Ian Poulter gave himself a slender hope of repeating last year's success with a 67 that lifts him to four-under.

Richie Ramsey, who began the day in second place, is level with Poulter after a disappointing 72, while Padraig Harrington's second 70 in three days keeps him at one-over. Former Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie is six-over after a 74.

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