Rory McIlroy nine strokes adrift as Royal Melbourne proves a real banana skin

“It was sort of a double whammy. It was in the tough grass, and under a banana skin,” McIlroy said afterwards. “But I shouldn’t have been there in the first place.”

He recovered quickly with a birdie on the third, though he handed it back at the par-3 seventh. A birdie at the ninth steadied his momentum before he closed in style, making four birdies in the final six holes, including crucial gains at 17 and 18, to sign for a three-under 68.

The Masters champion now sits at five-under overall, nine shots behind leader Neergaard-Petersen heading into Sunday. “I’ll probably be a little too far behind to challenge on Sunday, but I’ll try to end the week on a positive note,” he said.

Neergaard-Petersen, still seeking a first DP World Tour victory, birdied four of his last five holes to establish a two-stroke advantage over a chasing group featuring Cam Smith, Si-Woo Kim and Carlos Ortiz. Spain’s Jose Luis Ballester sits one shot further back, while Adam Scott, Min-Woo Lee and Daniel Hillier remain firmly in the mix at ten-under.