McIlroy stays in hunt for first win since Masters at Irish Open

Irish Open third-round leaderboard

-15 A Saddier (Fra); -14 A Hidalgo (Spa); -12 A Garcia-Heredia (Spa); -11 R McIlroy (NI), J Lagergren (Swe)

Selected others: -7 T Hatton (Eng); -6 S Lowry (Ire); -3 T McKibbin; +1 P Reed (US)

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Rory McIlroy maintained his bid for a second Irish Open title as a bogey-free 68 left him four shots off the pace going into the final round at the K Club.

Hunting his first win since the Masters in April, McIlroy carded four birdies to stay in touch with France's Adrien Saddier, who matched the Northern Irishman's 68.

Italian Open champion Saddier leads by a shot from Spain's Angel Hidalgo, who hit 12 birdies in a stunning nine-under 63 to vault into contention.

Playing with McIlroy, Spain's Alfredo Garcia-Heredia fired a 67 to sit three shots off the pace, but overnight leader Joakim Lagergren slipped to four back with a 73.

Despite a second straight bogey-free round, McIlroy said he was frustrated after failing to make up more ground on the lead.

"As I was walking off the 18th green, I said to Harry [Diamond, his caddie] this is probably the most frustrating four-under par round of golf I've played in a while," said the world number two.

"I had plenty of chances. It got gusty at the end. I felt like I gave myself a lot of chances, hit some good putts that didn't go in. Had a nice one that sort of dropped at 14.

"I feel like all day I was just trying to keep myself in a close position to the lead. I feel like I could be a couple of shots better, but overall I'm still in a decent position going into tomorrow."

McIlroy made an early move with back-to-back birdies on the fourth and fifth, but he was forced to wait until the 14th before picking up another shot when he sunk a 40-foot putt.

In increasingly gusty conditions, the five-time major winner miscalculated several approach shots and relied on his short game to keep his card unblemished before closing with a birdie.

"The wind caught me out a couple of times," he admitted.

"I think what's hard as well is the greens are so soft, so you're trying to take balls out of the air so they don't spin as much. But then if it's dying wind, you're not getting the effect of the wind, so you're playing for wind but it's not really effective.

"It was hard to judge a little bit today. I did my best."

While McIlroy found birdies hard to come by at times, Hidalgo had no such trouble as the 27-year-old reeled off seven in a row from the second.

After a bogey at the ninth, Hidalgo picked up four more shots in the first six holes of his back nine.

His momentum stalled with a double-bogey seven on the 16th after hitting his second into the water, but after steadying himself with a par on 17, he finished with a birdie four.

"I really feel for a few moments I was playing the PlayStation, to be honest," said Hidalgo, who beat two-time major winner Jon Rahm in a play-off to win his national title last year.

"Every single shot was directly to the pin. Even the one I missed, it was directly to the pin, like the 13 one I go over, but it was straight to the pin.

"[I'm] so happy. Not going to lie, really, really happy. Obviously now you remember the 16th, but you need to remember the few recoveries I did. The one on 17 was pretty important, and obviously the birdie on 18 to finish with good feelings obviously for tomorrow."

Saddier, however, was seemingly unaffected by Hidalgo's stunning early move as the 33-year-old mixed seven birdies with three bogeys to hold the 54-hole lead and put himself in position to land a second DP World Tour title.

European Ryder Cup players Shane Lowry (70) and Tyrrell Hatton (71) failed to make a big move, while Northern Ireland's Tom McKibbin carded just one birdie in a disappointing 74.