Rory McIlroy survives a strong wind for a 69 to lead Irish Open over Manassero

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Rory McIlroy survives a strong wind for a 69 to lead Irish Open over Manassero

2024-09-15 01:31 Last Updated At：02:21

NEWCASTLE, Northern Ireland (AP) — Rory McIlroy delivered enough superb shots in a strong wind Saturday for a 2-under 69, giving him a one-shot lead over Matteo Manassero in the Irish Open as McIlroy tries to erase two bad memories on home soil.

McIlroy had to settle for bogey on the par-5 closing hole at Royal County Down when he hit a half-shank from the rough for his third shot. Even so, the wind was so severe that he matched the low score of the third round. Only three other players shot 69, and four others broke par.

Manassero, who started the day with a one-shot lead, did his best to hold on. He dropped only one shot over the last 10 holes, on the 17th when he pulled his tee shot into high grass and could only chop back to the fairway. He two-putted from 50 feet to escape with bogey.

McIlroy was at 6-under 207 as he goes for his second Irish Open title. He has yet to win in Northern Ireland, and it has not gone well for him previously. McIlroy opened with an 80 when the Irish Open was last held at Royal County Down in 2015. And at the British Open five years ago at Royal Portrush, he opened with a 79. Both times he missed the cut.

“I'm excited to give myself a chance,” McIlroy said. “The last couple of times I've played in Northern Ireland it hasn't panned out the way I wanted. I can't get too far ahead of myself, but I'm excited to go out there and give it my all.”

Robert MacIntyre was in a four-way tie for third after a 69, leaving the Scot in the mix to add a third national title to his credit this year. MacIntyre previously won the Canadian Open in June and the Scottish Open in July.

Jordan Smith (69), Erik van Rooyen (71) and Rasmus Hojgaard (71) also were at 3-under 210.

The roughest day belonged to Todd Clements, playing alongside McIlroy before the largest galleries. Clements started one shot behind and posted an 85.

Manassero did well to stay close. He was in trouble off the 17th tee and made bogey. On the par-5 closing hole, he rammed his 50-foot birdie attempt some 10 feet by the hole, and made that for par to stay one behind.

“They are not birdies but they always feel like them a little bit, and that’s how it is out there,” Manassero said. “I would have loved to not get beaten from the golf course but I think I did really well to finish with two 5s, to be honest.”

McIlroy opened with an approach that used the slope to perfection for his shot to roll down to 6 feet for eagle. His best shot was a 7-iron into 6 feet on the par-3 seventh. Any birdie after the par-5 first hole felt like a bonus.

“It was a matter of trying to par as many holes as possible,” he said.

He saved par from behind the 17th green. On the 18th, he pushed his drive into the right rough, hit into nasty rough on the left and then hit a half-shank that bounced off the grandstands to the right. He chipped beautifully to 6 feet but missed the par putt to settle for 69.

“I definitely would have taken the score before I went out today,” he said.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

German Christmas market ramming is the latest attack to use vehicles as deadly weapons

2024-12-21 21:53 Last Updated At：22:00

LONDON (AP) — A car-ramming at a Christmas market in Germany, which police are treating as an attack, is the latest in a grim series of events in which vehicles have been used as deadly weapons.

There have been a spate of such attacks over the past decade, some committed by groups but most by individuals. The motives – where they could be established – have varied widely. Some were inspired by Islamic militant groups such as al-Qaida and ISIS, which encouraged followers to carry out low-cost, low-tech attacks with cars and trucks. Others have been linked to mental illness, far-right extremism and online misogyny.

What law-enforcement authorities term “vehicle as a weapon attacks” have reshaped cities around the world, as planners erect concrete barriers around public spaces and build anti-vehicle obstacles into new developments.

Here are some major vehicle attacks:

MAGDEBURG, Germany, Dec. 20. 2024 — At least five people are killed and more than 200 injured when a car slams into a Christmas market in eastern Germany. The suspect, who was arrested, is a 50-year-old doctor originally from Saudi Arabia who had expressed anti-Muslim views and support for the far-right AFD party.

ZHUHAI, China, Nov. 11, 2024 — A 62-year-old driver rams his car into people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35 people in the country’s deadliest mass slaying in years. Authorities said the perpetrator was upset about his divorce but offered few other details.

LONDON, Ontario, June 6, 2021 — Four members of a Muslim family die when an attacker hits them with a pickup truck while they are out for a walk, in what Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls “a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred.” White nationalist attacker Nathaniel Veltman was sentenced to life in prison.

TORONTO, April 23, 2018 — A 25-year-old Canadian man, Alek Minassian, drives a rented van into mostly female pedestrians on Yonge St., the main thoroughfare in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 16. Minassian told police he belonged to the online “incel” community of sexually frustrated men.

NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2017 — Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic extremist from Uzbekistan, drives a pickup truck onto a popular New York City bike path, killing eight.

BARCELONA, Aug. 17, 2017 — A man driving a van slams into people on the Spanish city’s crowded Las Ramblas boulevard, killing 14 and injuring many others. Several members of the same cell carry out a similar vehicle attack in the nearby resort town of Cambrils before they are shot dead by police. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, Aug. 12, 2017 — During a “Unite the Right” rally, white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. intentionally drives his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens of people.

LONDON: March 22, 2017 — British man Khalid Masood rams an SUV into people on Westminster Bridge, killing four, before stabbing to death a policeman guarding the Houses of Parliament nearby. He is shot dead. June 3, 2017 — three attackers drive a van at pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in nearby Borough Market. Eight people are killed and the attackers shot dead by police. June 19, 2017 — Darren Osborne, a man radicalized by far-right ideas, drives a van at worshippers outside a mosque in London’s Finsbury Park area, killing one man and injuring 15 people.

MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan 20, 2017 – Six people are killed and more than 30 injured when a car hits lunchtime crowds at a pedestrian mall in Australia’s second-largest city. Perpetrator James Gargasoulas is found to have been in a state of drug-induced psychosis.

BERLIN, December 19, 2016 — Anis Amri, a rejected asylum-seeker from Tunisia, plows a hijacked truck into a Christmas market in the German capital, killing 13 people and injuring dozens. The attacker is killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

NICE, France, July 14, 2016 — Tunisian-born French resident Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drives a rented truck for more than a mile (almost 2 kilometers) along a packed seaside promenade in the French Riviera resort on the Bastille Day holiday, killing 86 people in the deadliest attack of its kind.

APELDOORN, Netherlands, April 28, 2009 – Former security guard Karst Tates drives a car into parade spectators in an attempt to hit an open-topped bus carrying members of the Dutch royal family. Six people are killed and Tates dies of injuries the next day, leaving his full motive a mystery.

CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina, March 3, 2006 — University of North Carolina graduate Mohammed Taheri-Azar drives an SUV into a crowd at the university, lightly injuring nine people, in a self-professed bid to avenge Muslim deaths overseas.