Rory McIlroy has slipped up on a banana peel with a double bogey on the second hole at Royal Melbourne to struggle through his third round of the Australian Open.
The world No.2 was hoping to maintain the momentum of three birdies late in his second round when he arrived on course for an early tee time on Saturday, seven shots off the pace.
Swamped by a sell-out crowd, the Northern Irishman opened with a par but missed the fairway on the par-four second hole with his ball nestled next to a grassy bush.
The lie went from bad to worse with a discarded banana skin draping the ball, with McIlroy unable to remove it for fear of the ball moving which would mean a one-stroke penalty.
He hacked it out, the ball travelling only about 10 metres, and his third shot came up short and he was unable to get up and down, making double-bogey.
The setback came after Friday’s embarrassment on the par-five 14th when McIlroy had a rare air swing after his tee shot finished up under a Ti-tree and he then clipped a branch on the backswing.
He was then able to escape with a one-putt bogey.
Showing his class, golf’s newest grand slam winner immediately shook off Saturday’s early blow to birdie the par-four third.
But with rain starting to fall, he was left frustrated by a number of birdie opportunities failing to drop until the ninth when he moved back to one-under.
South Australian Jack Buchanan was the biggest mover of the morning.
Recently securing a place on the DP World Tour’s secondary Hotel Planner Tour after narrowly missing full 2026 European tour status, Buchanan had an eagle on the par-three third, five birdies and a bogey.
At six-under through 16 holes, he leapt up the leaderboard into a tie for 10th.
Co-leaders Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen and Portugal’s Daniel Rodrigues, and Australian gun Min Woo Lee, who trails by one at eight under, have just teed off.
