McIlroy, Hovland avoid blunders to share Open Championship lead

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) — Rory McIlroy moved into the void left by the departure of Tiger Woods at the British Open, holing a bunker shot for eagle and revving up the gallery at St. Andrews at every turn Saturday as he moved closer to ending eight years without a major.

Still to come is one more round on a stage he shares with Norwegian star Viktor Hovland. They each posted a 6-under 66, building a four-shot cushion by avoiding the blunders that sent so many contenders in the wrong direction.

Cameron Smith, who started with a two-shot lead, took double bogey on the 13th hole when he tried a bold play with his feet in a pot bunker. Cameron Young went over the 16th green and then back down the other side for a double bogey on the 16th hole.

Dustin Johnson putted across the green and into a bunker and fell six shots behind.

McIlroy and Hovland, who were at 16-under 200, had no such trouble Saturday.

Hovland holed a pair of 40-foot putts on his way to four straight birdies on the front nine to seize the lead. McIlroy finally caught him by holing out from a pot bunker some 80 feet away for eagle on the 10th hole, setting off a roar that could be heard all the way back at the Royal & Ancient clubhouse.

McIlroy only a day earlier tipped his cap to Woods as he started his second round and Woods was on his way to missing the cut, crossing the Swilcan Bridge for what might have been last time. The R&A set the tee times that way so they would pass each other.

Woods stands alone in driving the sport, though McIlroy is the most popular worldwide, and it sounded like that — on the first tee when McIlroy was introduced, for every birdie, and when he took the lead for the first time with a birdie on the 14th.

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