Rory McIlroy has ‘a chance of a medal’ over final day of Olympic Games golf

A return of five birdies and 13 pars left McIlroy on the climb and he now holds a spot as one of four players on 10 under tied sixth – just four shots off the lead.

McIlroy, who said he feels French this week due to the amount of “Allez Rorys” from the bumper 20,000 crowds, declared: “I said that over the past two days I made too many mistakes and that’s why I wasn’t further up the board.

“Today I was able to limit those mistakes and not have any bogeys.

“I played another really solid round of golf to give myself a chance of a medal.”

World number one Scottie Scheffler of the United States, South Korea’s Tom Kim and Belgium’s Thomas Detry are on the same 10 under mark as McIlroy.

Tommy Fleetwood says he is excited to be in contention for Olympic gold following a third-round 69 at Le Golf National.

The Team GB golfer heads into the final day 13 under par, one shot adrift of joint-leaders Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele.

“I’m very, very excited. The leaderboard is amazing, the leaderboard you’d expect at the Olympics,” said the 33-year-old from Southport. “It’s what the sport deserves really and I’m happy to be a part of it. I’ve been doing very well so far so we’ll see.”

Open champion Schauffele shot 68 and the American was joined at the top of the leaderboard by the impressive Rahm.

The Spaniard, who finished tied seventh in the Open at Royal Troon and ended an 18-month wait for a win on the LIV Tour in Staffordshire last week, fired seven birdies in his 66.

Fleetwood said: “It was a lovely feeling to get a par on the last hole.

“You never want to bogey the last, so it’s an amazing feeling when you scrape a par like that and it was a beautiful putt to end the day.

“It leaves me just behind the leaders and they’re clearly very good at golf, so as close to them as I can get the better.”

Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard, who tied the course record of 62, and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, after a level-par 71, hold a share of fourth two shots behind Fleetwood.

Team Ireland’s Shane Lowry is five shots further back after a third-round 66, while Matt Fitzpatrick of Team GB withdrew citing a thumb injury following a disastrous 81.