Pagunsan misses cut in British Open

HOYLAKE, United Kingdom – Juvic Pagunsan birdied two of the last four holes but still missed the cut despite a 73 as he wound up with a 149, three over from the cutoff score in the British Open.

Barely settling down after a shaky start Thursday, Pagunsan birdied No. 2 but made a double bogey on No. 4 and dropped another shot on the seventh. He birdied No. 10 for the second straight day but reeled back with back-to-back birdies from No. 13 before coming through with birdies on Nos. 15 and 18.

(Related Story on A-27).

Still, it failed to give him a spot in the Open weekend unlike in his first Open stint in 2012 where he finished 72nd overall.

Rory McIlroy was struggling to hold on to his lead in a rain-hit third round on Saturday

The 25-year-old from Northern Ireland began the day with a four-stroke lead over nearest challenger Dustin Johnson of the United States, but after just one hole that was cut in half.

McIlroy only just made it out of a greenside bunker and bogeyed, while Johnson had a birdie.

Earlier, torrential rain drenched the players as they arrived for third round action at Royal Liverpool.

The atrocious weather had been forecast long in advance and, in an unprcedented move, tournament organizers the R&A decided to bring forward the start of play to earlier in the day at 9 a.m. and to use groupings of three going off from the first and 10th tees instead of everyone going off from the first in pairs as usually is the case at the weekend. – With AP