It was supposed to be the day Rory McIlroy made his charge up the leaderboard after two dramatic, inconsistent opening rounds at Royal Melbourne. But standing in his way was dodgy Melbourne weather, putts that were very good but somehow still not quite good enough, the reality of starting seven shots back, and unbelievably, a banana peel.
Not figuratively. Literally.
On the second hole, after driving right of the fairway into a horrible lie, McIlroy tried to punch the ball forward but advanced it barely 10 metres. His excuse is a fair one though, he found the ball resting under a banana peel in a tea tree. Because moving loose impediments risks moving the ball, which would incur a penalty, he had no choice but to leave it where it sat. He simply had to swing.
"I feel like this week's a week of firsts in a lot of ways," the Northern Irishman said of the bizarre moment. "I mean, I shouldn't have been there in the first place, but yeah, it wasn't the best to start. But I feel like I played well after that. Sort of got a feel for it a little bit and I feel like I played the back nine well. Just need to figure out how to make a few more birdies on the front."
The result was a double bogey and an early stumble that dropped him to +2 for the day and back to even overall. Hardly ideal for the player the massive galleries had come to see and the one many want to see to surge up the leaderboard.
He bounced back immediately with his first birdie of the day on the short par-4 3rd. From that point, he actually played some very strong golf. His approaches were crisp, he was dialled in with his irons, and he regularly gave himself birdie looks. But the putts kept sliding by by the barest of margins, leaving him often throwing his head back in frustration as the crowd groaned with him.
Even in the pouring Melbourne rain and cool conditions, the atmosphere around him was still electric on Day 3. Fans packed around every fairway and green, riding every emotion and near miss.
More of those near misses came at the 6th, where a brilliant birdie putt grazed the right edge. Still +1 for the day, it felt the earlier banana-peel double bogey moment would prove costly.
A bogey on the par-3 7th pushed him out to +2 for the round, with more frustration building, before he finally converted late on the front nine with a nicely judged birdie at the 9th. He turned in +1 for the day and -1 overall, still yet to find the spark he desperately needed.
The infamous banana lie.@CrownResorts | #AusOpenGolf https://t.co/Nm6jCvPJce pic.twitter.com/eNUsWmBYUf
— Australian Open (@AusOpenGolf) December 6, 2025
He couldn't find it immediately. Pars at 10 and 11 only deepened the sense of urgency, the body language showing just how much he knew he was leaving opportunities out there.
But then came the 12th. McIlroy buried a sensational putt that swung right-to-left-to-right and dropped in front of the clubhouse, sending the huge gallery into raptures on one of the moments of the day.
A par on the 13th left him just five holes to make his move. He birdied the 14th, parred 15 and 16, and reached the par-5 17th, the same hole where he escaped from trouble for a miraculous birdie in the second round. And incredibly, he did it again. His tee shot found the same right rough, with a branch poking out, but he shaped a three-wood beautifully left-to-right, then produced a lovely chip to set up another birdie. Deja vu. He moved to -4, -2 on the day.
"I feel like I haven't really got a lot of momentum at all over the past three days and I guess when the putts hang on the lip like that, it just feels a bit like the story of the week in a way," the Masters champion said. "But maybe turned it around with the last few holes there coming in. Yeah, but all you need is that little bit of momentum to go your way then you're off and running."
On 18, he striped his drive, wedged it to the heart of the green, and stood over another birdie chance which he made with poise.
A birdie-birdie finish for the second straight day, closing at -3 for the round, -5 overall, salvaging yet another day that threatened to slip away early.
Now the question becomes, despite the recovery, is he simply too far back?
"If the guys get to sort of 13 or 14 under, then I think I'll be a bit too far back," McIlroy said. "But if they stay where they are at the minute, sort of around that 10, 11 mark, then yeah, I feel like I would have a chance from there.
"I think if everything comes together for me, I can shoot a pretty low one out there. But whether that's good enough or not, I'm not sure."
A day full of near misses while many in the afternoon wave climbed means he'll need plenty to fall his way on Sunday from five-under.
His shot at lifting the Stonehaven Cup for a second time was made all the more difficult by the stunning rounds ahead of him, led by Denmark's Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, who takes a two-shot buffer into Sunday at 14-under. Carlos Ortiz, Cam Smith, and Si Woo Kim sit in a share of second at 12-under, with Jose Luis Ballester firing a bogey-free 65 to sit one shot further back in fifth. Min Woo Lee, Adam Scott, and Daniel Hillier round out a packed chasing group at 10-under and tied for sixth.
Catch up on how Day 3 at Royal Melbourne unfolded below: