Rory McIlroy Hypes 'Inevitable' Scottie Scheffler Entering British Open Final Round

Rory McIlroy, who played himself into a tie for fourth place on the British Open leaderboard with a strong third round on Saturday, will have a shot at lifting the Claret Jug during Sunday's final round at Portrush.

First, he will have to catch World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who leads the competition by four shots after carding a score of 14 under through three rounds.

“Yeah, look, Scottie Scheffler is – it’s inevitable," McIlroy said on Saturday, per NBC Sports' Brentley Romine. "Even when he doesn’t have his best stuff. He’s improved so much with his putter. Yeah, it’s going to be tough to catch him tomorrow if he keeps playing the way he does.

"But if I can get out tomorrow and get off to a similar start to what I did today, get the crowd going, hopefully he tails out a couple groups behind me, and you never know. But I just need to go out and play another really good round of golf tomorrow and see what happens.”

McIlroy added, "He's playing like Scottie. I don't think it's a surprise. Everyone's seen the way he's played over the last two to three years. He's just so solid. He doesn't make mistakes... he's turned himself into a really consistent player, as well. There doesn't seem to be any weakness there. Whenever you're trying to chase down a guy like that, it's hard to do. But he's incredibly impressive."

Scheffler headed into the Open Championship having claimed top-10 finishes in 10 straight PGA Tour appearances, including a victory at the PGA Championship in May.

He started his week at Royal Portrush by recording a seven-under 64 in the first round to record the lowest round of his major career.

Scheffler continued extending his lead in the third round in part after getting out of multiple tricky situations with par saves, including with two clutch shots on the back nine.

Scheffler has 10 victories in the last 10 tournaments during which he held a lead after 54 holes.

McIlroy, Haotong Li, Matt Fitzpatrick, Chris Gotterup, Harris English and Tyrell Hatton, who all sit within six shots of Scheffler heading into the final round, may need the World No. 1 to play below his previous standards to leapfrog him on Sunday afternoon.