Rory McIlroy stays in touching distance ahead of final round at Dubai Invitational

[p]The Northern Irishman had slipped off the top of the pile on Friday following a disastrous second round in which he landed in the water four times.[/p][p]But the world number two course-corrected in the third round as he brought his score to five-under.[/p][p][b]"A little better than yesterday, kept the ball dry instead of the four water balls I had,"[/b] [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/mcilroy-rory/djwanksN/"]McIlroy[/a] said.[/p][p][b]"It was a tricky enough day, got off to a bit of a slow start, but stayed patient and hung in there and was rewarded with birdies on the back nine."[/b][/p][embed guid="0dc5d9fd-2d47-4a85-8ec3-ad03d22c0f34" url="https://x.com/DPWorldTour/status/2012585713389215930" social-type="twitter" /][p]Despite holing three birdies on his way back to the clubhouse, McIlroy still remains three shots back on leader [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/elvira-nacho/GICOA6qE/"]Nacho Elvira[/a] after the Spaniard carded another impressive round to go out on his own at the top of the pile.[/p][p]Tied overnight with Republic of Ireland's Shane Lowry, Elvira now holds a two-shot lead following back-to-back 68s after the 2019 Open Championship winner dropped to joint-second with England's Marcus Armitage and South African Dylan Frittelli on six-under.[/p][p][b]"I've been here long enough to not be too nervous tomorrow, let's put it that way," [/b]38-year-old Elvira said.[/p][p][b]"I think I'm going to try to enjoy and probably learn from all the experiences that I have in the past and see where that puts me."[/b][/p]