SHANE LOWRY ADMITS he was frustrated with his score today as the defending champion finished his third round seven shots adrift of leader, Louis Oosthuizen.

Lowry shot a 69 today after birdies on 16 and 17 saw him climb up the leaderboard. His chance of victory is slim, however.

“I’m disappointed to be honest,” said Lowry afterwards to Sky Sports. “I think I missed four putts inside five feet. And two of them were probably three feet or less.

“I probably should be closer to the leaders than I am, but I played great. Tee to green I was as good as I’ve been all year. Today was similar to yesterday.

“I’m disappointed because I feel like I’m probably too far back. I battled, I birdied 16 and 17 and holed a great putt for par on the last, so I’m kind of proud of myself how I battled.”

Lowry also defended the course set-up which was criticised by Rory McIlroy who felt the tee positions were overly challenging.

Lowry said: “Look how benign it is out there. I feel there were a couple (of pin positions) that were on slopes, but I wouldn’t be too critical of them. I think they had to try and defend the course somehow.

“I think if the pins were easy, people would be shooting the lights out, out there, and then it just becomes like every week, like a shootout. So no, I thought the course was set up great.

“I would have loved to have seen the course kind of this firm early on in the week, and I would have loved to have seen it drying out to be firmer today and tomorrow, but that’s the way it’s been. But yeah, it’s been good.”

McIlroy also had a 69 today but at one stage – after going four under for the outward nine – it threatened to be a whole lot better.

“My round is sort of a tale of two nines,” he said. “I played great on the front nine, hit some really good iron shots and converted some putts and really got it going. Then the back nine played tough.

“They’re sort of tucking the pins away. They’ve stretched the golf course out to as long as it can play. I was hitting two-iron into the 11th hole, that par-three, and I missed a short putt there for par and it kind of killed the momentum I had.

“Not birdieing the par-five and making another couple bogeys on the way in, certainly it felt like a better round than one-under par, but it was encouraging to see some of the golf that I played on that front nine.

“It’s just a matter of trying to keep that going and try to turn those nine-hole stretches into 18-hole stretches, and then those 18-hole stretches into whole tournaments. It’s getting there.”