Rory McIlroy struck a brilliant bogey free 66 at the Tour Championship to send out a Ryder Cup warning

RORY MCILROY charged into contention at the Tour Championship as Davis Love’s claim that his Ryder Cup team was ‘maybe’ the strongest of all time blew up in his face.

McIlroy shot a brilliant bogey free 66 to move to six under par and now trails Dustin Johnson and Kevin Chappell by two shots heading into the final round.

He commented: “It was great to finally cut out the mistakes that have been hurting me, and that round has done my chances a power of good. I just need to go out and play a similiar round of golf on day four - or a better one if possible.”

Johnson threatened to run away with the £1.2million first prize – and the £7.7millionFeedEx Cup bonus - as he twice stormed to ten under par, only to fritter shots away during an erratic back nine.

But at least his game looks in reasonable shape. None of the other seven members of the USA Ryder Cup team here are below par after 54 holes – in fact they are a combined 26 OVER.

What was that again about this being “the best golf team maybe ever assembled?"

McIlroy reacted diplomatically to that claim, saying: “Look, it's a great team. They have a lot of very talented players in there. They're obviously quite confident. So you know what, it's up to us to go there and try to upset the odds.”