Lucky or unlucky?! Rory McIlroy faced a tough chip shot at the CJ Cup!

Rory McIlroy faced one of the toughest chip shots of his week so far at the PGA Tour's CJ Cup when he was left short-sided at the drivable par-4 15th in the third round. 

The defending champion hit a solid drive well over 300 yards but his ball bounded down the left flank and 40 yards away from the hole. 

All uphill from there and with a run-off just behind the pin, McIlroy had to get cute with his pitch shot.

McIlroy stepped in and played the shot, but as you will see from the clip below, the Northern Irishman's ball caught two of the three spinkler heads short of the green. 

His ball clattered into the first spinkler head, then popped up into the second one and spun the ball onto the green.

The ball took the downslope and ended up some 15 feet away from the pin.

Thankfully for McIlroy, the ball bumped forwards onto the green rather than backwards and down to his feet. 

Lucky or unlucky? Would his ball have ended up closer to the pin had it not struck the sprinklers, or would it have ended up well past the flag?

You decide...

What a break @McIlroyRory narrowly escapes the sprinkler head on No. 15. pic.twitter.com/TK9X8yNLcz

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 22, 2022

The commentators on the broadcast considered it was a fortunate break for McIlroy. 

They felt his ball would have ended up some 40 feet behind the pin had it not struck any of the sprinkler heads. 

McIlroy two-putted for par to remain in the lead as he goes in search of defending the CJ Cup in South Carolina.

He went on to card a steady 4-under 67 to move to 13-under par for the tournament and one shot clear of Jon Rahm, KH Lee and Kurt Kitayama.

Should McIlroy win a 23rd PGA Tour title this week, he would return to World No.1.

It would also take him one step closer to a record held by a certain LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman. 

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