PEBBLE BEACH >> Nineteen seasons into his professional career, Rory McIlroy has spread his success and more than 50 titles from China to Dubai, Australia to Scotland and Arizona to Florida. The Monterey Peninsula? Not so much.

But playing in the windy and rainy conditions in which he learned golf in Northern Ireland, McIlroy capitalized with a bogey-free 65 and sits in a second-place tie with close friend Shane Lowry of Ireland behind leader Sepp Straka after three rounds of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Straka, who was the leader coming into the round, birdied the 18th to take back the lead. Straka is at 16 under par. McIlroy and Lowery are at 15 under.

McIlroy, the world’s No. 3-ranked player and four-time major winner, has a 15-under-par 201 total in the second year of the event’s transition as a Signature Event on the PGA Tour.“Yeah, it was a really good poor weather performance,” said McIlroy. “I think if there’s a wind that you want to play Pebble Beach in, this is sort of it.

“As long as you managed it and sort of really controlled the flight of your golf ball, which I did well today, I still felt with how receptive the greens were, I still felt there was a score out there.”

Lowry, the 2019 British Open winner, matched McIlroy with a 65 after carding six birdies, one eagle and one bogey. He joined McIlroy with a short birdie on the 18th.

“It was pretty miserable out there at times, but I managed to get round pretty well,” said Lowry.

McIlroy missed cut in the 2000 and tied for ninth in 2019 and the U.S. Opens at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

While often opting to play in Dubai in early February where he has six titles, McIlroy finished 66th in the AT&T last year and missed the cut in 2018.

This week, the global player who competes on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) is playing in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for only the third time.

McIlroy, the 26-time PGA Tour titlist, began the third round at 8 under and tied for 13th with Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, Shane Lowry and three others and six shots behind 36-hole leader Straka.

Like much of the rest of the field, McIlroy began Saturday’s play strongly in the cool overcast conditions and light winds. He moved to 11 under slightly longer than an hour with three birdies in his first five holes

The round’s strong play turned problematic when the rain arrived in the late morning and winds gusting to 30 miles per hour, bent flag poles and changed club choices

McIlroy remained unfazed.

“It rained overnight, so we know the greens would be soft,” said McIlroy. “Even though the windy and rainy, the greens were receptive.”

McIlroy arrived on the Peninsula directly from participating in the indoor, made-for-television Tomorrow’s Golf League (TGL Golf) event in Florida. It was developed primarily by McIlroy and Tiger Woods in partnership with the PGA Tour.

But he also played traditional golf often in December, a month during which he doesn’t play. McIlroy visited Georgia, New Zealand and Las Vegas, mostly for social golf. But the rounds “kept him sharp.”

“I probably only took six or seven days off in December, where I usually would take the whole month off,” McIlroy said earlier in the week. “So I think that kept me a little sharper, sort of I could hit the ground running when I got back into it.”