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Shane Lowry leads the Irish challenge at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open after a round three 68 to hold a share of seventh place ahead of the final round, and trailing the leader Justin Rose by five strokes.
Lowry reached the turn in 34 and matched repeated the same on the way home, only dropping three shots all day.
Michael Hoey added a consecutive 74 to drop down the leaderboard after a bright start on Thursday when he carded just two more strokes than McIlroy's record breaking 64.
Rory McIlroy declared himself happy with his Open preparations after rediscovering his form in the third round of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.
McIlroy continued a worrying trend of following a superb opening round with a terrible second one at Royal Aberdeen, shooting a course-record 64 on Thursday and a seven-over-par 78 on Friday.
The 25-year-old responded with a 68 on Saturday to lie seven shots off the lead on three under par, but was happy to take the positives ahead of next week's Open at Hoylake.
"I've shot 64 and a 68 on this golf course, which are two really good scores," said the Northern Irishman. "Yesterday was just one of those days where nothing really went right. I couldn't get any momentum.
"It would be nice to shoot another good one tomorrow, but I feel good with my game and I saw enough positives in there to give me confidence going into the Open.
"I feel much more prepared going into next week. Coming in here I was hitting these shots that I needed into the wind on the range and hitting them perfectly, but today I hit a couple that weren't so good.
"Hitting them in practice and hitting them under the gun are two completely different things and being able to do that over the past three days and tomorrow as well can only help going into next week.
"It's just about getting rid of these bad stretches of holes or these bad second rounds or whatever it is. If I can get rid of that, then there's no reason why I can't go next week and really contend."
Darren Clarke carded a seventy to lie 26th on 1 under par.
Gareth Maybin fired a third round 69 to nudge up to a share of 38th.
Padraig Harrington was 50th with Damien McGrane twenty places further adrift after a round of of 74.
Kevin Phelan's 78 on Saturday placed him 76th.
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