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Another birdie for Bryson DeChambeau! He whistles in a right-to-left slider from 30 feet on 15 and rises to -8. At the risk of belabouring the point, but it simply can’t go unannounced: he shot 78 on Thursday! This is turning into one of the great golfing what-ifs.
Rasmus Højgaard is this close to raking in a monster for eagle on 5, having driven the green. He tidies up for birdie and moves to -8. Back on 4, the defending champion Xander Schauffele fair rattles a left-to-right swinger into the cup for birdie. Had that not hit the hole, it was racing a long way past. But it did, and the Californian moves to -8 as well.
… but nothing’s certain yet, of course. Up on the 2nd green, Rory McIlroy, having sent his approach into a swale to the right of the green, nearly holes out for eagle with a Texas Wedge. He taps in to move to -9. Par for Matt Fitzpatrick. Then coming behind, Scottie Scheffler comes up short of the green, while Haotong Li finds a bunker guarding the front right. A reminder that there’s a long way to go. Bogey meanwhile for Hideki Matsuyama at the long and notoriously difficult par-three 16th (which Scottie has birdied every day, naturally) and he slips back to -7.
Scottie Scheffler and Haotong Li crack their drives down the middle of 2. Now then, we mentioned Henrik Stenson’s lowest winning total of 264 at Troon in 2016. If Scheffler wants to beat that mark, he’ll need to shoot 64 today. Meanwhile if Haotong Li wants to break the record for lowest total by a runner-up, he’ll need to card a final round of 63, which he’s done before at Birkdale in 2016. Should Li do that, he’d beat the mark of 267 set by both Phil Mickelson at Troon in 2016 and Jordan Spieth at Sandwich in 2021. Not that we’re making huge assumptions about the order in which everyone’s going to finish. Oh no no no.
Scheffler taps in for his birdie and moves five clear. All of a sudden, Li’s three-foot birdie putt, which looked a sure thing moments ago, looks double the length. So hats off to him for rapping it into the centre of the cup. Meanwhile birdie at 2 for Harris English, who is determined not to let this turn into a Watson-Nicklaus or Stenson-Mickelson style two-man duel.
-15: Scheffler (1)
-11: Li (1)
-9: English (2), Fitzpatrick (1)
-8: Hatton (3), Gotterup (2), McIlroy (1)
Haotong Li arrows his second at 1 to three feet. Gauntlet down! Scottie’s response? A 9-iron which lands softly ten feet to the right of the hole, then, using a mixture of spin and camber, pulls his ball back to kick-in distance! That’s simply sensational. Next!
Rory McIlroy’s birdie putt has a huge left-to-right swing. He doesn’t set it out wide enough. Opening par. And it’s the same for Matt Fitzpatrick, who chips up to three feet and tidies up for his saver. All good and well … but none of the chasing pack have made the early birdies they need. Well, Tyrrell Hatton did, but handed it back immediately. See also Rasmus Højgaard, who started with a birdie-birdie bang but has just bogeyed 4 to drop back to -7.
The final group take to the tee. Haotong Li whip-cracks an iron down the middle. Then the leader Scottie Scheffler, who tugs at his iron slightly. It looks like heading into the thick stuff down the left, but takes a lucky bounce to the right and settles in the semi-rough. But you make your own luck, and Scottie has made only three bogeys all week. Here we go, then!
Rory McIlroy is out and about, soundtracked by the usual ozone-layer-bothering roars. An iron straight down the middle. An approach straight down the middle and over the flag. He’ll have a 20-foot putt coming back for birdie. Matt Fitzpatrick has some work to do, though, having dispatched his tee shot into the rough down the left, then sent a flyer over the back of the green. Meanwhile Hideki Matsuyama’s eagle putt at 12 shaves the hole, Tyrrell Hatton’s bunkered tee shot at 2 leads to bogey, and here’s how the top of the leaderboard looks right now.
-14: Scheffler
-10: Li
-9: Fitzpatrick
-8: Matsuyama (12), R Hojgaard (3), Hatton (2), English (1), Gotterup (1), McIlroy
-7: DeChambeau (13), Fleetwood (11), Hall (7), MacIntyre (3), Henley (3), Schauffele (2)
What Bryson DeChambeau would give to play his Thursday round again. A 78 had him almost certainly going home early, but he’s responded like the two-time major-winning champion he is: a 65 to avoid the cut with something to spare, a 68 yesterday, and now he’s five-under for his round today through 12 holes! Birdies at 3, 4, 7, 9 and 12. He’s -7 for the championship, and if he’d got his act together like this for his first round, he’d be thinking about breaking Henrik Stenson’s record for lowest winning total of 264, set at Troon in 2016, and it’d be Scottie Scheffler doing all the chasing today. But he didn’t, so he isn’t, and Scottie won’t be, so here we are. Still, what a response!
Tommy Fleetwood is too far back to dream, but he appears to be in the mood to make up as much ground as possible anyway. He’s out in 32 after birdies at 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9. The Southport star is -7. Meanwhile irritation early doors for Bob MacIntyre, who nearly rolls in a 40-footer for eagle at 2, but his ball stops one dimple shy. His playing partner Rasmus Hojgaard meanwhile starts birdie-birdie. They’re -7 and -8 respectively.
The chasing pack need birdies immediately if they’re to cause Scottie Scheffler any concern. Tyrrell Hatton flies out of the traps with a pretty much perfect birdie on 1, his tee shot down the middle his approach stuck to three feet, the putt straight into the cup. He moves to -9, though he’s found a fairway bunker with his drive at 2, so there goes any hope of eagle.
Three birdies in a row for the 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama. He moves to -7 after picking up strokes at 2, 5, 9, 10 and now 11, five under for his round like the aforementioned Maverick McNealy. Matsuyama tied for sixth on his Open debut at Muirfield in 2013, but hasn’t done much in the Championship since. He’s currently on target for just his second top-ten finish.
None of the amateurs made the cut this year, so nobody will be awarded the Silver Medal. For the record, the best-performing amateurs this year were Cameron Adam, a 22-year-old from Fife, and Ethan Fang, a 20-year-old Texan who won the Amateur Championship this year and of whom big things are expected. Both finished their week at +3, a couple of shots shy of weekend survival.
Maverick McNealy is the hottest property out on the course right now. He’s five under for his round, having followed up eagle at 2 with birdies at 3, 9, 10, 13 and 14. Bogeys at 4 and 7 clearly didn’t derail his momentum. The 29-year-old Californian is finally beginning to deliver on all the early hype, and he’s -6 overall.
Lowry shoots 66
Low scoring, then. Well, yeah! The big story of the morning was Shane Lowry, who six years ago did what Scottie Scheffler is likely to do today: amble around Portrush with the Claret Jug as good as already pocketed. Lowry’s gone out in style, in more ways than one: he went out in 32 strokes, and then nearly holed out from the bottom of the big swale to the left of 18. Inches away from a sensational valedictory blow. A 66 to bid farewell, and he ends the week at -2. Not what he was dreaming of, but the 2019 champion golfer will always have … er … Portrush.
Rain and possible thunderstorms were forecast for Sunday at the start of the week. But while the forecasters have got most things spot on, this call was way wide of the mark. It’s sunny and hot! Low scores ahoy! Not too much in the way of wind, either, though gusts may pick up a little later in the afternoon. The forecasters weren’t that far wide of the mark though: those showers and thunderstorms may heave into view in the evening, but by then everything most likely will be done and dusted. A glorious Open Sunday!
Preamble
Let’s not put too fine a point on it: the 153rd Open Championship is Scottie Scheffler’s to lose, and the final round at Portrush will most likely become a procession. Bigger 54-hole leads have been lost in the past … but Scheffler is of a different stripe to poor old Jean Van de Velde, who went into the final round at Carnoustie in 1999 five clear and so full of hope. It’s not totally beyond the realms that one of the chasing pack could overhaul the leader’s four-stroke advantage, but that’d surely take a perfect storm of a round in the mid-to-low 60s while the world number one suffers a series of absurdly bad bounces and/or an incomprehensible implosion. Having said all that, this is golf, so.
Here’s how the top of the leaderboard looked after the third round …
-14: Scheffler
-10: Li
-9: Fitzpatrick
-8: McIlroy, Gotterup, English, Hatton
-7: Schauffele
-6: Henley, N Højgaard, MacIntyre, R Højgaard, Harman
-5: Clark, Wallace, Lindell, Reitan, Åberg, Rose, Hall, Westwood
… and here’s today’s tee sheet (all times BST, GB&I unless stated). It’s on!
0830 Matti Schmid, Riki Kawamoto
0840 Dean Burmester, Phil Mickelson
0850 Sebastian Soderberg, Andrew Novak
0900 Shane Lowry, Jacob Skov Olesen
0910 Antoine Rozner, Viktor Hovland
0920 Adrien Saddier, Ryggs Johnston
0930 Romain Langasque, Jordan Spieth
0940 Francesco Molinari, Matthew Jordan
0955 Sergio Garcia, Justin Leonard
1005 Thomas Detry, Sepp Straka
1015 Aaron Rai, Jason Kokrak
1025 Daniel Berger, Jhonattan Vegas
1035 Maverick McNealy, Henrik Stenson
1045 Takumi Kanaya, Jordan Smith
1055 Sam Burns, Rickie Fowler
1110 Akshay Bhatia, Jon Rahm
1120 Jesper Svensson, Thriston Lawrence
1130 Bryson DeChambeau, Nathan Kimsey
1140 Hideki Matsuyama, Tony Finau
1150 Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood
1200 JJ Spaun, John Parry
1210 Keegan Bradley, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
1225 Marc Leishman, Lucas Glover
1235 Sungjae Im, Dustin Johnson
1245 Corey Conners, Lee Westwood
1255 Harry Hall, Justin Rose
1305 Ludvig Åberg, Kristoffer Reitan
1315 Oliver Lindell, Matt Wallace
1325 Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman
1340 Rasmus Højgaard, Robert MacIntyre
1350 Nicolai Højgaard, Russell Henley
1400 Xander Schauffele, Tyrrell Hatton
1410 Harris English, Chris Gotterup
1420 Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick
1430 Haotong Li, Scottie Scheffler
