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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
