Leaderboard
-14 Scheffler (F)
-10 Li (F)
-9 Fitzpatrick (F)
-8 McIlroy (F), Gotterup (F), English (F), Hatton (F)
-7 Schauffele (F)
-6 Henley (F), N Hojgaard (F), MacIntyre (F), R Hojgaard (F), Harman (F)
Irish
-8 McIlroy (F)
+3 Lowry (F)
"Rory McIlroy, cast in the role of pursuer, could hardly have a tougher assignment in golf than that of trying to chase down Scottie Scheffler, the world number one who was a cut above everyone in tightening his hold on this 153rd Open Championship on the sun-kissed Dunluce links,“ writes Philip Reid from Royal Portrush.
“Scheffler, looking for a breakthrough Claret Jug to add to his Masters and US PGA career Major wins, strode around the famed north Antrim links as if it were his own, signing for a 67 for a total of 14-under-par 199, four shots clear of China’s Haotong Li.”
Read Philip’s report on all the action from day three below:
Scottie Scheffler just makes golf look easy. He takes a four shot lead in to tomorrow’s final round at Portrush. Will it be a procession towards the title, or can anyone catch him? You’d suspect the former, but we’ll see. What we do know is that Rory McIlroy will need a round for the ages to trouble the world number one, but he’s produced a few of them in his time, so there’s always hope. Have a lovely evening, we’ll see you tomorrow.
The joys of playing with the hometown boy.....
Scottie Scheffler moves three shots clear of the field with his first birdie on his back nine. Can anyone stop this man? Possibly not.
Rory McIlroy: “One of the coolest moments I’ve ever experienced on a golf course.” That eagle.....
Rory McIlroy: “Scottie Sheffler is .... inevitable. Even when he doesn’t have his best stuff, he’s become a complete player. It’ll be tough to catch him tomorrow if he keeps playing the way he does, but if I can have a similar start to the one I had today, get the crowd going, you never know. I just need to go out and play another really good round of golf and see what happens.”
McIlroy finishes with another par to give him a round of 66, leaving him on -8, five strokes behind leader Scottie Scheffler as it stands. It was, as ever, a round that had a little bit of everything, this fella is some watch. He needs a special one tomorrow, though, if he’s going to catch the Scheffler man.
McIlroy makes the 18th green with his second shot, but he’s a long, long way from the hole. Another par?
Good Lord, what a back nine from Lee Westwood - six birdies! That equals the lowest ever back nine score at the Open, 29. His 69 puts him on -5 - an oldie, perhaps, but a goldie.
Another par for McIlroy, he stays at -8. His drive stops just short of a bunker on the par four 18th, thank the heavens.
McIlroy makes the green with his second shot, but barring one of those miracle putts, you’d be thinking a par would be the best he could manage here.
Li Haotong (-9) has just his second bogey of the week at the 13th. He’s now tied for third with Tyrrell Hatton.
Oh heck, McIlroy’s drive from the 17th goes wildly right and lands..... in the crowd. If they are true fans, they’ll have headed it back on to the fairway.
Par it is for McIlroy, he stays at -8. A couple of birdies in his last two holes would be nice.
Ah, McIlroy misses the green at the par three 16th, landing in ugly stuff to the right. But a very wonderful second shot gives him a decent chance of par.
Ah ha, now we know why McIlroy was a touch alarmed by his approach to the 15th - he overhit it, but his ball collided with the flag and fell beautifully close to the hole. A tap-in and he’s now at -8. Bless you, flag.
“Ah shit,” said McIlroy after his second shot on the par four 15th - and then it landed within a couple of feet of the hole. Imagine if he was happy with it?
That was a heck of a round from defending champion Xander Schauffele - two eagles, two birdies and just the one bogey giving him a 66. He’s on -7 and tied for sixth.
Another par for McIlroy at the 14th, but he’s gone left again with his drive at the 15th. He’s landed somewhere in between the fairway and the grizzly rough, hopefully his lie is good.
Last week’s Scottish Open winner Chris Gotterup is going very, very nicely. An eagle at the 12th has lifted him to -8 and he now shares fourth with Tyrell Hatton.
McIlroy is on the green with his second shot on the par four 14th, but he’s a fair old distance from the hole.
A par on the 13th for McIlroy, but savour that eagle on the 12th:
After opening with six pars, Scottie Scheffler has gone from -10 to -13 in two holes. First that eagle at seventh, and now a birdie at the eighth. He’s promising, this fella. He’s now two shots clear of Matt Fitzpatrick.
And now McIlroy has landed within 20 feet of the hole on the par three 13th. The swagger is back.
An eagle for McIlroy at the 12th!!! What a putt, from, oh, an absolute mile away (well, 56 feet). He’s not done yet.
Scottie Scheffler (-12) goes solo at the top of the leaderboard again after an eagle at the seventh.
McIlroy has his first bogey of the day at the 11th. He’s a picture of frustration after such a positive start.
That’s bizarre - McIlroy played his ball from the rough, but in the process unearthed another buried ball. All we can hope now is that he didn’t play the wrong one - although the buried ball might have been there since 1623.
McIlroy has had a sizeable chunk of luck at the 11th - his tee shot veered right but it landed on a well trampled spectator path, so the lie looks fine.
An eagle for Tyrrell Hatton (-8) at the seventh and he’s now on his own in fourth. Rory, meanwhile, pars the 10th, missing another long-ish birdie chance.
To add to his woes today, Shane Lowry was battling a stomach virus. “Honestly, every bathroom (around the course) I went in and tried to throw up. I couldn’t,” he said after. Ew.
[ Shane Lowry suffers stomach virus to compound Open woesOpens in new window ]
And yet another near birdie miss for McIlroy, this time at the ninth. He’s -3 at the turn, but knows he left a few behind.
Defending champion Xander Schauffele has just had his second eagle of the day, he’s up to -6 and in serious contention again.
That was some day for Russell Henley (-6), he equalled his best round in 45 major starts with a 64 - he’s tied for fourth.
Another par for McIlroy after he left himself with a 30+ foot birdie putt.
After being hit with a time warning during his round today, Bryson DeChambeau (-2) gave his thoughts on how you eradicate the blight of slow play.
After pulling his pitch shot to the seventh green, McIlroy’s birdie putt slips by. Par it is, a missed opportunity after that brilliant drive.
Matt Fitzpatrick (-10) chips in for an eagle from just off the second green to take a share of the lead - Scottie Scheffler (-10) misses a very gettable birdie putt. Haotong Li moves up to -9 after his birdie at the third.
Woah, what a drive from McIlroy on the par five seventh, he hit it with such power you half expected it to land on the green. Safely on the fairway, though.
A solid par from McIlroy on the sixth, his lag putting has been a bit on the excellent side this week, saving his bacon time and again.
Scottie Scheffler opens with a par on the first to stay at -10, but Matthew Fitzpatrick slides his putt wide and drops to -8.
Mercifully, Shane Lowry’s head-wrecking day is over. He finishes on +3, that triple bogey on the 14th the low point.
Ugh, McIlroy’s birdie effort trickles past the hole from around 10 feet. He stays on -6.
A beautiful shot from the rough by McIlroy at the fifth - he’s on the green and has given himself yet another birdie chance.
Yes, as we feared earlier, we have indeed tempted fate - McIlroy has gone left-leaning on us again with his drive from the fifth.
It’s going from bad to worse for Shane Lowry - a bogey at the 17th sees him drop to +3.
McIlroy makes his birdie and he’s now at -6 - and he’s walking about the place with a swagger. A stunner of a start.
Justin Rose, meanwhile, had a miserable start to his round, dropping a shot at the first. Since then? He’s birdied the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th. He’s now at -5.
It’s official: McIlroy means business. He’s just given himself a highly gettable birdie putt on the fourth.
Russell Henley (-6) is up to fifth after an eagle at the 12th, having picked up five birdies before then. Flying.
Having barely found a fairway in his first two rounds, McIlroy ..... not to tempt fate .... has found his groove. A solid drive on the par four fourth.
Par for McIlroy at the third. His tee shot left him with a 60-ish foot putt - no heroics this time.
A calamitous triple bogey for Shane Lowry at the 14th, he drops to +2 and has the look of a man who just wants to go home.
McIlroy’s eagle putt falls agonisingly short, but he taps in for a birdie and he’s up to -5. There’s a chance he dreamt last night of a start like this.
And McIlroy has given himself an eagle chance on the par five second after finding the green with his second shot. It’s a lengthy one, around the 30 foot mark ... but you’d be hopeful enough of a birdie (at least).
Here it is.....
A gem of a putt for birdie from McIlroy from around 35 feet on the first and he’s at -4. What a start to his round.
Shane Lowry has had a birdie at the 13th and is back to -1.
Rory McIlroy is up and running, and hallelujah, he’s found the fairway from the first.
There are now six players tied on -4 - John ‘hole-in-one’ Parry, Wyndham Clarke and Sungjae Im, who are all still out on the course, joining Corey Conners, whose work is done for the day, and Tony Finau and Nicolai Hojgarrd, who have yet to start.
This is the R&A’s statement explaining why they gave Shane Lowry that two-stroke penalty:
“The movement of the ball to another spot, including the movement of the logo, was discernible to the naked eye. The naked eye test is satisfied whether or not the player was looking at the ball when it moved. It was clear that the ball moved immediately after the player’s club touched foliage close to the ball during a practice swing and that the player’s actions caused the ball to move.”
In case you missed it, here’s Shane Lowry’s reaction to that two shot penalty yesterday.
Rasmus and Nicolai Hojgaard came mightily close to being paired for today’s third round, which might have made it tricky for our TV commentators seeing as they are identical twins - and have been known to wear identical gear. Johnny Watterson heard from the Danes after rounds that left them both in contention for that Claret Jug.
[ Hojgaard twins graduate from keen sibling rivalry to contesting at The OpenOpens in new window ]
Scottie Scheffler caused a bit of a stir on Tuesday when he suggested that winning a heap of tournaments and getting to number one in the world hadn’t quite brought him the joy he expected. “Who knew he was such a nihilist,” asks Malachy Clerkin whose piece on Scheffler’s comments features a broken oven door and - reader discretion is advised - a naked Joe Brolly.
[ Scottie Scheffler is right - winning is rarely the reason sport makes you happyOpens in new window ]
Shane Lowry has had his first birdie of the day, at the 10th, to take him back to level par.
John Parry (-3) has had a hole-in-one at the 13th, the first of the week!
Corey Conners had an exceptional round today, his 66 lifting him to -4. Henrik Stenson is in fine shape too, picking up four strokes to move to -3 after 15 holes.
And there’s rarely been a dull moment in Bryson DeChambeau’s round so far - he dropped a shot at the first after his tee shot went out of bounds, then birdied four of the next six holes, but a bogey at the 13th has seen him drop to -1.
Afternoon all, welcome to day three of the Open at Portrush where Scottie Scheffler didn’t just cope with miserable conditions yesterday, he thrived in them. His 64 was his lowest ever round at a major and left him a shot clear of Matt Fitzpatrick at the top of the leaderboard. Brian Harman, the 2023 Open champion, and Li Haotong are another stroke back, three ahead of a group of five players on five under.
As Johnny Watterson puts it, Rory McIlroy “put his adoring gallery through the wringer again” on Friday before steadying the ship to finish on -3, but Shane Lowry had a nightmarish conclusion to his day when he incurred a two stroke penalty for causing his ball to move during a practice swing on the 12th hole. That turned his round of 70 in to a 72, leaving him on level par - and he’s down to +1 after a bogey at the second today.
Johnny and Philip Reid fill you in on Friday’s events:
[ Rory McIlroy knows that hanging in just won’t cut it over the weekendOpens in new window ]
