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TOUR LIFE · THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
Three rounds gone, one to play, and the 154th Open has produced three separate 62s and a leaderboard that refuses to settle. Sam Burns takes a two-shot lead into Sunday at Royal Birkdale — but on this coast, with this wind, two shots is a rumour, not a cushion. Here is how the final round sets up.
| Leader | Sam Burns — 10 under (54 holes) |
|---|---|
| Tied 2nd | Ryan Fox, Si Woo Kim — 8 under |
| Tied 4th | Lucas Herbert, Ryan Gerard — 7 under |
| Tied 6th | Ludvig Åberg, Bryson DeChambeau, Jackson Suber — 6 under |
| Defending champ | Scottie Scheffler — 4 under |
| Sunday weather | Partly sunny, wind 10–15 mph, high 21°C |
Sam Burns, and the two shots that have to last 18 holes
A five-under 65 on moving day was the round Sam Burns needed and, in truth, the round nobody quite saw coming from him. It carried the Louisianan to 10 under and a two-stroke lead — the first 54-hole lead of his career at a major, and the first real answer to the question that has followed him for years: when the tournament is biggest, does his game get smaller? Burns has the talent and the putter to win any week. What he has never had is a Sunday like the one in front of him now, alone at the top of an Open leaderboard, with the entire field arranged behind him and a lifetime of ‘best player without a major’ talk waiting to be either buried or renewed.
Ryan Fox and the third 62 of the week
If there is a man playing without weight on his shoulders, it is Ryan Fox. The New Zealander began Saturday at even par and ended it at 8 under, courtesy of a 62 — the eighth round of 62 in the history of men’s major championships, and the third at this Open alone. Birkdale has spent three days handing out the lowest number in the game like sweets, and Fox took his with both hands. He starts Sunday in the final group alongside Burns, two back, with nothing to lose and the kind of momentum that links golf occasionally rewards and just as often snatches away.
The chasing pack is deep, and dangerous
Behind the leaders sits a genuine cast of contenders. Si Woo Kim matched Fox at 8 under and has the ball-striking to go low again. Lucas Herbert, who tied the all-time major record with his own 62 on Friday, slipped to 7 under on Saturday but remains three off the lead and dangerous on ground that suits him. Ryan Gerard is alongside him. And at 6 under lurk two men nobody wants to see with a Sunday charge in them: Ludvig Åberg, whose major breakthrough has felt inevitable for two years, and Bryson DeChambeau, who begins the final round still, by his own reckoning, two shots lighter than he should be after Friday’s Rule 8.1 penalty. If Bryson wins, or loses, by two, that ruling will be the story of the championship.
Scheffler lurks; Young rues
Do not write off the defending champion. Scottie Scheffler sits at 4 under, five back, and has been the best tee-to-green player in the field all week — held at arm’s length only by a putter that has refused to cooperate. Five shots is a lot to make up on a Sunday, but if the greens finally yield to him, he is the one man capable of posting a number that turns the leaders’ afternoon into a nightmare. Spare a thought, too, for Cameron Young, who stood at 7 under and one off the lead before four bogeys over his last eight holes and a 73 dropped him to 3 under. Golf’s great nearly man will spend Sunday too far back, chewing on a Saturday that got away.
Rory McIlroy, who did well simply to survive the cut, sits at 2 under and out of realistic contention — but he is exactly the kind of player links golf can launch up a leaderboard in a single wild hour. Watch the early tee times. A low one from Rory would tell the leaders precisely what the golf course is giving.
What Sunday asks
The forecast is kind by Birkdale standards — partly sunny, a 10-to-15-mph breeze, twenty-one degrees. That is scoring weather, and with the leaders so tightly stacked it may take something in the mid-60s to lift the Claret Jug. But links golf keeps its own counsel. A wind that swings even a few degrees changes which holes bite and which give, and the closing stretch at Birkdale has broken better front-runners than these. As we wrote earlier in the week, the Open is the one major that tells the truth. On Sunday, at last, it stops asking questions and gives its answer.