Key events<\/p>\n
Cameron Young is going to take over from Casey Jarvis as clubhouse leader soon. But by how many strokes? Because having found the fairway bunker down the left, he thinks he can clear the revetted face. Wrong. He slams his ball straight into it. The ball pings out to the right, into the rough. He was nowhere near clearing that: there are eight layers of turf making up the face, and his ball exploded into the second from bottom. Then his third shot trickles into the bunker to the right of the green. Real trouble now. What typical Open drama!<\/p>\n
Share<\/a><\/p>\n We\u2019ve been talking all week about Jackson Suber, Open debutant supreme. But he\u2019s currently two over for his round, and -4 overall. Meanwhile the 22-year-old South African Casey Jarvis, also on debut, has just walked in a birdie, and timed his run to perfection! A blemish-free 66, and a player almost nobody has paid attention to all week is the new clubhouse leader at -6!<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The last thing Cameron Young wants to do is send his driver into the bunker down the right of the 18th fairway \u2026 but that\u2019s exactly what he does. Can he get over the face of the bunker to make the green? The truth will eventually out. Meanwhile a second consecutive bogey for Tommy Fleetwood, punishment for carving his tee shot miles right on 10. He\u2019s back to -6 and the mood around Birkdale right now is best described as pensive.<\/p>\n Cameron Young reacts after missing par from a bunker on the 18th. Photograph: Peter Byrne\/PAShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a011.09 EDT<\/p>\n Burns is two off Kim\u2019s pace \u2026 and now two off Cameron Young as well. He bumps up at 17 to three feet, and tidies up for birdie. Meanwhile par for Kim on 7. This is going to be good.<\/p>\n -10: Young (17), Kim (7) Share<\/a><\/p>\n Sam Burns has to take a penalty drop from the hazard down the left of 6. His iron into the green isn\u2019t all that, short and left, and he\u2019s staring a double in the face. So given what\u2019s recently happened to him, he gathers himself impressively to wedge from the top of a bank to kick-in distance, limiting the damage. But that\u2019s still three bogeys in a row. He\u2019s -8, two off Kim\u2019s pace.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Rory McIlroy ends his week with bogey and a 71. He\u2019s -1, and doesn\u2019t hide his disappointment at a non-event of a week. Back on 17, Cameron Young sends his second just shy of the green: an up and down from the swale front-left will give him a share of the lead. And some bad luck for Bryson on 8, as he lands his approach on the green only for the spin, and then the contours of the putting surface, to take his ball back into a bunker. He makes a sandy save, but that\u2019s now eight pars on the bounce. Faldoesque! More of that sweet, sweet irony. He\u2019s -6.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n \u2026 Kim Si-woo\u2019s second at 6 rolls into a swale to the left of the green. He takes putter \u2026 and whistles the down-and-up-and-across 20-footer in for birdie! As Sam Burns slips out of the lead, Kim goes the other way to snatch it for himself! Meanwhile Tommy Fleetwood can\u2019t get up and down from the back of 9, and he slips back to -7. Scottie Scheffler ends up with bogey as well, that wild drive on 13 so costly.<\/p>\n -10: Kim (6) Share<\/a><\/p>\n Trouble for Scottie Scheffler on 13. His sends his driver miles right of the fairway, and his ball plugs in a sandy dune. He can only see the top half of his Titleist! He needs two big whacks to get his ball back onto the fairway. Meanwhile Tommy Fleetwood hits a hot one through the 9th green and down a bank at the back. And Sam Burns chips through the green on 5, then from the bottom of the swale at the back, overhits a putt up, 20 feet past. He can\u2019t make the long par putt. Exceptionally careless \u2026 and now he\u2019s pulled his tee shot at 6 into a ditch! Burns unravelling \u2026 just as Jordan Spieth did at this point in 2017. So there\u2019s that. Leaderboard update coming in a sec, because \u2026<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Kim Si-woo could be the danger man here, you know. Sky Sports have just flashed up a graphic that shows the back-nine scoring this week of the leading contenders. Consider this! It\u2019s something to consider as we reach the business end of this Open. And remember that old saw: major championships only begin on the back nine on Sunday.<\/p>\n -7: Kim Share<\/a><\/p>\n \u2026 and it continues to heat up, because Kim Si-woo lays up from the tee on 5, then sends a wedge screeching to a halt right next to the cup. He taps in to join the group on Sam Burns\u2019 shoulder, and the 31-year-old, who has just one top-ten finish in 37 previous major appearances, is in with a big shout of becoming the first Korean winner of the Open! Bogey meanwhile for his playing partner Ryan Gerard, the result of a fluffed chip from a dirt track to the back-left of the green. Gerard slips to -6.<\/p>\n -10: Burns (4) Share<\/a><\/p>\n Russell Henley bogeys the last. A 5-5-5 finish, and yet he still signs for a 66. That could have been so much better. He\u2019s the new clubhouse leader at -5. Meanwhile another birdie at long last for Scottie Scheffler, at the par-three 12th. The defending champ moves to within two strokes of the leader, at -8. And also moving to within two: Tommy Fleetwood, who smoothly strokes home a downhill right-to-left slider from 15 feet on 8! A clenched fist, a glance to the gallery, and good luck calling this Open now!<\/p>\n -10: Burns (4) Share<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s now six pars in a row to start for Bryson DeChambeau. He\u2019ll be pretty happy with this latest one, given the way he zig-zagged up 6, chopping his second out of thick rough on the left into some more nonsense down the right. But he chips up to ten feet and rolls in the straight uphill putt. He remains at -6.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Sam Burns looks a bag of nerves. He leaves his tee shot at the par-three 4th 15 yards short of the green. His chip up isn\u2019t great, and he can\u2019t make the 15-footer that remains. Bogey, his first since the 9th hole yesterday, and only his second since Thursday! Ryan Fox meanwhile gets up and down from a pot bunker at the front of the green \u2026 while on 14, Cameron Young, who appears to be in the mood to set a clubhouse target, makes birdie to move within one! Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves an Open!<\/p>\n -10: Burns (4) Share<\/a><\/p>\n Tommy Fleetwood can\u2019t believe his bad luck on the par-three 7th. Having missed the green long and left, he wedges back up and starts his ball rolling on what looks like an inexorable journey into the hole. But it somehow curls around the edge of the cup on the right before turning back to stop slap-bang behind the hole. How did that stay out? The ball sits there, as if cheekily smiling back at Tommy. It\u2019s almost cute. Jellycat should sue. Fleetwood cocks his head back in anguish. He remains at -7.<\/p>\n Tommy Fleetwood reacts to nearly holing his chip at the 7th. Photograph: Adrian Dennis\/AFP\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a010.19 EDT<\/p>\n Two putts for Bryson DeChambeau, and that\u2019s five pars in a row. Not fatal to his dreams, but not the fast start he dreamed of either. He remains -6. Sam Burns and Ryan Fox both get up and down to save their pars at 3, but in vastly different ways: Burns splashes out close from sand, but Fox bumps his chip 20 feet past the flag \u2026 only to judge the downhill snake coming back perfectly. What a putt! And on 16, Rory McIlroy three-putts from eight feet, and that\u2019s a double bogey. He\u2019s -1.<\/p>\n -11: Burns (3) Share<\/a><\/p>\n Realistically, if the chasing pack want a chance, they\u2019ll need the pair in the final group to stall a bit. And on 3, Sam Burns and Ryan Fox prepare to open the door. Both drive wild and approach inaccurately, Fox short of the green, Burns in a bunker. Big scrambles coming up.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n More fun and games for Bryson DeChambeau on 5! No, not over there. He misses the green left, and nearly knocks his pitch into the bunker over the other side. The gallery with the pantomime ooooooohs as the ball toys with the idea of dropping off the green, where it\u2019d be taken away into the trap by the contours. He\u2019ll have a 30-footer for birdie.<\/p>\n Bryson DeChambeau taps hands with spectators. Photograph: David Goldman\/APShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a010.09 EDT<\/p>\n A couple of players take a step backwards. Ludvig \u00c5berg, who had done well to save par on 2 after racing an excitable birdie effort five feet past, gets wild off the tee on 3 and pays the price with bogey. He\u2019s -5. And his playing partner Lucas Herbert also drops a shot at 3, taking two to extricate himself from an awkward position in a greenside bunker. He\u2019s -6.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Tommy tidies up for his birdie on 5, and the Southport massive does its thing. Back on 2, Ryan Fox, who had clipped his second pin high to 15 feet, dribbles the downhill birdie putt straight into the cup. Then Burns makes his shorter one. A pair of birdies. Things hotting up real nice!<\/p>\n -11: Burns (2) Tommy Fleetwood after a birdie on the fifth. Photograph: Jacob King\/PAShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a010.05 EDT<\/p>\n Tommy Fleetwood\u2019s drive at 5 finishes in a swale, front left of the green. With soft hands, he bumps a chip up to 18 inches. Meanwhile back on the nearby 2nd green, Sam Burns wedges his second pin high to four feet. A couple of big putts coming up.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Scottie can\u2019t make his birdie on 9. It\u2019s a poor effort, swished with great uncertainty, the ball always dying to the low side on the right. His putter has gone cold at exactly the wrong moment: he missed a birdie putt from pretty similar distance on the hole before, too. Meanwhile Sam Burns and Ryan Fox make fairly fuss-free pars at 1. And Russell Henley misses a tiddler on 16 to drop back to -6. There goes that 62 dream.<\/p>\n -10: Burns (1) Share<\/a><\/p>\n Scottie Scheffler doesn\u2019t take a shy at the 9th green. Instead he plays the percentages, sending his tee shot to the corner of the dogleg, then knocking a short iron from 160 yards to six. He\u2019ll have a putt to reach the turn in 30.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The final pairing \u2013 Game No62 No39 \u2013 takes to the course. Ryan Fox splits the fairway. Sam Burns, looking a little nervous, catches a good lie in the semi-rough down the right. Having to wait all day to tee off last in a major must be arduous enough; an extra 14 minutes is putting a hat on a hat.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a009.38 EDT<\/p>\n Cameron Young\u2019s second into 11 kicks off to the right of the green and down a swale. He bumps his chip into the bank, up and over, the ball rolling round from right to left to eight inches. So close to a perfectly judged chip-in, wonderful shotmaking with the contours. Links mastery. He\u2019s already got a second-place finish on his CV (2022 at St Andrews, behind Cameron Smith) after all. Young remains at -8.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Ludvig \u00c5berg is one dimple away from opening birdie, but his 30-foot putt shaves the right-hand side of the cup. He remains at -6. Par too for one of this week\u2019s Mr 62s, Lucas Herbert. Behind them, Ryan Gerard and Kim Si-woo get down to business. All of the groups are out now \u2026 apart from one. And they\u2019ll be teeing off in a couple of minutes.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Bryson DeChambeau looks mildly disgusted with himself for missing a ten-foot birdie putt on 1. Jackson Suber maintains his gameface despite making bogey, the result of that wayward tee shot, which snagged in heavy rough. The 18-hole leader slips back to -5.<\/p>\n Bryson DeChambeau tees off at the first. Photograph: Tom Shaw\/R&A\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a009.24 EDT<\/p>\n Cameron Young birdies 9, as so many do. Not so many cover the front nine in 29 strokes, though. Well, Ryan Fox did it yesterday, and Denis Durnian went one better here in 1983, still the Open record for the front nine. The Players champion is making up for his dreadful back nine yesterday evening: 40 strokes that may prove so painfully costly. But let\u2019s see how it all pans out. If he posts something \u2026 and see also Russell Henley, who birdies 14. The two Americans at this rate hunting down another couple of 62s?<\/p>\n -10: Burns Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a009.38 EDT<\/p>\n \u2026 Tommy Fleetwood drains a 73-footer from the fringe at the front of 1!!! Shoulders UP! Shoulders BACK! One of those putts that looked inevitable halfway along its journey, a left-to-right swinger that disappeared into the hole like a mouse with a piece of cheese. He smiles so wide and hard that his teeth almost outshine the sun. The crowd go bonkers. What a start! The dream is alive! He\u2019s -6.<\/p>\n Tommy Fleetwood celebrates a birdie at the first. Photograph: Jacob King\/PAShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a009.14 EDT<\/p>\n Speaking of folk heroes: here comes Bryson DeChambeau! He\u2019s certainly not going to die wondering, and puts everything he\u2019s got into his opening drive. A monster that bounds down the fairway before scuttling into the semi-rough on the right. He\u2019ll be going round with the debut sensation Jackson Suber, who toys with OB down the right but stays in. There was a huge roar as he took his shot. And that\u2019s because \u2026<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Rory McIlroy\u2019s momentum-free week continues to bumble along apace. Having birdied 10, he immediately hands the shot back at 11, the result of finding a fairway bunker with his tee shot and being forced to take his medicine in it. Meanwhile more news on the status of Tommy Fleetwood\u2019s shoulders: drooped. He\u2019s got a decent enough lie, and cracks an iron towards the green, his ball creeping onto the front, just. But he clearly wanted more, and lets those shoulders fall as he offloads to his caddie. He appears agitated, the weight of carrying the gallery\u2019s hopes and dreams around with him all week perhaps beginning to tell. A local hero is something to be.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The final few games are running late, due to a rules brouhaha in an earlier match. So if you\u2019ve been hammering away at refresh waiting for news of Tommy Fleetwood, here he comes now. The usual hubbub on the tee, then he takes his fairway wood, hits the ball, and twirls the club in satisfaction. Not exactly sure why, because his ball disappears into a thick clump of grass atop a bank to the left of the fairway. Some tension in the shoulders no doubt.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Another birdie for Scottie Scheffler! He crashes his drive at 5 greenside, chips up to four feet, and rolls in the putt. No fuss. The defending champion is now -7, and if he continues like this, posts a number, and the late-starting leaders have to deal with the cranking up of both wind and pressure \u2026 well now, we\u2019d have quite the Open. A long way to go yet.<\/p>\n Scottie Scheffler plays a shot from a bunker on the fourth. Photograph: Richard Heathcote\/Getty ImagesShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a008.55 EDT<\/p>\n A good couple of minutes for Ireland. Rory McIlroy finally makes a putt, on 10, while Shane Lowry holes out from a bunker at 4. It\u2019s back-to-back birdies for the 2019 champion, who clenches a fist in celebration. At -5, you can be sure he\u2019s not going to admit defeat just yet. Rory is -4. But any faint Scottish hopes of a first title since Paul Lawrie seized the day in 1999 have gone south. Consecutive bogeys for Bob MacIntyre, at 6 and 7, and he\u2019s back to -2.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Russell Henley keeps on keepin\u2019 on! He sends his approach at 11 from 156 yards to 14 feet, and the putt drops for his fifth birdie of the day. The rest of his card is unblemished, so he just needs another three birdies in the last seven holes to join Club 62. And there are scoring opportunities all around Royal Birkdale.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n On the subject of Bryson, who reportedly threatened to walk upon being penalised for his fescue shoe shuffle, here\u2019s the story of one player who actually walked it like he talked it. Courtesy of an old Joy of Six on the Open.<\/a><\/p>\n The 16th Open Championship was the second to be held on the famous Old Course at St Andrews and the first to descend into total farce. From the outset, there was trouble brewing. The organisers had forgotten \u2013 golfers who have been unlucky in the St Andrews ballot will love this \u2013 to book the course for the tournament, so competitors had to grab tee times when they could, going out for their rounds while members of the general public hooked and shanked to their hearts\u2019 delight around them. Delightful bedlam.<\/p>\n Sure enough, this would eventually ruin the Championship. It is said that the best two players of the early 1870s were Young Tom Morris and David Strath. Morris had pipped Strath to the Open in 1870 and 1872, but died of a broken heart on Christmas Day 1875, a few months after his wife and newborn baby had died during a difficult labour. With his main rival tragically out of the picture, it was assumed an Open victory for Strath would come along sooner or later.<\/p>\n With two holes of his second and final round to play, 1876 looked like being Strath\u2019s year. Bob Martin was in the clubhouse having just shot 90 for a total of 176, a mark which meant Strath would win the title if he got home in 10 strokes. Having played his second straight down the middle of the fairway at the Road Hole, the group ahead were faffing around on the green. Strath \u2013 his patience worn by two rounds of nonsense on a ludicrously busy course \u2013 clipped his third shot into the green the very moment the group ahead finished the hole. But they had not completely vacated the green, and his approach hit one of the players, the ball stopping near the hole instead of bouncing through and on to the road running behind.<\/p>\n Strath still took two putts for a five. He should have sealed the deal with a careful passage up the last, but got caught up in the Valley of Sin and took six. He too signed for a 90, tied on 176 with Martin. A play-off was therefore scheduled for the following Monday, but there had also been complaints about the incident back on 17, and the R&A committee refused to rule until after the deciding round was complete. Understandably, Strath reasoned that there was no point playing if he was only going to be disqualified anyway and demanded a decision before they teed off. None was forthcoming. Strath walked, leaving Martin with the formality of competing in the play-off himself for the right to become Open champion.<\/p>\n Strath competed again the following year at Musselburgh, but only came fifth, six shots behind the winner Jamie Anderson. It was his last Open. Two years later, he left on a boat for Australia, suffering from tuberculosis and seeking a cure in sunnier climes. He had bought a return ticket, but never came back, laryngitis adding to his physical woes, and he succumbed in Melbourne not long after his arrival. Another grim story, but seven top-10 Open finishes in eight attempts, including three second-place finishes, isn\u2019t a bad legacy to be leaving.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Rory McIlroy\u2019s front nine has been his 2026 Open in microcosm. A plethora of birdie chances, a lot of putts steadfastly refusing to drop, momentum a pipe dream. He birdied 2 and 6, bogeyed 7, and on the short par-four 9th \u2013 birdie, birdie, eagle on the first three days \u2013 he sends a chip long and has to settle for par. Out in 33, and he\u2019ll not be troubling the engraver this week. He\u2019s already etched his name onto this particular Open\u2019s story, to be fair.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Russell Henley finished in the top ten in 2024 and 2025, and the hat-trick isn\u2019t out of the question yet. The 37-year-old from Georgia, who is something of a late bloomer in the majors \u2013 he tied for third at this year\u2019s Masters, and for fourth at Augusta in 2023 \u2013 started the day at -1, but has made a big move thanks to birdies at 2, 3, 9 and now 10. The latest a dainty chip-in over the bunker at the front of the green, his ball landing gently on the shoulder and rolling into the cup. He\u2019s zoomed up the standings to -5.<\/p>\n -10: Burns Share<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s fair to say the opening tee shot has got into Jon Rahm\u2019s head. He hoicked it out of bounds down the right yesterday \u2026 and now he\u2019s done exactly the same thing today. That leads to double bogey, just as it did yesterday, and he drops back to -2.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n So is there a score out there if someone wants to make a charge? Of course there\u2019s a score out there, we\u2019ve had three 62s already this week. A fourth is probably a pipe dream, with the wind picking up in the afternoon as it always does \u2026 but then rule nothing out, because these gentlemen are good. There are already three players back in the house with 66s: Matthew Southgate (E), John Parry (-2) and Rickie Fowler, who at -3 is the very early clubhouse leader. But there are a couple of big names only just out who are also illustrating the point. Scottie Scheffler has thrown darts at the flag on both of the opening two holes, and his birdie-birdie start takes him to -6. Cameron Young meanwhile has birdied four of the first five holes to rise to within three of Sam Burns\u2019 overnight lead. How he\u2019ll be ruing his miserable back nine of 40 yesterday evening. But that hour and a half, when the wheels came off, hasn\u2019t cost him yet.<\/p>\n -10: Burns
-9: Fox (6)
-8: Burns (6)
-7: Scheffler (13), Fleetwood (9)
-6: Dechambeau (8), Herbert (7), Gerard (7)<\/p>\n
-9: Young (16), Fox (5), Burns (5)
-7: Scheffler (13), Fleetwood (9)
-6: DeChambeau (7), Herbert (6), Gerard (6)<\/p>\n
-5: Burns
-2: Fox
-1: Fleetwood
E: Scheffler<\/p>\n
-9: Young (14), Kim (5), Fox (4)
-8: Scheffler (12), Fleetwood (8)<\/p>\n
-9: Young (14), Fox (4)
-8: Scheffler (12), Fleetwood (8), Kim (4)<\/p>\n
-9: Young (14), Fox (4)
-8: Kim (4)
-7: Scheffler (11), Fleetwood (7), Herbert (7), Gerard (4)<\/p>\n
-9: Fox (3)
-8: Young (13), Kim (4)
-7: Scheffler (10), Fleetwood (6), Gerard (4)<\/p>\n
-9: Fox (2)
-8: Young (12), Kim (2)
-7: Scheffler (9), Fleetwood (5), Gerard (2)<\/p>\n
-8: Young (12), Kim (2), Fox (1)
-7: Scheffler (9), Herbert (2), Gerard (2)<\/p>\n
-8: Young (9), Fox, Kim
-7: Henley (14), Scheffler (6), Gerard, Herbert
-6: Matsuyama (3), Fleetwood (1), DeChambeau (1), \u00c5berg<\/p>\n
-8: Fox, Kim
-7: Young (6), Gerard, Herbert
-6: Scheffler (3), \u00c5berg, DeChambeau, Suber
-5: Henley (10), Neergaard-Petersen, Fleetwood<\/p>\n
-8: Fox, Kim
-7: Young (5), Gerard, Herbert
-6: Scheffler (2), \u00c5berg, DeChambeau, Suber
-5: Neergaard-Petersen, Fleetwood<\/p>\n