The Open leaderboard https://www.theopen.com/
Saturday pairings/ tee times https://www.theopen.com/TeeTimes#!/R3
Round 3 began at 4.20am EST as you can see by clicking on the link above, with South African Shaun Norris playing with a club player as a marker, 39 groups in all with the leaders Jordan Spieth (-6) and Matt Kuchar (-4) at 10.55am.
The wind and rain have blown through and right away you'll see that today is calm with overcast skies and not much of a breeze and that is expected to be the case all day, and with a softer course, scoring is much lower, there have already been a handful of 65's.
Austin Connelly is the only Canadian remaining as Adam Hadwin missed the cut, and despite the fact he was disappointed with 3 bogey's to finish early yesterday with 72, he is in a group at -1 T6 just 5 shots off the lead. He is paired with Scotland's Richie Ramsay in the third last group at 1035am.
Connelly plays out of Claire G&CC in Church Point, Nova Scotia is only 20 and had to qualify to get into the field. He was in the late wave on Thursday so missed the worst of the weather and posted a -3 67. He played a practice round with Spieth who told the media they would be surprised when they saw how well Austin could perform here this week.
Connelly responded. " I feel like this place suits me very well and I think I can go around there composed all week"
Jordan Spieth won his last tournament The Travellers from wire to wire and much has been made of his collapse at the 2016 Masters but in fact his record when leading majors is two wins and two seconds. He hasn't had his A game from tee to green so far this week but on these slow relatively flat greens he is putting magnificently for 65 69 -6, justifying his 14-1 favourite status with the bookies.
All of the crowd will be cheering on Ian Poulter who after 67 70 is at -3 and plays in the penultimate group with Brooks Koepka. Sir Nick Faldo was the last Englishman to win the Open in 1992. Poulter has re invented himself in recent months, and he did finish T2 here back in 2008.
There are so many story lines to talk about. How about US Open champion Brooks Koepka, the American who decided to play his way onto the PGA Tour via the European Challenge and regular tours. He could join the legendary Lee Trevino who in 1971 came to Royal Birkdale as US Open champion and went on to beat Mr Lu and hoist the Claret Jug. Tiger Woods did it in 2000 and Tom Watson in 1982.
However possibly the biggest story today is Rory McIlroy who was on his way out of this championship at +5 until his caddy gave him a bollocking and the kick in the pants worked and at 71 68 he is T6 -1. He tees off with big hitting Gary Woodland at 10.25pm and with Rory on a roll I'd expect him to post a score that will have a huge crowd roaring. The Open record is 63. Remember Royal Birkdale is par 70.
Many past champions missed the cut which fell at +5, including Phil Mickelson who's long time caddy Jim Bones McKay is in the broadcast booth after Phil fired him.
Padraig Harrington (2008), missed by shot (73,73). Tom Lehman (1996) ,Darren Clarke (2011), Paul Lawrie (1999) all missed the cut as did the likes of Stewart Cink with scores of (150), David Duval (151) Mark O’Meara (151) Louis Oosthuizen (152) John Daly (152), Sandy Lyle (153) and Todd Hamilton (158).
Other notables, Francesco Molinari, Patrick Reed and Justin Thomas, all missed out by two shots on seven over par 147.
It's the 146th Open steeped in history, with more to be written this weekend. For sure on a traditional Saturday moving day, will ideal scoring conditions, the leaderboard will look a lot different come dinner time tonight, with one exception in my opinion, Jordan Spieth will still be on top.
We'll see..
Bryan Angus
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