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Excellent birdie-birdie-birdie start from Xander Schauffle today. Last week’s Scottish Open winner didn’t have the week he wanted but looks set to finish in style. Contrast that with Jon Rahm, who looks ready to break out after bogeying 3 and double bogeying 4 when he had a wedge in hand for his second shot. The Spaniard falls to 68th place.
Local Scotsman Robert McIntyre is currently entertaining the galleries. The left-hander has two eagles today – the 5th and 7th – and is -6 overall and tied for 26th as he starts on 13. Shame about that pesky double bogey on the 1st today.
Barclay Brown went with the Stone Roses Spike Island hat today instead of the wider rimmed It Ain’t Half Hot Mum number from the first three days. But despite a birdie at 18, his bid for the leading amateur silver medal went south after a series of bogeys, bogeys, bogeys, bogeys, bogeys, double bogeys from 13 to 17. That closing 75 left him at +2, one more swing from Australia’s Aaron Jarvis +1. This means that the Italian Filippo Celli is in first position in the amateur competition: he is 3 after 7 holes, so he has four shots.
Matt caught up with blog favorite BB as he left 18. Barclay’s name? He has no idea why they call him Barkley, except that his father is Scottish. Despite our nonsense that his name suggested he co-starred with Terry-Thomas, Brown has no acting background and quickly gave up drama at school. But he is enjoying his economics degree at Stanford (Tiger’s old university) and will spend his four years there. No silver medal, but he laughed that he had become a cult figure this week.[Tiger’solduni)andwillseeouthisfouryearsthereNoSilverMedalbuthehadachucklethathe’dbecomeacultfigurethisweek[Tiger’solduni)andwillseeouthisfouryearsthereNoSilverMedalbuthehadachucklethathe’dbecomeacultfigurethisweek
Like many at St Andrews, DP World Tour pro Matthew Southgate went berserk when commentating on Rory hitting his bunker shot on the 10th for eagle yesterday. “It sounded like the grandstand was coming down. It was like Wembley,” Southgate said this morning.
Matt Cooper is live in St Andrews and regaled us with some Old Gray Toon tales.
Disappointing opening for celebrity spotting – maybe even they can’t get in by voting. Actress Kathryn Newton has been here, there and everywhere as an ambassador for the R&A (I’m happy to even report that she was kind enough to record a wonderful message for my plank-treading niece). Elsewhere, Niall Horan was seen at the R&A World Golf Museum, while Tim Henman, Andrew Murray and Gavin Hastings tasted whiskey at the tented village. Rumor has it that Robbie Williams has popped into town. I’ve seen Kirsty Wark from Panorama, but I’m not entirely sure if she counts as a celebrity. All in all, nothing on the scale of the past, when whispers of heavyweight George Clooney, Tom Cruise and even P-Diddy were common.
And one more…
Want a front row seat for today? The Rusacks Hotel, which overlooks the 1st and 18th holes, was recently renovated, with the NFL playing Manning brothers part of the group that took on the project. A place on the roof this afternoon is said to cost £3,000 per person.
Can anyone beat Smith/Burns low round of 64? Danny Willett, the 2016 Masters champion and winner of the 2021 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews, thinks so. “The greens are a little softer, not a lot of wind. There is a low score there. A good chance for the top two to pull away from the pack,” Willett said after closing with a 3-under 69 to finish at -4.
At this point yesterday, Kevin Kisner was threatening to film something ridiculous. He eventually signed for 65. No one blew the traps like Kisner today – he was -7 after 10 – but Sam Burns, the world No. 11, enjoyed a hot finish to shoot 64 and manage the low round of Cameron Smith for a week. Burns finished with four straight birdies, a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks it’s over if someone has a big lead heading into the 15th. That eight-under round moved Burns up 56 places to 21st.
Ahhh, wonderful. Wait a minute, something just caught my eye. “Music Box Dancer” as many of you will know was the theme music to “Around With Alliss”. Speaking of the great man, here’s Peter’s take on one of golf’s iconic moments. The little giggle after the ball drops is perfect. Pure Peter. Imagine Rory having a four-shot lead, putting the last hole and paying tribute to Seve’s celebration. I’m getting ahead of myself!
We performed the BBC Open golf theme on day one, so let Frank Mills take us into today’s closing round with another classic. Get it big man…
Frank Mills
Preamble
Is this the day Rory McIlroy ends his eight-year wait for a fifth major by joining the pantheon of greats to win an Open at St. Andrews? The main threat to McIlroy’s bid to join Jack, Seve, Sir Nick and Tiger is playing partner Victor Hovland. The pair traded magnificent 66s when they were in tandem yesterday, that six-under round taking them four clear of stuttering leader Cameron Smith and American rookie Cameron Young. World No. 1 Scotty Scheffler lurks five back along with Si Woo Kim, but if McIlroy and Hovland start making birdies, the chasing pack may be too far to catch them. An extremely important day in the 150-year history of the Open is coming up. Thank you for joining us for today’s final round: always one of the great days in sport.
The standings move into round four
-16: McIlroy, Hovland-12: Young, Smith-11: SW Kim, Scheffler-10: D Johnson-9: Fleetwood, Fitzpatrick, Scott-8: Spieth, Cantlay
Time type: all BST, (a) means amateur
7.20am Sam Bairstow (a) 7.30am Wyndham Clarke, Jamie Rutherford 7.40am David Lowe, Hideki Matsuyama 7.50am Sungjae Im, Sam Burns 8.00am Adria Arnaus, Garrick Higo 8.10am Laurie Kanter, Patrick Reid 8.25am .Joaquin Niemann, Cameron Tringall8. 35am Jordan Smith, Aaron Jarvis (a) 8.45am Danny Willett, Barclay Brown (a) 8.55am Robert Dinwiddie, Sebastian Munoz 9.05am Yuto Katsuragawa, Lars Van Meigel 9.15am Jason Kokrack, Kurt Kitayama 9.30am Marcus Amritage, Justin Thomas 9.40am am Jason Scrivener, Paul Casey 9.50am Tony Finau, Justin De Los Santos 10.00am Triston Lawrence, Thomas Detry 10.10am Corey Connors, Sergio Garcia 10.20am Adrian Meronc, John Parry 10.40am Robert McIntyre, Taylor Gooch 10.50am Sadom Kaevkanyana, Abraham Anser11. 00 David Carey, Lee Westwood 11.10 Harold Varner III, Ju-Hyung Kim 11.20 Brad Kennedy, Filippo Celli (a) 11.30 Billy Horschel, Chris Kirk 11.45 Christian Bezuidenhout, Richard Mansell 11.55 Sahit Tigala, Min Woo Lee 12.05pm Xander Schaufele, Lucas Herbert 12.15pm Victor Perez, Jon Rahm 12.25pm Will Zalatoris, Nicolai Hodgegaard 12.35pm Anthony Quayle, Ian Poulter 12.55pm Aaron Wise, Dean Burmester 1.05pm Russell Henley, Dyland Fritelli 1.15am Francesco Molinari, Bryson DeChambeau 1.25am Tyrrell Hatton, Brian Harman35m1. , Shane Lowry 1.45am Kevin Kisner, Thomas Pieters 2.00am Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay 2.10am Matt Fitzpatrick, Adam Scott 2.20am Dustin Johnson, Tommy Fleetwood 2.30am Si Woo Kim, Scotty Scheffler 2.40am Cameron Young , Cameron Smith 2.50 Rory McIlroy , Victor Hovland
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