Shocking turmoil roils 'moving day'
Horschel leads a logjam into final round at Royal Troon; Lowry spits bit in deluge
Billy Horschel holds his first 54-hole major lead (Stuart Franklin/R&A via Getty Images)
TROON, Scotland — A British summer that saw all four seasons in a single day helped turn the Open into a fun-loving mess and had participants in the third round at Royal Troon soaked and bewildered as links golf won yet again.
Mild, almost balmy temperatures in the early part of the day were replaced by a steady rain that plagued the late starters throughout the afternoon and only got worse as the wind whipped off the Firth of Clyde and saw some of the best in the world reduced to hitting drivers into par-3s and 3-woods into par-4s.
It’s all good fun if you don’t have to do it and while it didn’t snow it felt like it might.
Naturally, Floridian Billy Horschel is leading.
And also, naturally, Irishman Shane Lowry, who won his Open title five years ago in a rain-soaked affair at Royal Portrush, suffered the brunt of the conditions, seeing his one-time lead of four strokes on Sunday blown away as he now trails Horschel by three.
It set up the potential for a wild final day as 12 players are within four shots of the lead and a few guys such as South African Thriston Lawrence and Americans Sam Burns and Russell Henley were gifted with the opportunity of their lives having shot good scores early on “moving day” in relatively decent conditions, only to see the top of the field back up and leave them sharing second place a shot off the lead.
“Hitting drivers to par-3s isn’t a lot of craic,” said Lowry, clearly annoyed afterward. Translation: it wasn’t a lot of fun.
Five back-nine bogeys weren’t fun either and Lowry, to this credit, somehow stood there afterward to talk about it.
Shane Lowry’s misery began in the Coffin Bunker on No. 8 (Stuart Franklin/R&A via Getty Images)
“This is going to take me a couple of hours to get over today,” Lowry said. “Just hard because I felt like I played unbelievable golf today. Missed the first fairway and then didn’t miss another fairway until 16. Hit some great iron shots, just didn’t hole the putts early on when I had the chances, and then I missed a few par putts.
“On the way in, I felt like I couldn’t make a par. Obviously it was hard.”
Horschel, 37 — an eight-time PGA Tour winner who has just two career top-10 finishes in 41 previous major championships — emerged on top, having embraced the conditions to shoot 69 and finish at 4-under par despite a bogey at the last.
He leads six players who finished at 3-under, including his scheduled final-round playing partner Lawrence, who teed off 18 groups and 3 hours, 10 minutes ahead of the final pairing of Lowry and Daniel Brown and shot 65. Lawrence might as well have been playing in Hawaii, such was the difference in conditions.
Burns also shot 65 and he was 15 groups in front of the leaders. They played in far easier conditions and took advantage.
Lowry, the second-round leader at 7-under par, shot 77 Saturday to drop to 1-under, but still just three strokes back. He was four ahead after four holes before a double bogey on the Postage Stamp began a steady decline of 7-over on the last 11 holes.
Tied for second with Lawrence at 3-under are Burns, Henley, PGA Championship winner Xander Shauffele (69), 2013 U.S. Open champion Justin Rose (73) and Brown, the first-time major participant who had a 73 after going bogey-double on the final two holes to cough up the lead.
Thriston Lawrence vaults into final pairing with 65 (Luke Walker/R&A via Getty Images)
Masters champion and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is another shot back at 2-under after a 71 in which he couldn’t seem to buy a putt.
“I can think of a couple days with some crazy high winds that may have been more challenging, but overall the back nine, I think that was probably the hardest nine holes that I’ll ever play,” Scheffler said Saturday. “I shouldn’t say ever, but it’s definitely the hardest that I’ve played to this point. … It was definitely very challenging.”
Scheffler needed a 3-wood off the tee at the par-3 17th which measured 238 yards and into the late wind. Both Lowry and Brown hit drivers. Scheffler said he needed driver, 3-wood to reach the 502-yard par-4 15th. And he came up short.
“I mean, 18 is probably the best example where I hit a good driver and a really hard 3-iron,” Scheffler said. “I'm hitting that 3-iron super low and as hard as I can, and yesterday Jordan (Spieth) hit a driver there and had 30, 40 yards to the front edge. It was 160-, 170-yard difference in length off the tee there, from his drive yesterday to my drive today.
“It was pretty wild out there but did a good job of grinding it out.”
The day turned so much that players who seemingly were way out of contention now have legitimate chances to win. Lawrence, Burns and Henley are the easiest examples, sitting just a shot back. But Adam Scott, who shot 77 on Friday, shot 66 and is tied for 10th at level par, only four strokes back. Justin Thomas, who had a first-nine 45 on Friday, went out in 31 Saturday to shoot 67 and also sit at even par.
“This was by far my best round in tough conditions at an Open Championship,” said Horschel, who for most of the round went without a rain jacket and wore his cap backwards to avoid rain dropping off the front of his brim from distracting him.
“We played five par-5s on the back side, and that’s not even including No. 16 (an actual par-5). It was a tough one out there today. Just knew going into the back side that it was going to be a grind no matter what. You have to find a way to grind down and make a score.”
Sunday’s weather shouldn’t be so daunting. But with the Claret Jug at stake, the obstacles might be greater than Saturday’s blast of winter that shook up Royal Troon.