The Open 2019 LIVE: Shane Lowry breaks course record to take four-shot lead over Tommy Fleetwood into Sunday
Re-live all the action from the third round of the 148th Open Championship from Royal Portrush
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Shane Lowry delivered an Open Championship masterclass as he broke the course record at Royal Portrush with an eight-under-par 63 to take a four-shot lead into Sunday's final round.
The weekend may be without Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy after they both missed the cut, but Saturday did not go without it's drama. Irishman Lowry has brought the fans to life with a truly brilliant round, and after starting the day on eight-under-par, he recorded a bogey-free round of 63 that featured eight birdies to lead Tommy Fleetwood by four shots.
Brooks Koepka moved himself up to fourth place alongside Justin Rose and just behindJB Holmes, but Lowry's brilliance means they already find themselvesa long way off the lead at the start of Sunday's play. The R&A Has also announced that Sunday's tee times have been moved forward due to the threat of bad weather. Follow the latest updates below.
Please allow a moment for the blog to load.
Saturday tee times
0835—Paul Waring
0845—Francesco Molinari, Jason Kokrak
0855—Graeme McDowell, Bubba Watson
0905—Charley Hoffman, Ashton Turner
0915—Yosuke Asaji, Andrew Wilson
0925—Yuki Inamori, Matt Wallace
0935—Nino Bertasio, Tom Lewis
0945—Adam Hadwin, Ryan Fox
1000—Innchoon Hwang, Benjamin Hebert
1010—Paul Casey, Kyle Stanley
1020—Eddie Pepperell, Doc Redman
1030—Kevin Streelman, and Joost Luiten
1040—Shubhankar Sharma, Louis Oosthuizen
1050—Stewart Cink, Callum Shinkwin
1100—Jim Furyk, Kevin Kisner
1110—Bernd Wiesberger, Russell Knox
1120—Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Mikko Korhonen
1135—Sergio Garcia, Branden Grace
1145—Romain Langasque, Sang Hyun Park
1155—Patrick Cantlay, Lucas Glover
1205—Danny Willett, Aaron Wise
1215—Justin Thomas, Bob MacIntryre
1225—Matt Fitzpatrick, Ernie Els
1235—Thorbjorn Olesen, Thomas Pieters
1245—Rory Sabbatini, Byeong Hun An
1255—Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele
1310—Henrik Stenson, Webb Simpson
1320—Alex Noren, Dustin Johnson
1330—Tyrrell Hatton, Matt Kuchar
1340—Jon Rahm, Patrick Reed
1350—Lucas Bjerregaard, Tony Finau
1400—Erik Van Rooyen, Dylan Frittelli
1410—Andrew Putnam, Jordan Spieth
1420—Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose
1430—Justin Harding, Cameron Smith
1440—Lee Westwood, Tommy Fleetwood
1450—Shane Lowry, J.B. Holmes
We have our first birdie of the day! Incredible scenes!
Graene McDowell of Northern Ireland birdies the second and leaps up the leaderboard to the dizzy heights of tied-48. The home crowd liked that one.
Today's pin positions
These remind me of the kind of maths questions where you're asked to find the area of a shape.
Watson bogies the third and slips to +2. Not looking good here. He misses a putt, gives the green a nasty stare then sinks the fourth shot.
Goodness me, Portrush in the crisp morning sun is absolutely stunning
In fact, this weather could really benefit some of the players later in the day.
Kevin Roth, weather expert for Fantasy Sports info hub RotoGrinders.com, said this afternoon's perfect conditions will throw the race for the Claret Jug wide open.
He said: "The wind is expected to die away in the late afternoon, leaving the likes of Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood ready to chase down the leading pack in Shane Lowry in JB Holmes in perfect conditions - simply put, the later you tee off, the better off you are.
"It brings little hope to the early starters in their chances of playing catch up and with winds reaching up to 20mph until early afternoon the chance of a decent score for the likes of Francesco Molinari, Sergio Garcia and Paul Casey is looking slimmer by the hole."
Saturday's forecast: Mostly dry, windy.
Light rain in the morning with winds around 10-15mph holding out till lunchtime. Come late afternoon and early evening those winds start to subside down to 10mph with it calming towards the end of the day.
Right, back to the golf.
Yosuke Asaji and Andrew Wilson both birdied the second and move to a par score, along with Charley Hoffman.
Molinari (+1) is still plodding away picking up straight pars, while Watson (+2) is yet to make up for dropping a shot on the third.
Two-time Open champion Jack Nicklaus still fancies Shane Lowry or Tommy Fleetwood to go on and win, but doesn't rule out a dark horse sneaking on to win.
While Paul Waring does not have a competing partner alongside him, it does not mean he is out there completely alone.
Royal Portrush head professional Gary McNeill was given the honour of accompanying first man out Waring on the third day of The Open.
With an odd number - 73 players made the cut - Waring was given a marker to play alongside as he teed off at 9.35am and that prize was handed to O'Neill, who missed out in qualifying for the tournament outright last month.
The Royal Portrush club shop closed so staff could watch McNeill tee off with a somewhat understandably nervous low, left shot off the first. Despite a helping wind Waring could only par the first two holes and remained at one over.
If you backed Molinari (+1), it may be time to time to forget about his chances of winning. Six holes in and he's still yet to ship away at his score.
Meanwhile...Watson is back on +1 after sinking a birdie putt on the fifth.
And goodness me, Nino Bertasio goes for a double-bogey on the first and falls to +3...
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments