Key events
Tommy Fleetwood tidies up for his birdie. Birkdale responds. Fleetwood flashes that smile. Sam Burns also finishes his job, and joins the leaders. Meanwhile Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen holes out from 15 yards on 17 for eagle, chipping in from atop a greenside bank, and the Dane is closing in on a very enjoyable supper. And in more Scandi-news, Ludvig Åberg, who opened with bogey today, has birdied 2, 5 and now 13 to arrive just in time to the party!
-8: Fox (F), Burns (7), Suber (5)
-7: Fleetwood (11), SW Kim (8), C Young (6), Herbert (5)
-6: Neergaard-Petersen (17)
-5: Åberg (13), Scheffler (10), DeChambeau (7), Gerard (6)
Lucas Herbert’s tee shot at 5 is swallowed by one of the deep bunkers to the left of the green. He’s right up against the lip, with not much of a stance. So he turns sideways and blasts up and over, into a little saucer between the bunker he’s in and the one further on. That was smart thinking, although he didn’t really have many other options. He putts up from the depression to close range, and will be extremely happy to get out of Dodge with his par. Meanwhile his playing partner Jackson Suber birdies, having been unlucky not to drive the green, but knocked up close from the swale. He joins Ryan Fox in the lead at -8. Updated leaderboard to come, because Sam Burns has just stuck his tee shot at 7 to a couple of feet, while Tommy Fleetwood came very close to holing out from 150 yards on 11. More movement to come soon, surely.
An utterly brilliant birdie for Bryson DeChambeau on 6. He arrows his tee shot straight. He muscles his second onto the back-right portion of the green. Then he makes a 35-footer that sets out miles to the left – he’s got that wrong, you’d think, surely?! – but then takes a huge turn to the right on the final third of its journey, and drops into the cup without touching the sides. A putt of the utmost perfection. And when DeChambeau set that ball off so far to the left, he looked after it excitedly: he knew he’d got that spot on. He’s back to -5, where he started the day.
Cameron Young makes his first move of the day. The Players champion sends his drive to the left of the 5th green, questioning why he didn’t get any cut. His ball ends up behind one of the big bunkers, the pin tucked behind, very little green in between. He opens the face of his wedge and goes hard and high. What bravery. What a result, four feet from the flag. He rolls in the putt for birdie. And up on the par-three 7th, Kim Si-woo gets some reward for courage too, screeching his tee shot five feet from a flag tucked front left, surrounded by traps. In goes the putt, and the top of the leaderboard is bunching up rather attractively.
-8: Fox (F)
-7: SW Kim (7), Burns (5), C Young (5), Suber (4), Herbert (4)
-6: Fleetwood (10)
-5: Scheffler (9), Gerard (5)
A doughty par save for Lucas Herbert on 4. Having missed the green to the right, his chip up dribbles away eight feet to the left. Staring a second successive bogey in the face, he rolls the putt, which has a little left-to-right hurt, into the centre of the cup. Perfectly judged. He remains at -7 and that should settle the 30-year-old Aussie after a shaky start.
Bryson bundles a chip up from the swale on 5, the ball rolling 15 feet past the hole. That’s not a bad effort from a tight lie, over undulating links land, but not close enough for birdie. That putt missed, he tidies up for par. A four isn’t ideal on a hole averaging 3.61 today, so he’s giving up ground to the field, but at least it’s better than yesterday, when he took five strokes seven strokes, so onwards and upwards. He’s -4.
Rory McIlroy walks up the 18th fairway to a champion’s ovation. He’s not going to be the champion, though. He does earn himself another roar, getting up and down from a bunker, draining a 20-footer in doing so. But a round of 69 is not really any good to him. He finishes the day at -2 overall, six off the pace with a slew of world-class players in between. Moving Day? Gently Oscillating, maybe. Hey, if offered at the outset a 2026 major haul of the Masters and nowt else, do you think he’d have turned it down?
Heeeeeeeeeeere’s Bryson! On the 5th! Perhaps unsurprisingly, he ends up pulling his drive to the left of the green, the ball disappearing down a swale. He catches a good lie at least. The gallery with a slight air of disappointment, as who wasn’t secretly hoping for Return to Bryson Island? That would have made good content. Meanwhile Lucas Herbert sends his second into 3 over the back. He misjudges his Scottish-style bump and run from the bottom of the bank, leaving a 15-foot putt he can’t make. He slips to -7 and Ryan Fox is the sole leader of the Open. “Having reviewed yesterday’s footage from the 5th hole, I’m not sure what all the fuss is about,” writes Grant Tennille. “Who doesn’t want to put their stamp on the most storied of golf tournaments?”
Another birdie for Sam Burns! The US Open nearly man (2024, 2025, 2026) had a top-ten finish at the Masters this year, and the feeling is that a major breakthrough isn’t far away for the 29-year-old from Louisiana. That dream is one step closer after sending his tee shot at 4 to 14 feet and rolling home. He’s kind of playing with house money this week, because he wasn’t expecting to compete with a second baby due, but his wife delivered early, then encouraged him to go play. Now look!
-8: Fox (F), Herbert (2)
-7: Burns (4), Suber (2)
Jackson Suber, Open debutant, is not going anywhere. He briefly wobbled with three consecutive bogeys yesterday, his aggressive putting style costing him some needless three-putts, but he rallied impressively to maintain his presence near the top. Now he’s wedged gloriously from 128 yards on 2 to kick-in distance. A birdie that moves him to -7, one off the lead.
A diminuendo finish to Hideki Matsuyama’s round. Bogey, but that’s still a fine 67. He’s -4. Scottie Scheffler powers his second from the thick stuff down the side of 6 onto the green, and makes off with his par. Kim Si-woo’s lie to the right of 3 wasn’t so bad, and he exits with par, a score he matches on the following par-three. And belated news of birdie for Sam Burns at 2, Bryson having grabbed everyone’s attention back there.
-8: Fox (F), Herbert (1)
-6: Fleetwood (7), SW Kim (4), Burns (3), Gerard (2), C Young (2), Suber (1)
-5: Neergaard-Petersen (13), Scheffler (7), Detry (4)
The final game is out on the course. Jackson Suber splits the fairway with his opening tee shot, but Lucas Herbert sends a nervous one dangerously close to OB on the right. But the ball stops short and he catches a good lie. Both of them go on to make par. Meanwhile a second birdie of the day for Tommy Fleetwood, and those hoping for the home hero to lift the Claret Jug – pretty much everyone on the property – go wild.
On 2, Bryson carelessly sends his second from 100 yards into thick rough behind the green, to ripples of laughter, no doubt some wag in the gallery making a crack about his playing the next shot with a strimmer. In fact he delicately jabs a wedge out of the oomska to four feet, a delightful touch. Ideally he’d then perform an elaborate satirical soft-shoe shuffle in the rough, sending the grass hither and yon, but while that’d be amusing for the rest of the world, it’s probably better for the man himself that he refrains from making his point via the medium of contemporary dance. And then he misses the par putt. Oh Bryson! Bogey. Back to six under four under.
Finally, something happens for Scottie Scheffler. His drive at the short par-four 5th doesn’t quite reach the green … and his chip up doesn’t get as far as he’d ideally like. But he rolls in the six-footer that he’s left himself, and that’s a first birdie of Moving Day for the defending champ. But he drags his tee shot at 6, the hardest hole on the course, dangerously close to a creek down the left. One more hop and that was in the hazard. The reason it didn’t take one more hop, however, is because the ball snagged in some very thick verdant rough.
A little bit more on Gardenclearancegate from our sports desk.
R&A chief executive Mark Darbon, speaking to the BBC, on if penalising Bryson DeChambeau was more difficult because of his status in golf: “I actually don’t think it does make it a more difficult decision. We have a responsibility to our championship and to the rest of the field. And so irrespective of which player this affected, it’s the same decision.”
An opening par for Bryson, who cracks a seven iron from the rough down the left into the heart of the green, and takes two careful putts. Par as well for his playing partner Sam Burns. Up on 2, Kim Si-woo guides a 12-foot right-to-left slider into the cup for birdie, and he moves up to -6 … though for how long time will tell, because he’s just sent his tee shot at 3 into thick rough down the right.
The local hero makes his first move of the day! Tommy Fleetwood isn’t going to toy with Bryson Island to the left of 5, laying up from the tee at the drivable par four instead. He wedges his second over the flag to seven feet, and makes his birdie. If you think the gallery adore Bryson, they’re positively head over heels for Tommy. But then, who isn’t? Swoon. Birdie meanwhile at 17 for the 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, his third in four holes, and with both of the players mentioned in this entry rising to -5, Moving Day is beginning to happen.
-8: Fox (F), Herbert
-6: Suber, C Young, Gerard
-5: Matsuyama (17), Neergaard-Petersen (12), Fleetwood (5), Detry (2), SW Kim (1)
It’s not quite happening for Scottie Scheffler. A birdie putt lips out on 3. Another slides by the cup on 4. He remains at -4. Birdie at 2 meanwhile for Thomas Detry, who has been there or thereabouts since setting the pace as a member of the opening group on Thursday morning. He’s -5.
Heeeeeeeeeeere’s Bryson! The man is showbiz to his bones, and emerges from the tunnel at the 1st tee to rapturous applause from the gallery. He acknowledges all three stands with a Churchillian V-for-victory sign, the thumbs up, and a modest smile. “You show ‘em, Bryson!” someone hollers. “On the tee, from the USA, Bryson DeChambeau!” More applause. More acknowledgement of the punters. Then he unsheathes the driver and sends his opening tee shot left. That’ll be OK, landing on some rough trodden down by the gallery. Delicious irony. You couldn’t script that sort of thing. He’s a star.
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen is playing in his first Open this week. And making a very good fist of it. The 27-year-old Dane already has some major-championship pedigree, having tied for 12th at last year’s US Open, and he’s in form on the DP World Tour, having tied third in the World Tour Championship, one shot behind the Matt Fitzpatrick and Rory McIlroy play-off, and won the Australian Open. Now he guides in a left-to-right 20-foot swinger on 10, his fourth birdie of the day, and one that moves him up to -5.
Some more on Landscapegate from Ewan Murray at Birkdale.
Marco Penge had taken to social media to express disquiet at the late distribution of Saturday’s tee times. They appeared around 11pm on Friday, much to the public annoyance not only of Penge but fellow players including Justin Thomas.
After signing for a third round of 69, Penge had not backed down. “It was a bit of a joke, really,” said the Englishman. “I am staying at home this week, an hour away, so not getting your tee time until 11pm is not great really. Obviously there was a load of commotion so that delayed things.”
Penge assumes the times were delayed as it was ascertained whether Bryson DeChambeau was going to play. While reluctant to offer opinion on DeChambeau’s rules breach, Penge added: “If I was in that position, I’d just be very careful where I’m standing and how I get into the ball and make sure I don’t improve my lie.”
The defending champion Scottie Scheffler has still to find any real rhythm at Birkdale. It’s kind of been that way in the majors all season, and yet he still nearly did enough to come bursting from the pack in second gear to steal both the Masters and US Open. So the rest of the field won’t be sleeping on Scottie. He’s been hovering on the shoulders of the leaders all week, and continues to do so. He starts par-par, the second a delightful save on 2 having dunked his approach into thick greenside rough. He whips gently out to kick-in distance, despite having a downhill lie and very little green to play with. So delicate. He’s -4.
Jon Rahm briefly threatens to spin out after that double-bogey start. He yanks his tee shot at 2 into a native area, then sends his approach too far left. But his ball takes a kind bounce off the bank, and rolls up to seven feet! in goes the putt, and that could be a momentum shifter for the big man. It’ll certainly alter his mood for the better. He’s -3.
Im Sung-jae made a preposterous par on the par-five 14th yesterday. Taking a shy for the green in front of a steep-faced fairway bunker with a downhill lie, he thinned his wood into the face and was forced to splash out sideways with his third shot. Then he got up and down from 210 yards. Great fun. If he goes on to win this championship, they’ll show that footage for years. And that’s not outside the realms, because he’s just hit the turn in 31 strokes after birdies at 2, 5 and 9. He’s -5 and fair set.
-8: Fox (F), Herbert
-6: Suber, C Young, Gerard
-5: Im (10), Burns, DeChambeau, Kim
-4: Schauffele (F), Thomas (15), Matsuyama (15), Neergaard-Petersen (9), Reed (7), Perez (5), Lowry (4), Fleetwood (2), Scheffler (1), Molinari (1), Wallace, Cauley, Detry, MacIntyre, A Fitzpatrick
While we’re on the subject of Bryson DeChambeau … given the back-and-forth he enjoyed with Nick Faldo earlier in the week regarding his “zero clue of strategy”, did anyone expect the three-time Open champion to keep his counsel over Stompgate? Nope, no Sir, and earlier on Sky Sports, Faldo told it as he saw it …
You cannot remove anything in your intended swing path … It was totally inadvertent but it has nothing to do with that, it has nothing to do with Bryson, but he is a golfer that has put his foot down and moved the grass … It is in the rule book … The R&A handled it beautifully … Bottom line – job done. ‘Sorry mate, you’ve got a two-shot penalty.’ … He lost the plot for a couple of minutes, the video is pretty factual.
It’s the same old story for Rory McIlroy: he just can’t keep any momentum going this week. He follows that chip-in eagle on 9 with bogey at 11. Back to -1, and a second Claret Jug continues to hover out of reach. At least he’s got one. Jon Rahm has a strangely underwhelming record at the Open: a couple of high finishes in 2019 and 2023 without ever really looking likely to win. And it’s threatening to happen again. He carves his opening drive over the bushes to the right and out of bounds, and starts with a double-bogey six. His fume is internal, but it is real, registering eight-and-a-half out of ten on Bryson DeChambeau’s patented R&A-o-meter™.
Ryan Fox speaks to Sky. “The game plan was to be aggressive … I hit driver a lot … your strategy changes with the wind around here … I had a couple of interesting shots on the back nine and kinda got away with them … pretty happy with 62 in the end, that’s for sure … had a lot of fun with [Xander Schauffele] … he played really well too and we kind of fed off each other … was pretty happy to make par [on 18] from that fairway trap … I haven’t really put four rounds together [at the Open] … hopefully this is a sign … I’m in a pretty good place to give myself a chance so we’ll see what happens!”
Yes, a word for the 2024 champ Schauffele, who shot a magnificent 66 today. Birdies at 5, 7, 8, 10, 14 and 17, with bogeys at 11 and 15. At -4 overall, he’s probably going to be too far back, but much will depends on how the leaders do today … and what the wind does tomorrow. Schauffele will be starting relatively early, and if it’s similarly benign … well, look at Ryan Fox!
Ryan Fox shoots 62!
Fox is left with a 60-footer for birdie, and he leaves it a good four feet short. That’s not a bad putt given the distance, but in these heightened circumstances it’s very irritating: he’ll die wondering. At least it’s not agonising, though: one dimple short would have been a total nightmare. And he tidies up for his 62 to equal the men’s major record. He’s delighted anyway, and warmly congratulated by his playing partner Xander Schauffele, who has done this very thing twice already. Fox etches his name on the roll of honour – and he’s the early clubhouse leader, and joint actual leader, at -8!
Branden Grace (2017 Open, Birkdale)
Rickie Fowler (2023 US Open, Valhalla)
Xander Schauffele (2023 US Open, Valhalla; 2024 PGA Championship, LA Country Club)
Shane Lowry (2024 PGA Championship, LA Country Club)
Lucas Herbert (2026 Open, Birkdale)
Sam Burns (2026 Open, Birkdale)
Ryan Fox (2026 Open, Birkdale)
Ryan Fox sends his drive at 18 into the second fairway bunker down the right. He’s not right up against the lip, but the face is a factor. However, when you’re hot, you’re hot, and he opts to go for it, whipping a short iron onto the front-right portion of the green! That was a gutsy move … and a slightly fortunate one, because slow-mo replays show his ball grazing the very top of the lip of the trap. A couple of dimples lower, and that was staying in. In fact, that’s an outrageous stroke of luck, because looking again, the very top layer of the revetted bunker had a small nick taken out of it … and that’s the portion he clipped! So a little bit to either side, and the ball was back at his feet too. He’ll have a putt for a record-breaking 61, albeit from long distance!
A dispatch from the Guardian’s golf correspondent Ewan Murray, straight from Royal Birkdale …
Bryson DeChambeau has arrived at Royal Birkdale, shortly after 2pm and less than 90 minutes before his tee off time. This will mean a short range session for the Open’s man of the moment. Then again, he was whacking balls out there in darkness last night so maybe he feels further practise is needless.
Mark Dardon, the chief executive of the R&A, has just appeared on Sky to assert DeChambeau’s penalty of yesterday evening was “clear cut.” Which leaves us all to ponder why neither Darbon nor any of his officials would field questions on the incident immediately after it happened.
Ryan Fox keeps on keepin’ on! He kind of zig-zags his way down the par-five 17th, driving into the fescue on the left, sending his second into the rough on the right. But he chips close with his third, and tidies up for his ninth birdie of the day! He’s now eight under for his round, and the same score for the tournament overall. A par up the last, and he’ll be equalling the men’s major low round of 62, which Lucas Herbert and Sam Burns shot yesterday. Either way, what a performance, and one he could sell for cash money to the late starters … especially as the wind is expected to rise a little, as per the pattern on Thursday and Friday.
-8: Fox (17), Herbert
-6: Suber, C Young, Gerard
-5: Smith (7), Neergaard-Petersen (5), Burns, DeChambeau, Kim
Rory McIlroy meanwhile didn’t get the fast start he was talking about in his post-round interviews last night. Bogeys at 3 and 4, and the Masters champion looked a busted flush for this championship. But he’s responded in spectacular fashion: birdie at 5, then a chip-in from the side of 9 for eagle! He drove that green on the gettable par-four on both of his first two rounds, but it’s only when he missed it that he’s hit paydirt. That’s golf for you! He’s suddenly -2 and not out of this by any means. Not with the conditions as they are.
As for the actual golf, the big news this morning is the performance of Ryan Fox. The temperature has dropped a little – down to around the 20C mark and lower during the night – so there’s a bit more moisture in the air. That’s not made a jot of difference to the fairways, but it has made the greens a tad more receptive. So there’s every chance of some very low scoring today, as yesterday. And the 39-year-old Kiwi, whose best finish at the Open was a tie for 16th in 2019, is on a burner. Birdies at 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8 sent him out in 29 strokes – one off the championship record (28) set by Denis Durnian here in 1983 – and he’s since added more birdies at 10, 14 and 16. Just the one bogey at 13, so with two holes to play, he’s on for a 63 if he pars home. Fox, incidentally, is a past master at going on a tear-up at the Open: he’s already joint holder of the record for lowest back nine, 29 at Portrush in 2019, a score subsequently matched by Lee Westwood last year.
Good afternoon, patrons, and with perfect timing, here comes Mark Darbon, the chief executive of the R&A, to have a word with Sky Sports on that rules infraction. “We have a clear process … an unfortunate set of circumstances … from a rules perspective this was really clear cut … we communicated it to Bryson … we understand there’s some emotion around that … we can all empathise with it … but from a rules perspective this played out as we would hope it would.”
As for the man himself, DeChambeau is on the property, so if there was any residual concern of his not teeing it up, that can be put to bed. So we can all move on. That’ll never be mentioned again, then. Eh?
Preamble
Welcome to Moving Day at the 154th Open Championship! After 36 holes, the top of the leaderboard looked like this …
-8: Lucas Herbert-7: Bryson DeChambeau
-6: Cameron Young, Ryan Gerard
-5: Sam Burns, Bryson DeChambeau, Kim Si-woo
-4: Matt Wallace, Bud Cauley, Thomas Detry, Robert MacIntyre, Alex Fitzpatrick, Francesco Molinari, Scittie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm
… while these (selected) big names missed the cut …
Cameron Smith, Aaron Rai, Henrik Stenson, Harris English, Tom Kim, Justin Rose, Maverick McNealy, Joaquin Niemann, Matt Fitzpatrick, Viktor Hovland, Jason Day, Li Haotong, Darren Clarke, Stewart Cink, Padraig Harrington, Gary Woodland, Brian Harman, David Duval and the 2017 champion Jordan Spieth
… and that left us with a tee sheet that looked like this (all times BST, GB&I unless stated). It’s on!
9.10 am: J McDonald, R Henley
9.20 am: Min Woo Lee, R Hisatsune
9.30 am: JL Ballester Barrio, K Higa
9.40 am: M Plunkett, N Kataoka
9.50 am: P Uihlein, B Koepka
10 am: A Potgeiter, K Bradley
10.10 am: A Noren, A Smalley
10.20 am: R Fowler, M Homa
10.30 am: R Fox, X Schauffele
10.45 am: K Reitan, M Penge
10.55 am: C Jarvis, K Kitayama
11.05 am: L Canter, S Theegala
11.15 am: M Brennan, E Chacarra
11.25 am: E Cole, MJ Daffue
11.35 am: K Kobori, N Taylor
11.45 am: J Thomas, J Matsuyama
11.55 am: B Griffin, H Du Plessis
12.10 pm: A Sullivan, P Cantlay
12.20 pm: J Bridgeman, R McIlroy
12.30 pm: J Svensson, S Norris
12.40 pm: J Parry, M Thorbjornsen
12.50 pm: J Smith, Im Sung-jae
1 pm: M Southgate, N Echavarria
1.10 pm: R Neergaard-Petersen, C Morikawa
1.20 pm: A Scott, C Gotterup
1.35 pm: P Reed, J Keefer
1.45 pm: C Conners, S Straka
1.55 pm: T Hatton, V Perez
2.05 pm: D Brown, C John
2.15 pm: L Aberg, S Lowry
2.25 pm: JJ Spaun, P Coody
2.35 pm: J Rahm, T Fleetwood
2.45 pm: S Scheffler, F Molinari
3 pm: A Fitzpatrick, R MacIntyre
3.10 pm: T Detry, B Cauley
3.20 pm: M Wallace, Si Woo Kim
3.30 pm: B DeChambeau, S Burns
3.40 pm: R Gerard, C Young
3.50 pm: J Suber, L Herbert
