Winning the Open is never easy. Take yesterday afternoon’s action as an example. Louis Oosthuizen, Collin Morikawa and Jordan Spieth all took turns at the top of the leader board; they all took turns to suffer walloping golfing breakdowns too, Morikawa at the start, Oosthuizen in the middle, Spieth at the end. And that was only Saturday! Whoever prevails today will have been put through the ringer.
Oosthuizen and Morikawa have separated themselves from the rest of the field ever so slightly. But the chasing pack retain hope of reeling them in. There is next to no wind forecast, and providing the pin positions aren’t too troublesome, there will be opportunities out there. Shoot low, post early, and you never know. Just ask Ben Curtis, who did exactly that, right here, back in 2003.
Anyway, enough waffle. Here’s how the top of the leader board looked after 54 holes …
-12: Oosthuizen
-11: Morikawa
-9: Spieth
-8: Conners, Scheffler
-7: Rahm, Hughes, Frittelli
-6: Smith, Harding, Siem
-5: Streelman, Simpson, Berger, Lowry, Casey, Sullivan
-4: MacIntyre, Kokrak, Dahmen, Willett, Tringale, Grillo, Johnson
… and here are all today’s tee times (GB & Ireland unless stated, all times local, -a- denotes amateurs). Good luck confidently picking a winner, it promises to be an exciting day’s play. It’s on!
08:00 Kevin Kisner (USA)
08:10 Richard Mansell, Poom Saksansin (Tha)
08:20 Sam Burns (USA), Rickie Fowler (USA)
08:30 Yuxin Lin -a- (Chn), Brendan Steele (USA)
08:40 Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Chan Kim (USA)
08:50 Richard Bland, Padraig Harrington
09:00 Ryosuke Kinoshita (Jpn), JC Ritchie (Rsa)
09:10 Bryson DeChambeau (USA), Chez Reavie (USA)
09:20 Billy Horschel (USA), Adam Scott (Aus)
09:30 Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Xander Schauffele (USA)
09:45 Harris English (USA), Jonathan Thomson
09:55 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Benjamin Hebert (Fra)
10:05 Marcus Armitage, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut)
10:15 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Sergio Garcia (Spa)
10:25 Johannes Veerman (USA), Jack Senior
10:35 Matthias Schmid -a- (Ger), Lee Westwood
10:45 Max Homa (USA), Justin Thomas (USA)
10:55 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Ian Poulter
11:05 Rory McIlroy, Sam Horsfield
11:15 Tony Finau (USA), Daniel van Tonder (Rsa)
11:30 Dean Burmester (Rsa), Brandt Snedeker (USA)
11:40 Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland (Nor)
11:50 Talor Gooch (USA), Antoine Rozner (Fra)
12:00 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Brooks Koepka (USA)
12:10 Brian Harman (USA), Justin Rose
12:20 Aaron Rai, Matt Wallace
12:30 Matthew Fitzpatrick, Lanto Griffin (USA)
12:40 Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Dustin Johnson (USA)
12:50 Cameron Tringale (USA), Danny Willett
13:00 Joel Dahmen (USA), Jason Kokrak (USA)
13:15 Robert MacIntyre, Andy Sullivan
13:25 Paul Casey, Shane Lowry
13:35 Daniel Berger (USA), Webb Simpson (USA)
13:45 Kevin Streelman (USA), Marcel Siem (Ger)
13:55 Justin Harding (Rsa), Cameron Smith (Aus)
14:05 Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Dylan Frittelli (Rsa)
14:15 Jon Rahm (Spa), Scottie Scheffler (USA)
14:25 Corey Conners (Can), Jordan Spieth (USA)
14:35 Collin Morikawa (USA), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa)