A Familiar Name Rises to the Top of The Open Leaderboard

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The Old Course, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland — July 16, 2022

No one shot a 68 on the third day of The Open Championship on The Old Course at St. Andrews. That does not mean there was a lack of low scoring on “moving day’ of the year’s final major professional golf championship.

The low round of the day was a 65 posted by Kevin Kisner. He climbed 53 spots on the leaderboard into a tie for 13th. However, Kisner started the day at even par, if he duplicates the score tomorrow he would need the leaders to drop two strokes to bring him into contention.

New Leaders

Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland started Saturday’s round at 10 under tied for third behind the Camerons. Both shot a six-under-par 66 to stay tied and take over the top of the leaderboard. Were it not for a bogey on the 17th, McIlroy might have held the lead alone.

Rory McIlroy at the 150th Open Championship / Photo Cpourtesy of CBS Sports

The Camerons are not out of it. Cameron Smith surrendered his three-stroke lead over McIlroy and Hovland by carding a 73. A bogey on the first was followed by seven straight pars before a birdie on the ninth evened him up at mid-round. A double bogey on the 13th, followed by a birdie on the 14th combined with seven more pars left Smith four strokes behind the leaders at 12-under.

Cameron Young matched five birdies with two bogeys through 15 holes trying to stay within striking distance of the lead. A double bogey on the 16th dropped him into a tie for third with Smith, four strokes behind the leaders. Both players may need a repeat of their early round 64s to contend for the win.

The final pairing will start the day with a big lead and have the advantage of watching their pursuers playing one hole ahead. An early run could cause the pressure to ramp up, and then anything can happen.

The Followers

It is highly unlikely the golfer raising the Claret Jug on Sunday afternoon will come from anywhere but the final two pairings. Si Wo Kim’s 67 moved him into a tie for fifth with Scottie Scheffler at 11 under.

Dustin Johnson could not find the magic of Friday. His 71 left him in sole possession of seventh place, six strokes out of the lead at 10 under.

Tommy Fleetwood’s 66 moved him into a tie with U.S. Open Champion Matt Fitzpatrick, and Adam Scott for eighth at nine-under.

Jordan Spieth put together a 68 to sit eight-under-par in a tie for 11th with Patrick Cantlay. On the other end of the spectrum, English amateur Barclay Brown shot a five-over 77 to drop 52 places into a tie for 64th at one-under.

The Leaderboard After Round Three at The Open Championship

POSITION PLAYER TO PAR ROUND 1 ROUND 2 ROUND 3 STROKES
T1 Viktor Hovland -16 68 66 66 200
T1 Rory McIlroy -16 66 68 66 200
T3 Cameron Young -12 64 69 71 204
T3 Cameron Smith -12 67 64 73 204
T5 Si Woo Kim -11 69 69 67 205
T5 Scottie Scheffler -11 68 68 69 205
7 Dustin Johnson -10 68 67 71 206
T8 Tommy Fleetwood -9 72 69 66 207
T8 Matt Fitzpatrick -9 72 66 69 207
T8 Adam Scott -9 72 65 70 207
T11 Jordan Spieth -8 71 69 68 208
T11 Patrick Cantlay -8 70 67 71 208
T13 Kevin Kisner -7 74 70 65 209
T13 Thomas Pieters -7 75 67 67 209
T13 Brian Harman -7 73 68 68 209
T13 Shane Lowry -7 72 68 69 209
T13 Tyrrell Hatton -7 70 66 73 209
T18 Trey Mullinax -6 71 73 66 210
T18 Francesco Molinari -6 73 71 66 210
T18 Bryson DeChambeau -6 69 74 67 210
T18 Russell Henley -6 70 72 68 210
T18 Dylan Frittelli -6 70 71 69 210
T18 Aaron Wise -6 72 67 71 210
T24 Dean Burmester -5 71 73 67 211
T24 Anthony Quayle -5 74 69 68 211
T24 Ian Poulter -5 69 72 70 211
T24 Will Zalatoris -5 73 67 71 211
T24 Nicolai Hojgaard -5 73 67 71 211
T24 Victor Perez -5 71 69 71 211
T24 Jon Rahm -5 73 67 71 211
T24 Xander Schauffele -5 69 70 72 211
T24 Lucas Herbert -5 70 68 73 211
T24 Min Woo Lee -5 69 69 73 211
T24 Sahith Theegala -5 69 68 74 211
T35 Richard Mansell -4 73 71 68 212
T35 Christiaan Bezuidenhout -4 73 71 68 212
T35 Chris Kirk -4 75 68 69 212
T35 Billy Horschel -4 73 69 70 212
T35 Filippo Celli -4 74 67 71 212
T35 Brad Kennedy -4 68 72 72 212
T35 Joohyung Kim -4 69 71 72 212
T35 Harold Varner III -4 73 67 72 212
T35 Lee Westwood -4 68 71 73 212
T35 David Carey -4 72 67 73 212
T35 Abraham Ancer -4 71 68 73 212
T35 Sadom Kaewkanjana -4 71 67 74 212
T35 Talor Gooch -4 68 69 75 212
T48 Robert MacIntyre -3 70 74 69 213
T48 John Parry -3 69 74 70 213
T48 Adrian Meronk -3 75 68 70 213
T48 Corey Conners -3 71 71 71 213
T48 Sergio Garcia -3 75 66 72 213
T48 Thriston Lawrence -3 69 71 73 213
T48 Thomas Detry -3 70 69 74 213
T55 Tony Finau -2 73 71 70 214
T55 Justin De Los Santos -2 71 73 70 214
T55 Jason Scrivener -2 72 71 71 214
T55 Paul Casey -2 71 72 71 214
T55 Marcus Armitage -2 71 72 71 214
T55 Justin Thomas -2 72 70 72 214
T55 Jason Kokrak -2 72 70 72 214
T55 Kurt Kitayama -2 68 73 73 214
T55 Yuto Katsuragawa -2 71 68 75 214
T64 Lars Van Meijel -1 74 70 71 215
T64 Robert Dinwiddie -1 67 77 71 215
T64 Sebastián Muñoz -1 73 71 71 215
T64 Danny Willett -1 69 73 73 215
T64 Barclay Brown (a) -1 68 70 77 215
T69 Jordan L Smith E 73 71 72 216
T69 Aaron Jarvis (a) E 75 69 72 216
T69 Joaquin Niemann E 69 74 73 216
T69 Cameron Tringale E 71 71 74 216
T69 Laurie Canter E 72 70 74 216
T69 Patrick Reed E 72 68 76 216
T75 Adri Arnaus 1 74 70 73 217
T75 Garrick Higgo 1 72 69 76 217
T77 Sungjae Im 2 71 73 74 218
T77 Sam Burns 2 72 69 77 218
T77 David Law 2 72 69 77 218
80 Hideki Matsuyama 3 71 72 76 219
81 Wyndham Clark 4 71 73 76 220
82 Jamie Rutherford 5 73 70 78 221
83 Sam Bairstow (a) 7 72 72 79 223