Brian Harman recovered from a bumpy start to his third round to post a 2-under-par 69 and maintain his commanding five-shot lead at The 151st Open Championship yesterday in Hoylake, England.
Harman sits at 12-under 201 heading into today’s final round at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, with Cameron Young shooting a third-round 66 to take over second place at 7 under.
Periods of rain combined with mild winds led to a softer course and lower scores throughout moving day. Jon Rahm was the first to take advantage, as the two-time Major winner from Spain set a course Open record by firing a bogey-free 63 before Harman teed off.
By day’s end, Rahm was alone in third at 6-under. Viktor Hovland of Norway (66), Frenchman Antoine Rozner (67), Australian Jason Day (69), Sepp Straka of Austria (70) and Englishman Tommy Fleetwood (71) formed a tie for fourth at 5-under.
Fleetwood, the home-crowd favourite playing in the final pairing with Harman, could not take advantage of the favourable conditions. He had one birdie and one bogey en route to his second straight 71 after grabbing a share of the lead on Thursday.
Harman, coming off a bogey-free round on Friday, made a mess of the par-4 first and initial four holes to drop back to 8-under, just two in front of Rahm and a charging Day at the time. Then Harman righted the ship by nearly holing a 71-foot putt at the par-5 fifth and tapping in for birdie.
He added birdies at No 9, No 12 and No 13, the latter a 20-footer, and scrambled for pars the rest of the way.
The 36-year-old lefty from Georgia has only two top-10 finishes at Majors in his career and hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since 2017. That year, he held the 54-hole lead at the US Open at 12-under-par before shooting 72 yesterday and losing to Brooks Koepka.
Rahm described his scintillating third-round 63 at Royal Liverpool as his best ever on a links course as he charged back into contention.
The Masters champion had endured two frustrating days and was even in danger of missing the cut on Friday, creeping into the weekend on two-over-par after rounds of 74 and 70.
But with roars of “Rahmbo” ringing in his ears from the packed galleries, he caught fire to romp into second place midway through the afternoon on six-under-par, behind runaway second-round leader Harman who was yet to start his third round.
“Yes, that’s the best round I’ve played on a links golf course ever,” the 28-year-old, whose best Open finish was tied third in 2021, told reporters. “The job today was to come out and give myself the best opportunity I could. Whenever you get a birdie, just thinking about one more ... that’s simply all you can do.”
Rahm’s charge took a while to get going as he parred the opening four holes on a morning when the wind of the previous two days was replaced by rainy conditions.
He rolled in a 10-foot birdie at the fifth and sunk one from 20 feet at the ninth. But that was only a foretaste of what was to come.
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