TROON, Scotland — Adam Scott had just finished off an excellent third-round 66 shortly after 12 noon on Saturday, the Aussie sitting at even par through his 54 holes at the British Open. Happy and dry behind the 18th green at Royal Troon, he said hello to three friends and left them with a little joke: "Start doing a wind dance."
The wind never came, but Scott got the next best thing. By 3:30, the forecasted rain had not only arrived but had entered an oppressive zone that must be unique to Scotland—the consistency of mist, but the volume of a Florida afternoon torrent. It soaks you quietly but instantly, and as you walk with the gallery down the side of the fairway, the only partially tamped down fescue ensures that your socks get as wet as everything else.
In Saturday’s fourth-to-last pairing, the best player in the world, Scottie Scheffler, teed off. He wore a gray Nike rain suit that accentuated his tall, imposing form, and he needed it. At the first green, with the town’s white ferris wheel in the distance, Scheffler made his par, and after his tee shot on two, he and caddie Ted Scott began an intricate choreography: Scott handed him the umbrella, Scheffler handed him the club, Scott wiped it down, put it in the bag, and put the rain cover back on, Scheffler handed him back the umbrella, removed his glove and stored it in his pocket to keep it dry before the next shot.
As Scheffler and the other leaders began their journey, it was clear that the elements would define the next five hours. To become the 54-hole leader was a matter of survival. The weather, bad enough at the start, grew worse as the afternoon wore on, which was bad news because the toughest part of the course also comes on the back nine. At the turn, Shane Lowry lost his lead, Xander Schauffele fought his way to the top, Justin Rose, Daniel Brown and Billy Horschel were a large part of the story, while Scheffler continued to lurk.
The ensuing fight against the elements and unforgiving back nine not only served as a set-up for Sunday’s finale, but differentiated those with the stomach for a fight. Here's how it went down, minute by minute.
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6:25 p.m. - It's a sign of the misery on the course that Lowry's swearing earns a rebuke from the announcer, but a better sign—since Lowry's invective isn't exactly a novelty—is the fact that the lead has shrunk to five under, and is now shared by three players. Lowry, Horschel, and the unshakable Dan Brown are in lockstep, with Schauffele and Rose a shot behind. As for Scheffler, he's still around at three under, and it's hard to tell if he's in prime position or if he's stuck running in place. He has to work hard to save par on 12, but a hole later, with another eight-footer, he's not so lucky, and with his first bogey of the round he's down to two under.
6:40 p.m. - With rain pouring off the brim of everyone's hats, the backward lid has become en vogue, both Rose and Horschel opting for the reversal. Even without the wind, the heaviness of the air and the frigid conditions have made reaching the longer par 4s a treacherous proposition. Suddenly, though, Brown manages to birdie one of the hardest holes on the course, No. 12, to take the solo lead at six under. Perhaps shaken by that display, Lowry misses a short par putt, and is officially having a bad day—he's three over, and his two-shot lead has become a two-shot deficit.
Pedro Salado
6:50 p.m. – By way of example as to the sheer length of the course under these conditions, Horschel has 250 yards left on par-4 13. After a long discussion with his caddie, he decides that coming up short of the green is acceptable compared to the idea of catching a flyer and ending up in the dangerous area past the putting surface. The conservative play, though, ends up leaving him extremely short, and he has to hit a terrific 61-yard pitch and sink a nine-footer just to save par. After him, Rose rips a 3-wood from 241, but also comes up short of the green. This is wild. The hole is only 478 yards! Yesterday, when it was downwind, many players were using wedges into the green.
7 p.m. - The old adage that "par is a good score" resonates more than ever here. It looks positively heroic when Lowry actually hits the green on 13—a hole these guys will be glad to leave behind—but even then his only reward is a very long two-putt (that he converts). Brown had significantly more difficulty on the hole, being forced to lay up out of the rough, and he makes bogey to give up his solo lead and come back to a tie with Horschel. Meanwhile, unlike most of the leaders, Schauffele got a few holes in before the rain began, and he took advantage with a 33 on the front. Now, at four under, he's trying to survive the last three holes and possibly backdoor his way into Sunday's final group. He comes within a hair's breadth of making birdie on the par-5 16th, but just misses. Still, the tap-in par suits him fine and he gives a little smile to his caddie Austin Kaiser as he takes shelter under the umbrella.
7:10 p.m. - Horschel's drive on the par-3 14th finds a bunker on the left and looks potentially disastrous, but he calmly puts his next shot inside two feet. It really, really feels like this guy is up for the fight with the elements more than anyone else on the course. Rose's birdie burns the right edge, and it would've given him a tie, but it's another par instead. On 15, Scheffler's chipping continues to be somewhere near perfect, but he blows what seems like a gimme par putt. In that third-to-last pairing, he and Burmester are fading hard.
If you think the players had it tough, consider what spectators had to live through on Saturday.
ANDY BUCHANAN
7:20 p.m. - Remember how we said 13 was a beast? Turns out 15 may be even harder, and in fact is playing as the second-toughest hole on the course Saturday. Neither Rose or Horschel are even close to the green, but Rose makes a spectacular up-and-down from on top of a hillock of fescue, and Horschel hits his best chip of the day for a virtual tap-in. These guys are grinding like nobody else on the course, and it's starting to seem like they'll be together again on Sunday in the final group. But Brown makes a terrific up-and-down of his own on 14, and Schauffele is now one hole away from being the first man in the clubhouse at four under.
Unfortunately, Xander finds the fairway bunker off the tee, and it costs him a stroke. In terms of when he'll play Sunday, it's a big shot—it ties him with Sam Burns, Thriston Lawrence and Russell Henley, but they all finished first and will tee off after him.
7:30 p.m. - Lowry makes a huge error on 15 when he finds the bunker on his second shot, and while Brown follows in the footsteps of Rose and Horschel with a chip and a putt for par, Lowry falls all the way down to two under. This is officially a disaster for the 36-hole leader—the conditions surprisingly perhaps, just defeated the Irishman. Among the diminishing group of players under par—a group just nine strong at the moment—he has to be the most disappointed. A distant second is Scheffler, who gives himself a shot at birdie on 16 but can't convert, and remains at one over for the day.
Harry How
7:40 p.m. - Oops! Did we count Scheffler out? With a gorgeous 3-wood that covers all of the 238 yards on the par-3 17th, he gets a massive birdie. Considering the conditions, you can legitimately call it the best shot of the day, and it's not particularly close. Scheffler converts the easy birdie, and suddenly it looks like he may be within two shots of the lead by day’s end. Elsewhere, in what feels like a cruel addition to an already difficult day, the wind is now howling (Damn you Adam Scott!). Horschel gets into a strong layup position on 16 but makes a huge error in dumping his third into a greenside bunker … which he immediately corrects with a brilliant sand shot that almost goes in. Rose gives himself a 15-foot look at birdie and jussssst misses on the right. He can taste that final group, but Brown is stubbornly keeping him at bay.
7:50 p.m. - It has seemed like a vaguely disappointing day for Scheffler, despite the fact that he is going to shoot an even-par 71, but he's storming at the end. His windy approach on 18 finds the green and is quietly a great strike. He might have lost position during the day, but he's once again feeling extremely dangerous with the final round looming. Rose takes a small step back with a bogey on 17, but just as with Schauffele, it's going to cost him a lot of position to join the three under pack, and he's mad, screaming "come on!" after the miss. Horschel takes a driver (!) on the par-3 17—again, these conditions are on the far side of complete insanity—and comes up short of the green, but once more he shows his absolute genius in the short game with another near-make on the chip. It's a sign of how great he's been that on the last two holes, he has seemed very disappointed that the ball didn't go in. The massive surge of the moment, though, comes from Brown, the only one of the leaders who hits a close approach on 16, and drains the birdie. That moves him to six under, back into the solo lead, and now the 272nd ranked player in the world, the biggest surprise on the leaderboard, just has to survive a pair of extremely tough last two holes. Can you say Cinderella?
Daniel Brown and his caddie/brother Ben struggle with umbrellas at Royal Troon.
Harry How
8:00 p.m. - There are four men left on the course, and both the 54-hole lead and the final group hangs in the balance. Brown has to survive the stupidly tough drive on 17, but he hits it right where he doesn't want to hit it, into the same short left bunker that caught Rose a moment ago. Lowry, in full meltdown, follows him almost exactly and bangs his club against the ground. As it turns out, Lowry is OK-ish, but Brown is, to use a technical term, screwed—it's all he can do to even get it out of the bunker. In the end, Lowry makes a long putt for par, but Brown bogeys, falling back into a tie with Horschel at the top. On 18, where yesterday a 4-iron off the tee had a chance to reach a greenside bunker, Horschel hits a great drive that leaves him 206 yards away. Links golf, folks!
8:10 p.m. - This round is beginning to seem about two holes too long for Rose. After a wayward drive, he takes a desperate hack at his 217-yard approach and finds the right bunker. Horschel hits a ball with a classic linksy low trajectory, but it's left … lucky for him, so far left that it misses the bunker and ends up almost pin high. He's been automatic from off the green for the entire back nine, but here, with putter in his hand, he leaves it strangely short. He can't convert the par, and it's disappointing concluding bogey to drop to four under overall, but overall it’s gritty, excellent round of two-under 69. Rose actually gets closer with a bunker shot, and nails his par … an extremely tough par, at that. It's not insane to think he could be a shot off the lead when this is over, despite the unsteady finish. It's all up to Brown.
8:20 p.m. - Lowry, whose two under total doesn't look as bad as it did literally 90 seconds ago, takes his good fortune and promptly kicks it away, hitting his drive miles right, unleashing an expletive and then dumping his second shot into the actual grandstand. It's another bogey at the end, and an ugly 77 to, make it extremely challenging for him to claim a second major come Sunday. Brown only needs a par to take a solo overnight lead, but gets an awful break when his drive on 18 settles on the right edge outside a fairway bunker, forcing him to stand on the sand with the ball at his waist. He can only pop it out into the fairway, and then makes the biggest mistake of his round, hitting his third shot into the left greenside bunker. In his defense, he was facing a 20 mph hurting cross wind, but still, it's a bad blunder. The stakes for him are wild—if he goes up and down, he's in the final group tied with Horschel. If he can't, he's in the fourth to last group with Scheffler … that's how tight this is. As it turns out, he cannot, making a double bogey that amounts to three dropped shots in the last two holes for the man who seemed completely in control all day.
8:30 p.m. - As we all guessed, the final group will be Billy Horschel and Triston Lawrence, followed by Burns/Henley, Schauffele/Rose and Scheffler/Brown. Horschel's at four under, and most of the rest of the—a full six players—will be hunting him from a shot back. (And the other guy is the No. 1 player in the world.)
The final effect of this brutal back nine is that it rewarded players who went out early, punished the contenders and led to a leaderboard that the word "bunched" doesn't begin to describe. The weather will be more pleasant on Sunday, which is great for the players. But considering the carnage and drama we saw today, it's at least a little sad. This is the kind of pain you can't help but love.
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Is it the British Open or the Open Championship? The name of the final men’s major of the golf season is a subject of continued discussion. The event’s official name, as explained in this op-ed by former R&A chairman Ian Pattinson, is the Open Championship. But since many United States golf fans continue to refer to it as the British Open, and search news around the event accordingly, Golf Digest continues to utilize both names in its coverage.
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