THE OPEN THIRD ROUND
American aiming for third major despite Grace’s historic score of 62 as Birkdale’s defenceless links gave up a host of birdies
JORDAN SPIETH might have ridden his luck in Friday’s second round of the 146th Open but you’ve still got to be good enough to take full advantage.
On another breathless day at Royal Birkdale, where the record book was subjected to a thorough revision, the 23-year-old Texan showed that he can prosper in the gentle sunshine as well as survive the filthiest of storms.
While Branden Grace became the first man in the history of Major championship golf — stretching back to 1860 — to shoot a 62, it was the typically composed bogey-free 65 assembled by Spieth that will surely prove the more decisive round in terms of the destination of the Claret Jug.
Spieth will go into today’s final round in possession of a threestroke lead over fellow American Matt Kuchar and while nothing is guaranteed, not after what happened at the Masters last year when he coughed up a five-shot lead with nine holes to play, it will be a surprise if that dramatic loss does not feel even more like a one-off aberration soon.
Kuchar has been a fine player for a long time and, at 39, fits the profile of older winners who have dominated the championship in recent years. A brilliant approach to the 18th hole threatened to reduce the lead to a single stroke until Spieth produced one of those moments of brilliance which belong to the great ones.
Sensing the danger, he holed a 20-foot birdie putt of his own while Kuchar missed from a third of that length to produce daylight at the top of the leaderboard.
In third place, fully six shots behind Spieth, are US Open champion Brooks Koepka and the Canadian surprise packet, Austin Connelly. Competing in his first major after coming through final qualifying, Connelly is taking the Koepka route to fame by learning his trade on the Challenge Tour in Europe. Just 20, he showed what a prospect he is by shooting 66. Grace and World No2 Hideki Matsuyama are surely too far behind at seven back.
A victory for Spieth would mean the young American would head to the US PGA Championship next month with the chance to complete the career Grand Slam at a younger age than any of the five legends (Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tiger Woods) who have managed the feat. None of the five ever did it in sequence, either, as Spieth seeks to follow up the Masters and the US Open he won in 2015 with the other two legs this summer.
Such has been the interest that the R&A know already that the previous record crowd of 231,000 for an Open outside St Andrews — set at Royal Liverpool in 2006 — will be broken. Much of the interest, of course, surrounded Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter — and the former got off to a flyer, birdieing three of the first five holes. It appeared all set up for another of Rory’s charges but that, alas, was as good as it got.
Successive bogeys at the seventh and eighth were followed by an ugly double at the tenth. His caddie, JP Fitzgerald, must have been tempted to issue another of his rollickings, alongside the now celebrated one on the sixth tee on Thursday that has already entered caddy-lore: ‘You’re Rory McIlroy, what the f*** are you doing?’
Yesterday, McIlroy finished with a 69 to be nine behind and needing an 18-hole miracle.
One of the highlights of the first two days was Poulter’s stunning return to the majors after missing the past five. What it meant to him was obvious but he could have done without the weather turning so kind.
Poulter doesn’t make the putts like he used to but can grind out pars with the best of them. This, however, was a day when par was made to look decidedly ordinary. The 41-year-old finished with a 71 but hopefully the 15-foot putt he holed at the last is a sign of good things to come today.
Instead it was some of the lesser British lights who wore the bigger smiles. Ross Fisher shot 66 to move alongside McIlroy while Scot Richie Ramsay coped pretty well with the rarified air of being in contention to win a major with a level par 70. Richard Bland, a 400-1 shot to finish inside the top ten at the start of the week, is just outside that mark on one under after a 70. The 44-yearold from Hampshire, playing in just his second major, can book a return trip next year with a top ten finish. This was the round when the sport’s attack dogs took dead aim. After three ordinary majors in a row plus the first two days here, we finally saw the real Dustin Johnson, as the World No1 fired a 64. Almost as good was the 65 mustered by defending champion Henrik Stenson, but their hopes of remaining in contention were rendered redundant by the impressive Spieth.
It can be unnerving having the halfway lead in The Open when all the early finishers are shooting well below par and scores of 66 become commonplace. Not for Spieth, however, who resembled Tiger of old in the manner in which he kept Kuchar at bay every time he looked as if he might draw level.
Kuchar made the first move with birdies at the second and third but Spieth had one of his own at the latter hole. Reaching the turn in 31, Spieth had the patience to play for pars on the difficult stretch just beyond the turn before seizing another birdie at the par-five 15th.
A heavy shower at the 16th had a dramatic effect on Kuchar, who drove into a fairway bunker and threeputted for his first double-bogey of the week. He needs the round of his life to win his first major.
6 Jordan Spieth will be the sixth US star to triumph in The Open at Birkdale if he wins today. No Brits have managed it