Spieth tightens grip on British Open lead
SOUTHPORT, England — Jordan Spieth is one round away from completing the third leg of the career Grand Slam in golf. He is also one year removed from a reminder that it won’t be easy.
On the horizon is a chance to join Jack Nicklaus as the only golfers to win three different majors by age 23.
In the past was Spieth’s last time leading a major, when he let a five-shot lead at the Masters get away from him on the back nine last year at Augusta National. All that mattered to him was the present.
Spieth did his part on an extraordinary day of scoring in the British Open, capping off his 5-under-par 65 by seizing on a good break and making a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole for a three-shot lead over Matt Kuchar, who did his best to keep pace with a 66. No one else was closer than six shots.
Spieth had one of seven rounds at 65 or lower at Royal Birkdale Golf Club, which was never more vulnerable with a light breeze and a clear sky until the final hour. He was warming up on the range when Branden Grace shot 62, the lowest 18-hole score over 157 years of major championships. Spieth then delivered his second bogey-free round of the week in which he never came seriously
“Pretty stress-free. On a Saturday with a lead in a major, that’s as good as I can ask for.”
— JORDAN SPIETH
close to worse than par on a single hole.
“Pretty stress-free,” Spieth said. “On a Saturday with a lead in a major, that’s as good as I can ask for.”
He was at 11-under 199, breaking by six shots the 54-hole record at Royal Birkdale that Tom Watson set in
in the 1983 tournament.
This will be Spieth’s third time taking the lead into the final round of a major. He led by four at the Masters two years ago and won by that margin. More recent was a one-shot lead at Augusta to start the final round in 2016, a five-shot lead at the turn and a quadruple bogey on the 12th hole that cost him another green jacket.
Spieth was embracing both memories.
“I think I’m in a position where it can be very advantageous, just everything I’ve gone through — the good, the bad and everything in the middle,” he said. “I understand that leads can be squandered quickly. And I also understand how you can keep on rolling on one.”
Kuchar twice made birdies that momentarily tied him for the lead, only for Spieth to pour in birdie putts on top of him to stay in front. Kuchar’s one slip was a drive into the pot bunker on No. 16 — when the rain finally arrived — and a three-putt that led to a double bogey.
He will be playing in the final group of the fourth round at a major for the first time, and the 39-year-old sounded up for the occasion.
“It’s not that I ever felt like I was playing Jordan today,” Kuchar said. “We certainly had a great round of golf. I never felt like I was out there trying to beat Jordan. It’s trying to go up against Royal Birkdale and put on the best show you can against the golf course.”
No one put on a show quite like Grace, the 29-year-old South African who had a chance to win the U.S. Open two years ago. He went out in 29, then added two long birdie putts on the 14th and 16th holes, plus a two-putt birdie on the 17th to reach 8 under. From 60 feet behind the 18th green, he lagged it to two feet away from the hole and tapped in for a 62, though he was still seven shots behind.
Spieth and Kuchar combined for 12 birdies, such impressive golf that Kuchar said a couple of times they forgot who had honors on the tee box. Along the way, they created a little separation from the rest of the field.
Austin Connelly, who grew up in Dallas and shares a swing coach with Spieth, extended his remarkable run with birdies on his last two holes for a 66. He was six shots behind at 5-under 205, tied with reigning U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka, who had a 68.
Missing from the mix was Rory McIlroy, who started with three birdies in five holes but lost control around the turn. He still managed a 69, rarely a bad score in the third round of a major, but this one left him nine shots behind.
“If you keep it in play, it’s almost hard to make a bogey out there, you know?” McIlroy said. “I’ve always been good when I get off to fast starts, being able to keep it going, and I didn’t today. And I needed to — that’s the disappointing thing.”
Ian Poulter felt even worse. Still lurking, he ran off three straight bogeys early on the back nine and shot 71 to fall nine back.