The Open 2026: day three golf updates from Royal Birkdale – live
?Updates from the third round at Royal Birkdale
?Official leaderboard | Mail Scott with your thoughts
Rory McIlroy meanwhile didn’t get the fast start he was talking about in his post-round interviews last night. Bogeys at 3 and 4, and the Masters champion looked a busted flush for this championship. But he’s responded in spectacular fashion: birdie at 5, then a chip-in from the side of 9 for eagle! He drove that green on the gettable par-four on both of his first two rounds, but it’s only when he missed it that he’s hit paydirt. That’s golf for you! He’s suddenly -2 and not out of this by any means. Not with the conditions as they are.
As for the actual golf, the big news this morning is the performance of Ryan Fox. The temperature has dropped a little – down to around the 20C mark and lower during the night – so there’s a bit more moisture in the air. That’s not made a jot of difference to the fairways, but it has made the greens a tad more receptive. So there’s every chance of some very low scoring today, as yesterday. And the 39-year-old Kiwi, whose best finish at the Open was a tie for 16th in 2019, is on a burner. Birdies at 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8 sent him out in 29 strokes – one off the championship record (28) set by Denis Durnian here in 1983 – and he’s since added more birdies at 10, 14 and 16. Just the one bogey at 13, so with two holes to play, he’s on for a 63 if he pars home. Fox, incidentally, is a past master at going on a tear-up at the Open: he’s already joint holder of the record for lowest back nine, 29 at Portrush in 2019, a score subsequently matched by Lee Westwood last year.
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