Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

As it happenedended1563649167

The Open 2019 LIVE: Shane Lowry breaks course record to take four-shot lead over Tommy Fleetwood into Sunday

Re-live all the action from the third round of the 148th Open Championship from Royal Portrush

Jack Watson
Royal Portrush
,Tom Kershaw
Saturday 20 July 2019 19:59 BST
Comments
The Open Championship in numbers

Shane Lowry delivered an Open Championship masterclass as he broke the course record at Royal Portrush with an eight-under-par 63 to take a four-shot lead into Sunday's final round.

The weekend may be without Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy after they both missed the cut, but Saturday did not go without it's drama. Irishman Lowry has brought the fans to life with a truly brilliant round, and after starting the day on eight-under-par, he recorded a bogey-free round of 63 that featured eight birdies to lead Tommy Fleetwood by four shots.

Brooks Koepka moved himself up to fourth place alongside Justin Rose and just behindJB Holmes, but Lowry's brilliance means they already find themselvesa long way off the lead at the start of Sunday's play. The R&A Has also announced that Sunday's tee times have been moved forward due to the threat of bad weather. Follow the latest updates below.

Please allow a moment for the blog to load.

Saturday tee times

0835—Paul Waring

0845—Francesco Molinari, Jason Kokrak

0855—Graeme McDowell, Bubba Watson

0905—Charley Hoffman, Ashton Turner

0915—Yosuke Asaji, Andrew Wilson

0925—Yuki Inamori, Matt Wallace

0935—Nino Bertasio, Tom Lewis

0945—Adam Hadwin, Ryan Fox

1000—Innchoon Hwang, Benjamin Hebert

1010—Paul Casey, Kyle Stanley

1020—Eddie Pepperell, Doc Redman

1030—Kevin Streelman, and Joost Luiten

1040—Shubhankar Sharma, Louis Oosthuizen

1050—Stewart Cink, Callum Shinkwin

1100—Jim Furyk, Kevin Kisner

1110—Bernd Wiesberger, Russell Knox

1120—Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Mikko Korhonen

1135—Sergio Garcia, Branden Grace

1145—Romain Langasque, Sang Hyun Park

1155—Patrick Cantlay, Lucas Glover

1205—Danny Willett, Aaron Wise

1215—Justin Thomas, Bob MacIntryre

1225—Matt Fitzpatrick, Ernie Els

1235—Thorbjorn Olesen, Thomas Pieters

1245—Rory Sabbatini, Byeong Hun An

1255—Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele

1310—Henrik Stenson, Webb Simpson

1320—Alex Noren, Dustin Johnson

1330—Tyrrell Hatton, Matt Kuchar

1340—Jon Rahm, Patrick Reed

1350—Lucas Bjerregaard, Tony Finau

1400—Erik Van Rooyen, Dylan Frittelli

1410—Andrew Putnam, Jordan Spieth

1420—Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose

1430—Justin Harding, Cameron Smith

1440—Lee Westwood, Tommy Fleetwood

1450—Shane Lowry, J.B. Holmes

1563614618

We have our first birdie of the day! Incredible scenes!

Graene McDowell of Northern Ireland birdies the second and leaps up the leaderboard to the dizzy heights of tied-48. The home crowd liked that one.

Jack Watson20 July 2019 10:23
1563614781

Today's pin positions

These remind me of the kind of maths questions where you're asked to find the area of a shape.

Jack Watson20 July 2019 10:26
1563615051

Watson bogies the third and slips to +2. Not looking good here. He misses a putt, gives the green a nasty stare then sinks the fourth shot.

Jack Watson20 July 2019 10:30
1563615301

Graeme McDowell delivers the first birdies 

Jack Watson20 July 2019 10:35
1563615431

Goodness me, Portrush in the crisp morning sun is absolutely stunning

In fact, this weather could really benefit some of the players later in the day.

Kevin Roth, weather expert for Fantasy Sports info hub RotoGrinders.com, said this afternoon's perfect conditions will throw the race for the Claret Jug wide open.

He said: "The wind is expected to die away in the late afternoon, leaving the likes of Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood ready to chase down the leading pack in Shane Lowry in JB Holmes in perfect conditions - simply put, the later you tee off, the better off you are.

"It brings little hope to the early starters in their chances of playing catch up and with winds reaching up to 20mph until early afternoon the chance of a decent score for the likes of Francesco Molinari, Sergio Garcia and Paul Casey is looking slimmer by the hole."

Saturday's forecast: Mostly dry, windy.

Light rain in the morning with winds around 10-15mph holding out till lunchtime. Come late afternoon and early evening those winds start to subside down to 10mph with it calming towards the end of the day.

Jack Watson20 July 2019 10:37
1563615774

Right, back to the golf.

Yosuke Asaji and Andrew Wilson both birdied the second and move to a par score, along with Charley Hoffman.

Molinari (+1) is still plodding away picking up straight pars, while Watson (+2) is yet to make up for dropping a shot on the third.

Jack Watson20 July 2019 10:42
1563616376

Two-time Open champion Jack Nicklaus still fancies Shane Lowry or Tommy Fleetwood to go on and win, but doesn't rule out a dark horse sneaking on to win. 

Jack Watson20 July 2019 10:52
1563616540

While Paul Waring does not have a competing partner alongside him, it does not mean he is out there completely alone.

Royal Portrush head professional Gary McNeill was given the honour of accompanying first man out Waring on the third day of The Open.

With an odd number - 73 players made the cut - Waring was given a marker to play alongside as he teed off at 9.35am and that prize was handed to O'Neill, who missed out in qualifying for the tournament outright last month.

The Royal Portrush club shop closed so staff could watch McNeill tee off with a somewhat understandably nervous low, left shot off the first. Despite a helping wind Waring could only par the first two holes and remained at one over.

Jack Watson20 July 2019 10:55
1563616638

If you backed Molinari (+1), it may be time to time to forget about his chances of winning. Six holes in and he's still yet to ship away at his score.

Meanwhile...Watson is back on +1 after sinking a birdie putt on the fifth.

And goodness me, Nino Bertasio goes for a double-bogey on the first and falls to +3...

Jack Watson20 July 2019 10:57
1563616887

Wallace (+1) made a bit of a has by bogeying the first this morning after sneaking through in a group alongside Tiger Woods yesterday. Well, he's quickly atoned for that and sets himself up for a simple birdie putt after some grand approach play.

Jack Watson20 July 2019 11:01

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in