Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland — July 19, 2025
It might be hard to imagine a finer day for golf on the Northern Ireland coast than today’s weather at Royal Portrush. If anyone was going to make a move up the leaderboard, this was the opportunity. Instead, Scottie Scheffler moved away from the field with a solid, but unspectacular, round of 67. The world’s #1 golfer is on a string of 25 holes without a bogey. An eagle on the par five, 7th hole, along with birdies on 8 and 16, were enough to separate Scheffler from his pursuers.
HaoTong Li sits alone in second at -10, four strokes behind the leader. Matt Fitzpatrick started the day a single stroke behind Scheffler. However, four bogeys on the day offset an eagle and three birdies to leave the Englishman right where he started at -9.
Rory McIlroy improved on his score to par for the third straight day. His 66 moved him into a tie for fourth at -8. Chris Gotterup, Tyrrell Hatton, Tyrrell Hatton, and Harris English share the position with Rory.
Rory moves up the leaderboard, but will it be enough? / Photo Courtesy of theopen.com
Rory was responsible for producing the most unusual highlight of the day. After hitting into the rough on the 11th hole, he was able to find his ball but it had settled down into the heavy grass. McIlroy was able to dig the ball out and another ball popped out of the same lie. His ball had landed on top of another ball that was buried deeper in the rough. While golf rules are quirky in a lot of situations, not penalty is assigned to this freak occurrence.
While it is unlikely Scheffler will relinquish a big lead on the final day of The Open, stranger things have happened. It would take someone coming out early and firing a course record round. However, if Scheffler does not struggle with making pars, expect him to raise the Claret Jug tomorrow afternoon.
Round Three Results from the Open Championship at Royal Portrush