Rewired Greg Norman emerged from a day of high winds and high drama at Royal Birkdale on Saturday to lead The Open after three rounds.
At 53, he stands just 18 holes away from removing Old Tom Morris from the record books after 141 years as the oldest man to win The Open.
If he can hold on to his lead, he will also be, by a distance of five years, the oldest man to win a major.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
The Australian shot a 72 to take a two-stroke lead into the final day over defending champion Padraig Harrington, who also had a 72, and half-way leader K.J. Choi of South Korea, who came in with a 75.
Also remaining firmly in the hunt a further stroke back on a day when some of the world’s best golfers were blown clean off the leaderboard was little-known Englishman Simon Wakefield, one of only four players to match par.
Four players are on seven-over — 2003 Open champion Ben Curtis, England’s Ross Fisher, rising US star Anthony Kim and Swedish newcomer Alexander Noren.
“I rate that as one of the top three hardest rounds of golf that I have ever played, under the circumstances — third round of The Open,” Norman said. “It was just brutal today. I have the lead now and I have a chance tomorrow, but there is a lot of golf to be played.”
In view of the conditions, tees on the sixth, 11th and 16th were moved forward, reducing the length of the course by a total of 159 yards and several holes were repositioned to easier spots.
Gusts of up to 72kph, raised the possibility that play could be suspended at any moment if the balls were moving on the greens and on several occasions officials came close to doing so.
Overnight leader by one and bidding to become the first Asian golfer to win a major, Choi stood firm early on with pars on his first four holes to stretch his outright lead to three strokes at that stage.
Norman, with a huge gallery in tow, bogeyed the first and third holes.
But a wayward drive at the sixth lead to a double-bogey for the South Korean, followed by another dropped shot at the eighth and suddenly he was in a four-way tie for the lead with Norman, Harrington and Furyk.
Harrington fell away with a double-bogey five at the 12th where his tee-shot nestled into deep rough on a mound overlooking the green, while Furyk took a double-bogey six at the 10th followed by a bogey at the next.
They were soon being gobbled up by English journeyman Wakefield, who was safely in the clubhouse after posting a tremendous par-70 thanks to three birdies on the back nine.
Choi and Norman both came to grief with double-bogeys at the tough 10th, but “The Tank” as the former weightlifter from the South Korean island of Wando used to be known, dug deep to pull ahead again with a birdie at the 13th.
Norman matched him with one of his own at the par-three 14th.
And when Choi bogeyed the par-five 16th, Norman had the outright lead, which he held on to.
Harrington, meanwhile, finished strongly once again with birdies at 15 and 17.
US veteran Davis Love, Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and 2003 Open champion Ben Curtis were the only players other than Wakefield to match the Royal Birkdale par of 70.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS