They say the Open Championship doesn’t start until you get your Saturday tee time (nobody says this), but thanks to a series of strange Bryson DeChambeau-related events, that took a bit longer this time around.
But once things started happening, they just kept happening. Here’s a mix of good and bad from the third round at Royal Birkdale.
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WINNER: Game 9
That would be the ninth tee time of the day, the early twosome of Xander Schauffele and Ryan Fox, who combined for 15 birdies in a morning Birkdale beatdown. Schauffele shot four-under 66 in what has become his customary weekend charge at a major championship — and he still lost by four to Fox, who became this week’s third 62-shooter and just the eighth in major history.
“I was just trying to hop on whatever wave he was on to the best of my ability,” Schauffele said. He’s now T11, right where he belongs.
“I feel really good, to be honest,” Fox added. I would hope so.
LOSER: Fleetwood’s finish
Most of the way through Saturday afternoon, Tommy Fleetwood’s dream charge was officially on; Southport’s hometown prince was three under for his round, seven under for his tournament, one shot off the lead. But he ran out of mojo down the stretch, failing to birdie either par-5 coming home and making bogeys at 15 and 18. He’s not out of it at five under par — but it’s a meaningfully taller hill to climb.
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(But always a winner: Fleetwood’s attitude.)
WINNER: Rory vs. Bryson
Throughout the day on Saturday, various players and pundits weighed in on Bryson DeChambeau’s Friday-night penalty. Mostly, they walked a delicate tightrope, suggesting he’d been a bit cavalier without levying outright accusations. Max Homa felt the ruling had been harsh and that DeChambeau was “right to be frustrated”; Shane Lowry felt it was justified and “the rules of golf” but didn’t want to say much more; while Schauffele added, “I have no idea, to be honest.”
As for Rory McIlroy? He didn’t hold back.
On his initial reaction:
“I was watching it live. I was up in the players’ lounge watching it with a few other players, and as soon as he made the step into the ball, we all sort of looked at each other, and we were like, ‘That didn’t seem right.’
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“Then when I heard that he was called in by the rules officials, I think we all — it was pretty obvious for why. Yeah, I think there’s no doubt that he improved the line of his backswing. Again, it’s like, whether it was careless or whether it was intentional, I don’t think it matters. Hopefully it was careless, but I think the two-shot penalty was justified for sure.”
On DeChambeau’s evening rules review:
“Late night for everyone. Yeah, look, I won’t pretend to be up here and defend Bryson. I’m not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it’s performative. I think a lot of it’s for attention.
“To hold the tournament hostage like that, and to have all of us, players, volunteers, everyone waiting on him to depart, I didn’t feel like it was a great look.”
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This rivalry is real. It spans LIV vs. the PGA Tour, Pinehurst in 2024, Augusta National in 2025, the crypto dot com Showdown, etc. It’s clear they like competing against each other. And it’s now very, very clear that McIlroy is “not particularly fond” of the Big Golfer. I tend to roll my eyes when people say things are “good for golf,” so I’ll just say that this rivalry is good for me and my enjoyment of these two top golfers and fascinating characters.
WINNER: Bryson’s putter (mostly)
DeChambeau got off to an uneven start with a bogey at No. 2 and, when he missed a three-footer at No. 9, he seemed to be stalled out. But he rolled in a series of testers in the holes that followed: a six-footer for par at No. 10, an 11-footer for par at No. 12, a six-footer for par at No. 13, and up-and-down for par at No. 14, a seven-footer for birdie at No. 15 and a 10-footer for birdie at No. 17. It’s worth noting that I typed this just before he left a nine-footer for par short at No. 18.
He’ll begin Sunday in T6 at six under par — without any other previous major winners joining him in the top 10.
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LOSER: Scottie’s putter
When the World No. 1 is doing sarcastic fist pumps, you have a pretty good sense of where things stand.
Scottie Scheffler has hit the hell out of the ball all week, and that continued on Saturday. He just couldn’t find the bottom of the cup.
WINNER: The chasers you didn’t expect
Ryan Fox began the day T52 and finished T2. Si Woo Kim has just one top 10 in nearly a decade of major performances, but he’s T2, too. Two guys playing their first Open Championship — Ryan Gerard and Jackson Suber — are right there as well. Lucas Herbert and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen round out the top 10.
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The second page of the leaderboard is filled with the biggest names in the game. The first page? It’s not the guys you’d expect.
LOSER: The chasers you expected
Entering Saturday’s third round, there was a group of top-ranked players lurking at four and five under par that most of the golf world expected would filter to the top: Scheffler, DeChambeau, Fleetwood, Cameron Young, Jon Rahm, Robert MacIntyre. Of that group, only Burns (65) managed a score better than 69; everyone else slipped at least a couple spots down the leaderboard. Fleetwood and DeChambeau shot one under; Scheffler and Rahm shot even par; MacIntyre shot one over; Young shot three over par.
Time will tell if they were just setting up a Sunday comeback.
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WINNER: Burns’ bounce-back
We here at Winners and Losers HQ would like to congratulate Burns for being named the Three-Quarters Open Champion.
That is, obviously, not a real thing, but it is worth shouting out just how impressive it is for Burns to make it this far. He’s coming off heartbreak at the U.S. Open, plus last year’s U.S. Open — not to mention the birth of his daughter last week and the fact that he didn’t expect to be here. Burns is 10 under par, he leads by two and his chase pack isn’t particularly experienced. He’s well positioned.
Now comes the hard part.
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