20-07-2025
The Open leaderboard 2025 live: scores, updates from round 4 at Portrush
The American, a signed-up member of the 'stop slow play' club and keen to time his fellow players with a stopwatch, is out on course following three rounds of 78, 65 and 68 respectively. An opening birdie is not out of the question here after he makes up for an errant tee shot into the rough by plopping his second on the green.
The 2019 champion's (-1) run of birdies comes to an end on 10 with a par, though he wasn't far off with his first putt. He's four under for this round. Elsewhere, the wonderfully named Maverick McNealy is three under thru 3 and four under for the week — he's top of the players currently out there, tied for 22nd.
Rickie Fowler picks up a birdie at the 2nd to move to three under.
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How about this for Shane Lowry, who reaches the turn in 32. He finds the green with his second shot on the 9th, around 20 feet away, and it's yet another birdie. That's three in a row and he's on one under.
Right then, any early movers and shakers? Despite his illness, Shane Lowry has rediscovered some of that 2019-winning form to record his fourth birdie of the front nine. Phil Mickelson is two under for his round thru 10 while fellow Open winners Henrik Stenson, Jordan Spieth, and Franceso Molinari — who took the Claret Jug between 2016 and 2018 respectively — are all out on course. It's an unforgiving game, golf.
You only have to go back three years to find someone overturning a four-shot Open deficit in the final round (Rick Broadbent writes at Portrush). Cam Smith won that year after reining in Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland. He was actually six strokes better than McIlroy and ten better than Hovland. Scottie Scheffler is a different proposition, though.
He has had one bogey in his last 43 holes, has closed out his last nine 54-hole leads, has been showing exquisite distance control this week and his nearest challenger, Haotong Li, has just made an Open cut for the first time since 2018. 'Kind of like, play for second,' Li said of his plans. This is golf, though. If someone is four under thru six then it could at least get interesting. Smith, by the way, has missed the cut at all four majors in 2025.
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The fact that Sergio Garcia is playing at this early hour already indicates that it's not been his tournament, and now he's just broken his driver in anger after hooking left on the 2nd tee. Because he broke the club on purpose, he now can't replace it this round.
It's very early doors on the final day at Portrush but that doesn't mean there aren't big names to watch out for — most pertinently the 2019 champion Shane Lowry, who has begun his round already. It's been a disappointing week, capped by a two-shot penalty on Friday for moving a ball with his practice swing. He has also struggled with illness, saying 'every bathroom I went in and tried to throw up, [but] I couldn't'.
'The annoying thing for me today is I didn't get to enjoy today as much as I would have liked,' Lowry added yesterday. 'Saturday at the Open in your home country, I should enjoy it a lot more than I did, just because of how I felt.'
He's one under thru 6 so far today and two over for the week.
• Michael Foley: Why Shane Lowry is running on empty at Portrush
Hello and welcome to The Sunday Times' live coverage of the final round of the 153rd Open Championship from Royal Portrush.
Scottie Scheffler holds a four-shot lead going into the fourth day, after another excellent performance yesterday when he carded a four-under 67. Rory McIlroy, Haotong Li, Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick are all in pursuit, and conditions look set to be fair.
Be sure to follow along for updates, analysis and news from the Co Antrim coast as the final major of the year reaches its climax.
