Latest news with #birdie
The Independent
4 days ago
- Sport
- The Independent
Open leader Scottie Scheffler starts with birdie to dampen hopes of chasing pack
A brilliant opening birdie from Scottie Scheffler doused the fire in Rory McIlroy's partisan home crowd as the unflappable world number one began what was expected to be a procession to his first Open title. The American, who did not drop a shot on Saturday in establishing a four-stroke lead, would have heard the chants of 'Rory, Rory, Rory' as his rival strode off the first tee in the group ahead. But he was, unsurprisingly, unfazed and despite finding the rough off the tee he struck a brilliant approach to inside a foot and immediately was seven ahead of the Northern Irishman. Playing partner Haotong Lee also birdied so his overall lead remained four. McIlroy birdied the second to reduce the gap to the leader back to six but there were no signs of the early fireworks of the previous day when he was three under through four on his way to a 66. The Masters champion knew he would have to realistically better that if he were to stand a chance of winning his second Claret Jug but struggled for momentum and bundling a chip out of the rough way past the pin resulted in a dropped shot at the fourth he could ill afford. Also back at eight under was playing partner Matt Fitzpatrick, who began the day one shot better off only to bogey the par-three third. Bryson DeChambeau was also on that number through 16 holes after a six-birdie charge, while former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama carded seven birdies and one bogey in the group behind.
Times
4 days ago
- Sport
- Times
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. Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager. 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. Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager. 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.
National Post
5 days ago
- Sport
- National Post
Corey Conners goes low at The Open, golfer uniquely celebrated in hometown
PORTRUSH, Nothern Ireland — Corey Conners' regular group at his Listowel, Ont. coffee spot likely hadn't even sat down for their morning cup when their pal was rolling in one last birdie at Royal Portrush on Saturday. More on the golfer's morning hang later. On Saturday, Conners gave Canadian golf fans a nice surprise to wake up to at Royal Portrush, catapulting up the leaderboard at the Open Championship by shooting a five-under 66. 'I felt like there were a few more scoring opportunities and I could be a little bit more aggressive with my approach shots,' Conners told the Toronto Sun after his round. After making the one-over cut on the number Friday night at 8:30 p.m., Conners and Germany's Matthias Schmid were back at it again first out of the gate on Saturday morning. The Canadian didn't waste any time, birdieing the first hole for one of six birdies on the day and leaving the course after a speedy 3-hour-and-50-minute round in a tie for 10th position, at least temporarily. 'I really hit a lot of quality shots today. I think there were a few more opportunities where the wind was helping you get it close to the pin locations,' he said. Conners also birdied his last hole of the day, rolling in a 42-footer after a rare mis-hit iron shot. Worried he might have too much club, and trying to take a little off his shot, Conners flared his approach to the right but caught a break as it banked back onto the putting surface. How good was he hitting it on Saturday? It was the only mis-hit Conners could remember. 'I was pretty solid the last couple of days,' he said. 'I can't really think of too many.' After some struggling with his putter over the first two days, Conners decided the answer was to lean even more heavily on his exquisite ball-striking and try to hit the ball a little closer to the hole. That might not sound like rocket science, but around Portrush's dangerous links caution is usually the best policy. But after discussions with his caddy Danny Sahl and swing coach Derek Ingram, and considering that even Conners is finding his iron play mightily impressive this week, the 33-year-old opted to get slightly more aggressive with his approach shots on Saturday. It paid off. 'It's a nice strength ot have for sure,' Conners said of his ball-striking. Conners has one more day of Open Championship golf ahead, then he will head back home to Listowel, two hours north-west of Toronto, where the global golf star spends his summers with wife Malory and the couple's two young children. 'It's a nice place. It's just home,' Conners said. 'It's where Mal and I grew up and we can live pretty simply. We built a nice house there and I enjoy reconnecting with family and friends that we are away from so many weeks a year.' This is the third summer the family has spent back in Ontario after living full time in Florida earlier in Conners' career. At last count, Listowel had a population of just under 10,000. Ten-thousand people and one famous golfer. 'Yeah, everybody knows me but I'm just a normal guy,' he said. 'And I really feel like a normal person there. A lot of the people in town and around the golf course have known me since I was growing up. I know they are really proud of me but they know me as just a simple person.' Conners says he spends most of his time at Listowel Golf Club, the course he grew up on, and at home where his children Reis and Tate have plenty of room to play. One day a few years ago, the golf club was short-staffed so the 24th ranked golfer in the world jumped behind the counter. Because, why not? 'I came out of retirement from the pro shop and hopped behind the desk and checked people in,' he recalled. Back to his golf game for minute. With a swing that has been the envy of many of his peers for years, but a putter that has at times held him back, I asked Conners if he has ever wanted to trade and be a lights-out putter rather than a great ball-striker. Conners cut the question off mid-sentence. 'I'd pick being in control of my ball from tee to green for sure,' he said. 'It keeps things as simple as possible out there when you're hitting a lot of fairways and a lot of greens. Not a ton of stress. It's nice to always be able to fall back on that.' According to the golfer, he has seen plenty of positives with his putter this season and he pointed to the first two rounds at the Masters in April. For two days at Augusta National, Conners says he wasn't striking the ball anywhere near his standards but stayed in the mix on the strength of his putter, even on some of the toughest greens he faced all year. His comments are backed up by statistics. For the season on the PGA Tour, Conners ranks 47th in strokes-gained-putting, picking up 0.223 strokes against the field on the greens. If he can keep it up, 2025 will mark the first season of his career where he finishes the year positive in that important category. 'I've seen a lot of bright spots with the putter this year,' he said. 'And that's happened more and more. It's frustrating to have some off days, but I've had plenty of good days that have given me relief.' Conners arrived at Portrush ranked 14th in the season-long FedEx standings. In previous majors this year, Conners has tied for 8th at the Masters and tied 19th at the PGA Championship, before being forced to withdraw from the U.S. Open with a wrist injury suffered in an Oakmont bunker. Away from the PGA tour, home in Listowel he's just a regular guy. Although that changed slightly a few weeks ago. 'I've got a statue of myself at the golf course now,' he said. 'It wasn't my idea for sure, but it's pretty cool.'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Rory FIRES crowd up with LONG opening birdie
Rory McIlroy needed a hot start on moving day at The 153rd Open Championship, and he got it. He sinks a long birdie on the first hole to get Royal Portrush hopping.
BBC News
6 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
'Oh my!' - MacIntyre's finesse for back-to-back birdies
Bob MacIntyre birdies the 12th and 13th holes during an exceptional second round at Royal Portrush.
