It took him a little while to get going, but Scottie Scheffler broke things open at Royal Portrush on Saturday afternoon.
Scheffler, after starting the day with six straight pars, ended up posting a 4-under 67 in the third round of the British Open. That gave the top-ranked golfer in the world a massive four-shot lead entering the final day of play in Northern Ireland.
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Scheffler got off to a slow start while just about everyone else around him was scoring. But finally, thanks to an eagle at the seventh that he immediately backed up with a birdie, he took off. Scheffler slowly separated himself from the rest of the field. He even made a ridiculous par save on the back nine that helped preserve the rare bogey-free round.
Matt Fitzpatrick started the day in the final group with Scheffler, but he struggled to hang in there with him. Fitzpatrick made three bogeys on the back nine and ended up falling to 9-under. Haotong Li took his place in second, but he’s going to start four shots back of Scheffler after he bogeyed his final hole. He’ll be the first man from China to play in the final tee time in the final round of a major.
McIlroy jumped up eight spots on the leaderboard with his 5-under 66, too. While that got him to 8-under — he’s tied up with Tyrrell Hatton, Chris Gotterup and Harris English entering the final round — he’s still six shots. If he’s going to make a run at winning his home major, it’s going to have to happen quickly on Sunday.
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Scheffler is searching for what would be his fourth career major championship win, and his first British Open victory. He’s a perfect 9-0 the last nine times he’s held the outright lead after three rounds on the PGA Tour, too, including at his other three major wins.
Stick with Yahoo Sports for updates throughout all of the third round action at the British Open:
