It’s the final Major of the year as the world’s best golfers bid for the Open Championship at Royal Troon.
You can follow all the action right here over the next few days.
Irish in action:
Shane Lowry -6 (10)
Pádraig Harrington +3 (71)
Tom McKibbin +9 (77)
Darren Clarke +11 (76)
He races the long par putt seven foot past the hole and there’s a huge bogey putt coming up now for the Offaly man.
His playing partner Brown hangs in with a brilliant par of his own.
He doesn’t catch that chip on eleven at all, leaving it a good forty foot short. That’s two poor shots in a row for the first time today as Lowry finds a sticky patch. Hopefully he can fight his way out of here.
Perhaps spooked by the out-of-bounds wall off the right, he almost tops his second shot and it scuttles towards the thick stuff on the right. He gets a lucky break as it appears to rebound back to safety off the leg of a spectator.
Big shot from Lowry there avoiding the danger, splitting the fairway with the driver.
Ahead of him, Billy Horschel has dropped a shot bringing him back to -5 with Daniel Brown. Lowry has the lead to himself once again.
The putts aren’t dropping for Lowry as he fails to capitalise on that brilliant second shot on ten. He could have done with that to give him some respite ahead of the very difficult eleventh hole.
If anything the rain is getting heavier.
He shot his first putt eight foot past but he holes out, keeping him well in the hunt on -3.
He feared the worst shouting ‘get down’ but the ball listened, coming up just short of the flag giving him an eleven footer for birdie.
Brown goes from some thick stuff to more thick stuff. He’s now in trouble with his chip coming up short, where he’ll be chipping for par.
Billy Horschel finds the gorse on the ‘horrid’ eleventh as it’s being described on Sky Sports.
Lowry anxiously encouraged his ball to ‘go’ but the camera didn’t pick up the landing.
He curses his luck as his ball somehow stays out on the ninth.
He turns on 37, with that postage stamp having caught him out cruelly, punishing him for what wasn’t that bad of a shot.
But he’s been swinging well and his game has been very solid from tee-to-green. The putts aren’t dropping quite yet and he’ll be hoping that changes on the back nine. He turns into a difficult stretch of holes now.
He remains on +3, sitting in tied 29th on the leaderboard.
He’s unlucky not to be close here as his ball catches a ridge and rolls backwards, but it was right the flag and he’ll have an outside birdie chance from fifteen feet.
Xander Schauffele drops a shot on eleven to return to -4.
He pings an iron down the ninth, it catches a hop and runs on for him.
Billy Horschel knocks in his fourth birdie of the day for a three-way-tie at the top.
That’s desperately unlucky on the cruellest of holes.
“The Postage Stamp bites again” 😬
Shane Lowry and Daniel Brown are now both six-under-par ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/dAOfabwXJ7
— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) July 20, 2024
Seven foot for what would be a brilliant, brilliant bogey.
Given the depth of the bunker, he had no option but to aim well left of the flag and he stabs it out, skewing it out the back and into the thick stuff. He’ll do well to get out of here with a bogey.