The Open 2024: final round updates – live | The Open


Key events

A big mistake by the world’s best player on 6. Scottie Scheffler’s tee shot finds a fairway bunker and, forced to hack out sideways, he’s always out of position. A bogey at a hole he’d have hoped to birdie. He trudges off sadly, though at -2 he’s still only three off the pace. Bogey for his playing partner Dan Brown too, his third in a row and fourth in the first six holes. His race looks run. Birdies at 5 for the penultimate pairing of Russell Henley and Sam Burns; they’re now -4 and -2 respectively. And up on 7, a third birdie of the day for Shane Lowry, who screeches his second to kick-in distance. Good luck calling the outcome of this.

-5: Rose (5), Lawrence (4), Horschel (4)
-4: Henley (5)
-3: Lowry (7), Schauffele (5)
-2: Scheffler (6), Burns (5)
-1: Rahm (11), A Scott (7)
E: An (8), Jordan (8), Brown (6)

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Billy Horschel bounces back from his bogey at 3 with birdie at 4. A similarly calm and collected affair, straight down the middle, just like Justin Rose before him. A slightly more freeform affair by Thriston Lawrence, who again finds rough but again chips close to make birdie of his own. A three-way tie at the top!

-5: Rose (5), Lawrence (4), Horschel (4)

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Jon Rahm eases a chip from 50 yards to three feet. In goes the putt, and that’s a textbook example of damage limitation. He slips back to -1, a scenario he’d have grabbed with both hands while watching his tee shot sail towards the train tracks. Meanwhile birdies at 5 and 7 for Matthew Jordan, who is not letting this lie despite that seven at 4. He’s fought his way back to level par, and while victory is probably a pipe dream, another top-ten finish suddenly looks very much within reach.

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Jon Rahm finds his first ball at 11. He takes a penalty drop and lashes it back into play. He’ll be wedging in four from 50 yards. What he’d give for an up-and-down to limit the damage to bogey.

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Justin Rose’s impressive start continues apace! Two big hits down the middle of the 608-yard par-five 4th, then a wedge from 60 yards to seven feet. He walks in the putt, and the 43-year-old Englishman hits the front at -5. A reminder that the last English player to win the Open was Nick Faldo at Muirfield back in 1992. Could he become England’s 15th winner of the Claret Jug? It’s currently on! Dan Brown is also in the hunt, of course, but he’s just bogeyed 5 after flying the green.

-5: Rose (4)
-4: Lawrence (3), Horschel (3)
-3: Scheffler (5), Henley (3)
-2: Rahm (10), Lowry (5), Burns (3)
-1: A Scott (5), Brown (5)

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Potentially dream-wrecking trouble for Jon Rahm at 11. He carves his tee shot towards the railway. The ball doesn’t fly out of bounds, but it does appear to have whistled into a large gorse bush. He plays a provisional down the middle, then begins the five-minute search for his first ball.

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Billy Horschel sends another tee shot to the left, this time at 3. He finds a fairway bunker, from which he can only chop out. It costs him bogey and sole ownership of the lead … which he now shares with his playing partner Thriston Lawrence, who finds thick rough with his drive but gouges to 12 feet and steers in the putt.

-4: Rose (3), Lawrence (3), Horschel (3)

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Dan Brown and Scottie Scheffler both find a bunker 40 yards from the 4th green. Scheffler finds the middle of the dancefloor, from where he makes par, but Brown batters his attempted escape into the face of the trap. He gets out second time round, and does well to limit the damage to bogey by rattling in a confident 12-footer. He’s back to -2 again. But meanwhile on 5, Shane Lowry most certainly isn’t finished! He drains a monster and clenches his fist hard in celebration of consecutive birdies! The sullen figure skulking off 3 now a forgotten man! He’s -2 and there are going to be a lot of twists and turns this afternoon.

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Perhaps Shane Lowry isn’t done yet. He gathers himself after that disappointing bogey at 3 by bouncing back on the par-five 4th. A splash out from greenside sand to a couple of feet, and he tidies up to move back into the red at -1. Meanwhile back on 2, Billy Horschel gets a free line-of-sight drop, a TV tower in his way. He finds the green safely and two putts later walks off with his par secured. Bogey for Sam Burns at 3.

-5: Horschel (2)
-4: Rose (3)
-3: Scheffler (3), Brown (3), Schauffele (3), Lawrence (2)
-2: Rahm (9), A Scott (4), Burns (3)
-1: Lowry (4)

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Bob MacIntyre couldn’t take the Claret Jug home for Scotland, but it seems likely that Calum Scott will win the silver medal for the auld country. The 20-year-old from Nairn is currently level par for his round through 10 holes, and +3 overall. The other three amateurs to survive the cut are already back in the hutch: Tommy Morrison and Jacob Skov Olesen at +11, Luis Masaveu at +18.

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A big hook off the 4th tee looks to have cost Matthew Jordan any chance of glory. Last year’s local hero at Hoylake runs up a double-bogey seven as a result and falls back to +2; a repeat of his top-ten finish of 12 months ago will be the limit of his ambition now. He’s +2.

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A final round of 77 for the defending champion Brian Harman. He finishes the week at +11, a brave if unspectacular defence, and will always have the Wirral.

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The second Justin Rose joins Billy Horschel at the top, Billy Horschel pulls away again. He rolls in a 25-footer across 1 for the perfect start to his round. Thriston Lawrence meanwhile manages to advance his ball well up the hole from the fairway bunker, bravely taking on the face, then gets his reward with a staunch up-and-down to scramble his par. Then a stroke of good fortune for Horschel at 2, as he flays a dreadful drive over the heads of the gallery down the left, but instead of finding deep rough – or even flying out of bounds – gets a trodden-down lie. He breathes out.

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Justin Rose sends an iron at 2 from 172 yards to seven feet. He guides in the left-to-right slider, and the 1998 low amateur and 2018 joint runner-up grabs a share of the lead in 2024! Meanwhile another birdie for Adam Scott, at 3, while Dustin Johnson hits the turn in 34 to arrive on the scene, just in time.

-4: Rose (2), Horschel
-3: Scheffler (3), Brown (3), Schauffele (2), Henley (1), Burns (1), Lawrence
-2: Rahm (8), A Scott (3)
E: D Johnson (9), Noren (8), Im (6), Jordan (3), Lowry (3)

England’s Justin Rose celebrates his birdie on the second. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
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The final group of the 152nd Open Championship takes to the tee. Thriston Lawrence sends his drive up against the face of a bunker down the left; the 54-hole leader Billy Horschel splits the fairway. Up on the green, Russell Henley’s long birdie rake lips out unluckily; further along the coast at 2, Xander Schauffele’s chip from thick greenside nonsense stops one dimple shy of dropping for birdie. But it looks as though Scottie Scheffler will make his first move of the day, screeching his wedge into 3 to a couple of feet. Yep, in it goes, and the world number one is, like the news in Citizen Kane, on the march.

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Justin Rose and Xander Schauffele lag up for their pars at 1. Shane Lowry yips a short par putt at 3, and already wears the hangdog expression of a man who suspects there’s no coming back from yesterday’s collapse. He’s back to level par. But bouncing back impressively, yet again this week, is Dan Brown, who sticks his second into 2 pin high and makes his birdie putt to return to -3.

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A disappointing end to the round for Mackenzie Hughes. Bogey at the last, but the 33-year-old Canadian still signs for a fine 68. He’s the new clubhouse leader at +2. It won’t be his biggest letdown at the Open, though: Hughes is one of only five players to fail to win the Open despite shooting four rounds in the 60s. That happened to him at Sandwich three years ago, when he trailed winner Collin Morikawa by seven shots and five places after posting 66-69-68-69 as his week’s work. (The others, for the record, are Ernie Els, twice, at Sandwich in 1993 and Troon in 2004, Jesper Parnevik at Turnberry in 1994, Rickie Fowler at Hoylake in 2014, and Jordan Spieth, also at Sandwich in 2021.) Apologies, I’ve gone well off piste here.

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Jon Rahm absolutely batters his drive down the nearly reachable par-four 7th. He then wedges from 55 yards to three feet, and tidies up for his fourth birdie of the day. It’s not taken long for the big man to get seriously involved in this final round. Look!

-4: Horschel
-3: Lawrence, Burns, Henley, Schauffele, Rose
-2: Rahm (7), Scheffler (1), Brown (1)
-1: A Scott (2), Lowry (2)
E: Jordan (3)

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The 2013 US Open champion Justin Rose is out. He’s wearing the same red he sported when lobbing out from 40 yards to secure fourth place as a 17-year-old amateur at Birkdale in 1998. He’s just short of the 1st green in two. He’s going round with the current PGA champion Xander Schauffele, who makes it onto the green, but only just, a few feet ahead of his partner. Both will have a look at birdie from 40 feet or so.

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Trouble for this week’s surprise package Daniel Brown at 1. His opening tee shot shoved into deep rough down the right, his second dunked into a pot bunker to the left of the green. Before he can take a club to that, his playing partner Scottie Scheffler takes Texas Wedge from off the front of the green. He lags up from 45 feet and taps in for par. He really needs the flat stick to work if he’s to win this tournament, as it let him down horribly yesterday: he’s ranked 61st out of 80 in the putting stats so far this week. He remains at -2, where he’s joined by Brown, who can’t get up and down from the bunker.

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A closing birdie for local hero Bob MacIntyre. A 74 to finish at +9. Not the week the Troon gallery was dreaming of, but he’s still got fresh memories of the Scottish Open and he did himself proud to make it to the weekend after that 7-5-5-8 start on Friday, so there are warm smiles all round anyway. Paul Lawrie, the carpe-diem champion of 1999, remains the last Scot to lift the Claret Jug.

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Shane Lowry responds to yesterday’s nightmare 77 by taking driver at 1. Blooter! He’s obviously come to the conclusion that there’s nothing to be gained by dying wondering. But his short wedge in is no good, pulled into a greenside bunker. He splashes out to six feet and salvages his par. He remains at -1, and he’s joined there by Adam Scott, who sends his second to eight feet and strokes in for an opening birdie. It doesn’t work this way, of course, but the Open owes Adam Scott, who came so close at Lytham in 2012 only to stumble over the last four holes with the Claret Jug in his grasp. The fairytale is not yet impossible!

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Matthew Jordan’s approach into 1 is gathered up by the bunker guarding the front left of the green. Never mind! The links expert – he grew up playing at Hoylake, where he finished tied for tenth last year – nearly holes out with a delicate splash. The ball stops on the lip. The shot deserved more, but he’d have taken par when watching his ball disappear into the trap. He remains at level par, unlike his poor playing partner Justin Thomas, who ends up with a triple-bogey seven, his bid over after one hole. He’s +3, and it’s been a topsy turvy week for JT all right. An opening round of 68, a 67 yesterday, and a 78 in between that was a microcosm of the entire week in itself: 46 out, a battling 33 coming back to survive the cut. If the 31-year-old American can rediscover some consistency, he’ll become his old super-dangerous self once again. But this week is over.

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A nightmare start for the two-time PGA champion Justin Thomas. A wild slice, and his drive goes sailing towards the beach. That’s not necessarily the worst opening tee shot at an Open Championship – Ian Baker-Finch (below) has JT’s back – but it’s up there. So far off beam. Thomas’s second finds a fairway bunker, from which he’ll be forced to chop out sideways. A triple bogey looks on the cards now. His hopes and dreams – he’d started the day at level par – over in a matter of seconds.

By the time of the 1995 Open at St Andrews, [Ian Baker-Finch’s] confidence was twisted almost beyond repair. He stood on the 1st tee, paired with the legendary Arnold Palmer, having not made a single penny in prize money all year. Then came the sort of mistake even a weekend hacker would have trouble making. Standing in front of the widest fairway in championship golf, Baker-Finch snap-hooked his ball straight over the parallel 18th fairway and out of bounds, nearly 180 yards to his left. Baker-Finch shot 77, six shots better than his playing partner Palmer, but then Arnie was 65 years old.

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Alex Noren has been on the fringes of the action all week, without ever quite getting involved. The Swedish veteran birdies 1 and 3 to rise to level par. Timing his run towards the heat of battle perfectly? Well, like Jon Rahm before him, he’s probably a little too far back, given the sheer number of players ahead of him … but shoot something super-low, and you never know.

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Jason Day’s approach at 10 comes up short of the green. It costs him his first bogey of the day. He drops back to +1. Joining him there, but moving in a more positive direction, Dean Burmester. The South African has birdied 2 and 7. He missed a series of short putts yesterday – four tiddlers across the piece, if memory serves – and that has proved the difference between a potential high finish and a genuine shy at the title. The small margins in golf.

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Jon Rahm started within range, though, just about, six shots back. The erstwhile US Open and Masters champion has shown signs this week of rediscovering his major-championship mojo, and finally things seemed to have clicked. In spectacular style, too. He’s opened with three birdies on the bounce, having made a couple of big putts at 1 and 2, then wedging close at 3 to complete the set. The big Spaniard is right in the mix now. This is going to be one heck of a stramash at the top of the leaderboard this afternoon! Can. Not. Wait.

-4: Horschel
-3: Lawrence, Burns, Henley, Schauffele, Rose, Brown
-2: Scheffler
-1: Rahm (3), Lowry

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Making Hay On The Front Nine exhibit B. It’s Jason Day, last year’s joint runner-up. The Aussie, an Open nearly man on a couple of occasions (see also 2015 at St Andrew’s), has just turned in 32 with birdies at 4, 6, 7 and 9. He’s level par for the championship. Too far back to harbour hopes of snatching the Claret Jug from under everyone’s startled nose, sadly. He’ll be ruing yesterday’s back nine of 40 strokes.

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Now then, Troon hasn’t been as defenceless early doors like it was yesterday morning. This wind has seen to that. So there haven’t been as many birdie rampages. But there are exceptions, enough to suggest someone could make a proper tilt at the top from the middle of the pack. First up, let’s consider the very early clubhouse leaders Ryan Fox and Corey Conners. Fox carded 67 this morning, Conners 68. They’re both +5. Fox did most of his good work on the easier front nine, out in 32, but Conners spread his load more evenly, out in 34, back in 34. That’ll give succour to any challenger who fails to make sufficient hay going out, the usual method of shooting low at Troon.

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The brisk wind is expected to keep up for most of the afternoon, but ease into the early evening. That might help matters should we require a playoff, and with the leaderboard so bunched, there’s a fair chance of one of those. Should there be a tie at the top after 72 holes, the players involved will play 1, 2, 17 and 18, with the lowest aggregate score winning. If that doesn’t find a victor, it’ll go into sudden death. For the record, there have been two previous Open playoffs at Troon, Mark Calcavecchia beating Wayne Grady and Greg Norman in 1989, Todd Hamilton seeing off Ernie Els in 2004.

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Sir Nick Faldo – three times an Open champion, three times a winner at Augusta, arguably the greatest British sports star ever (yet so often strangely overlooked in such discussions) – is worth listening to all right. Here’s what he’s just told Sky Sports: “The number-one story is the weather, the wind … I think it’s brutal … it’s coming straight across the golf course … when they turn, and come down those last six holes, it’s a hard left to right for everybody … I think we’re going to see some drama around the greens … it’s going to be a scramble all the way to the finish.” You heard the man. Buckle up, people!

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Preamble

At one point yesterday afternoon, Shane Lowry led the Open at -8, one stroke ahead of debutant Daniel Brown at -7. Then the Postage Stamp happened, after which … well, the subsequent wind and rain didn’t help any of the leading pack either, and now the top of the leaderboard has concertinaed to the point at which you could make a great case for a dozen players, and a pretty good one for at least a dozen more. Here’s how the top of the leaderboard looked after 54 holes …

-4: Billy Horschel
-3: Thriston Lawrence, Sam Burns, Russell Henley, Xander Schauffele, Justin Rose, Daniel Brown
-2: Scottie Scheffler
-1: Shane Lowry
E: Adam Scott, Justin Thomas, Matthew Jordan
+1: Im Sung-jae, An Byeong-hun
+2: Shubhankar Sharma, Daniel Hillier, John Catlin, Sean Crocker, Chris Kirk, Laurie Canter, Alex Noren, Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Dustin Johnson

… and this is what today’s tee sheet looked like as a result (all times BST, GB&I unless stated). It’s on!

0735 Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Andy Ogletree (USA)
0745 Luis Masaveu -a- (Spa), Young-Han Song (Kor)
0755 Darren Clarke, Tom McKibbin
0805 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
0815 Rickie Fowler (USA), Aaron Rai
0825 Corey Conners (Can), Tommy Morrison -a- (USA)
0835 Brooks Koepka (USA), Marcel Siem (Ger)
0845 Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Jeung-Hun Wang (Kor)
0900 Jorge Campillo (Spa), Thorbjoern Olesen (Den)
0910 Matthew Fitzpatrick, Richard Mansell
0920 Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), Kurt Kitayama (USA)
0930 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Jordan Spieth (USA)
0940 Alex Cejka (Ger), Jacob Skov Olesen -a- (Den)
0950 Robert MacIntyre, Phil Mickelson (USA)
1000 Harris English (USA), Guido Migliozzi (Ita)
1010 Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Joaquin Niemann (Chi)
1025 Tom Hoge (USA), Adrian Meronk (Pol)
1035 Austin Eckroat (USA), Brian Harman (USA)
1045 Si-Woo Kim (Kor), Davis Thompson (USA)
1055 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Matt Wallace
1105 Jason Day (Aus), Max Homa (USA)
1115 Eric Cole (USA), Sepp Straka (Aut)
1125 Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Cameron Young (USA)
1135 Joseph Dean, Ewen Ferguson
1150 Dean Burmester (Rsa), Patrick Cantlay (USA)
1200 Min-Kyu Kim (Kor), Gary Woodland (USA)
1210 Padraig Harrington, Brendon Todd (USA)
1220 Matteo Manassero (Ita), Calum Scott -a-
1230 Dustin Johnson (USA), Collin Morikawa (USA)
1240 Jon Rahm (Spa), Alexander Noren (Swe)
1250 Laurie Canter, Chris Kirk (USA)
1300 John Catlin (USA), Sean Crocker (USA)
1315 Daniel Hillier (Nzl), Shubhankar Sharma (Ind)
1325 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Sung-Jae Im (Kor)
1335 Matthew Jordan, Justin Thomas (USA)
1345 Shane Lowry, Adam Scott (Aus)
1355 Daniel Brown, Scottie Scheffler (USA)
1405 Justin Rose, Xander Schauffele (USA)
1415 Sam Burns (USA), Russell Henley (USA)
1425 Billy Horschel (USA), Thriston Lawrence (Rsa)

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