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South African Branden Grace fired in eight birdies in his record round of 62 during the third round of The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
He has left behind the log jammed list of 31 golfers who had shared the lowest majors score of 63, a list that included the first to achieve the feat, Johnny Miler, in the 1973 US Open, plus the only two to achieve it twice – Greg Norman in the 1996 Masters and 1986 Open, as well as Vijay Singh in the 1995 PGA and 2003 US Open.
The list also includes many of the usual suspects – Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, Gary Player, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, and Henrik Stenson.
Saturday, as usual, was moving day at Royal Birkdale, but nobody gave a thought to moving as much as it did.
Grace moved 41 places up the leaderboard but two Australians in Jason Day and Scott Hend moved up 43 places after their respective rounds of 65.
A third Australian Marc Leishman was another big mover, jumping 32 spots after his round of 66.
World number one Dustin Johnson moved up 28 places after carding 64.
It looked as though he may finish with a 61 to make Grace the shortest new record holder of all time, but Johnson ran out of steam, as did Rory McIlroy who started with a bang in the third round with three birdies in the first five holes, but a couple of bogeys and a double killed his campaign.
Not so with Jordan Spieth, who leads Matt Kuchar by three shots going into the final round.
Jordan carded another flawless 65 with five birdies, as he did in the opening round.
He is just so in command with his chipping and putting, as good as anyone who has ever played the game.
He had a willing opponent in Kuchar, and they will be at the tail of the field again in the final round.
It’s hard to see anyone catching Spieth unless he has the greatest collapse in memory. His third round was clinically brilliant, he got himself into trouble, and systematically posted par at worse.
While the world’s best golfers were strutting their stuff, the huge crowds at Royal Birkdale were lapping it up.
So far 231,000 people have clicked the turnstiles, a course record.
St Andrews holds the Open record with 239,000 and that will be surpassed by 7.30 tomorrow morning local time.
And one of the surprises the crowd willed on was a 20-year-old Austin Connelly, a regional qualifier who is ranked 524 in the world.
Tonight this slip of a lad will be paired with the burly US Open champion Brooks Koepka.
Both are in equal third place at 5-under and you’ll be impressed with Connelly.
The one black mark on the day were the morons who keep shouting “Get in the hole”. They should be escorted off the course immediately, and their photographs circulated to be banned from golf courses for life.
The Open leaderboard after three rounds:
11-under – Jordan Spieth 65, 69, 65
8-under – Matt Kuchar 65, 71, 66
5-under – Brooks Koepka 65, 72, 68 and Austin Connelly 67, 72, 66.
4-under – Brenden Grace 70, 74, 62 and Hideki Matsuyams 66, 74, 66
3-under – Dustin Johnson 71, 72, 64, Henrik Stenson 69, 73, 65, Rafa Cabrera-Bello 57, 73, 67, and Chan Kim 72, 68, 67.
The Australians:
Even par – Jason Day and Scott Hend,
1-over – Mrc Leishman.
3-over – Adam Scott and Andrew Dodt.
7-over – Aaron Baddeley.