2026 Open Championship third-round live updates: Sam Burns finishes with two-shot lead in low-scoring tourney

Click below for the tee times in the final round Sunday of the 154th Open Championship:

The 154th Open Championship: Round 4 tee times, groupings and featured groups at Royal Birkdale

Full Sunday morning tee times and pairings for final round of the 154th Open Championship, plus TV channel, streaming info and how to watch live.

• Nate Ryan,

• Nate Ryan,

Sam Burns will take a two-shot lead into Sunday. Here’s what he and others had to say about the third round:

Sam Burns leads Open Championship by two shots after last-minute decision to stay in tourney

He sets major tournament record for lowest 36 consecutive holes after his wife recently gave birth to their second child.

• Nate Ryan,

• Nate Ryan,

It’s a 65 in the third round for Sam Burns, who will carry a two-shot lead at 10-under into Sunday at the Open Championship.

Si Woo Kim and Ryan Fox both finished their rounds at 8-under.

Bryson DeChambeau, Burns’ playing partner, bogeyed the final hole to drop a shot to 6-under.

A careful adherence to the rules or another performative moment for Bryson DeChambeau?

After his ball landed in the rough on the 18th hole, DeChambeau demonstratively took exaggerated steps around his ball’s lie. He then informed a nearby official that the ball had moved, but he hadn’t done it.

On Friday, DeChambeau was penalized two strokes after the round when officials decided he had inadvertently improved the path of his swing on the fifth hole.

His actions on the final hole Sunday drew a reaction from the gallery with some laughter mixed with a few groans. Rory McIlroy didn’t appear to be in the crowd.

McIlroy accuses DeChambeau of trying to ‘hold the tournament hostage’ at The Open

Rory McIlroy saved one of his best shots at the The Open Championship on Saturday for Bryson DeChambeau.

• Associated Press,

• Associated Press,

Sam Burns is building a cushion as the third round comes to a close.

A birdie on the par-5 No. 17 puts him two shots ahead of Si Woo Kim, Ryan Fox and Lucas Herbert in second.

Burns’ playing partner, Bryson DeChambeau, also birdied the hole to improve to 7-under, two shots back (and essentially where he was before a controversial two-stroke penalty Friday).

Lucas Herbert had trouble with the par-3 15th hole, and a bogey dropped him into a three-way tie with Si Woo Kim and Ryan Fox at 8-under.

That puts Sam Burns, who just finished 16 holes, alone in first with two holes to play.

It was a great start but a disappointing finish for the hometown favorite.

Tommy Fleetwood bogeyed two of the final four holes to finish at 5-under after beginning the third round with two birdies in the first seven holes.

Some quotes from the Englishman in his NBC interview with Cara Banks:

• “It’s been very, very cool. I think I’m so lucky. To get to enjoy those experiences, the crowd have just made it so special. Today was a great day. I didn’t finish how I would have liked to. The course is hard, so you don’t have to be that far off for it to go wrong. Especially the last couple of days, I’ve finished well. In those last few today, I had a couple of bogeys, so it doesn’t feel great. That stretch of golf where I sort of got myself into contention. I was one behind the lead. You have the crowd behind you. It was really cool.”

• “Every shot counts, doesn’t it? And we’ll see where the lead is finishing. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. It’s definitely better finishing with a bogey than a double bogey. But at the moment, I think the tournament, for us that are 5-, 6-under, depending on what the leaders do, we just have to wait and see what they do now and finish to see where we stand and what we might need to do tomorrow.”
• “It’s been incredibly special, and I think no matter what happens tomorrow, the atmosphere yesterday evening, playing in front of those and finishing the way I did today, playing so well, getting into contention, those are moments that I’ll always have with me, and that I’ll remember forever. You can’t buy this kind of stuff. I have no pressure on me tomorrow, really. I would love to get a round going and see if we can get that feeling again. But whatever happens, it has been an incredibly special week.”

Sam Burns made an 30-foot birdie putt at the 14th to move into a tie for first with Lucas Herbert at 9-under.

Ryan Fox is a shot behind at 8-under — meaning the three golfers who tied a major tournament record with a round of 62 this weekend have the top three scores.

With all the groups having made the turn in the third round, here are the top scores at the Open Championship:

Lucas Herbert -9 (12)
Ryan Fox -8 (F)
Sam Burns -8 (10)
Jackson Suber -8 (12)
Si Woo Kim -7 (14)

Closing the front nine with his second birdie in three holes, Lucas Herbert has taken the outright lead at 9-under with nine holes left in the third round.

Sam Burns bogeyed the final hole of the front nine, dropping him a shot to 8-under.

Burns, who has four birdies in the third round, is now in a four-way tie for first with Si Woo Kim, Ryan Fox and Lucas Herbert.

Tommy Fleetwood, Cameron Young and Jackson Suber are tied a shot behind at 7-under.

Sam Burns makes a short birdie putt on the eighth hole to take the lead at 9-under, one shot ahead of Ryan Fox. Jackson Suber just bogeyed the sixth hole to fall into a five-way tie for third place at 7-under.

Burns finished second at the U.S. Open, but he wasn’t planning to play the Open Championship until last week (his wife was expecting to give birth in mid-July but delivered 11 days early).

Ryan Fox’s alone time atop the leaderboard was short.

Sam Burns and Jackson Suber both made birdies to move into a three-way tie for first at 8-under as the low scoring seems to be picking up again at Royal Birkdale.

According to several social media posts and a post-round interview transcript, Rory McIlroy believes Bryson DeChambeau deserved his controversial two-stroke penalty Friday.

DeChambeau (who is obviously unaware of his rival’s barbs) just made a birdie on the sixth to improve to 5-under, three shots off the lead.

With a bogey on the par-5 third hole, Lucas Herbert has dropped into a three-way tie with Sam Burns and Jackson Suber at 7-under.

Ryan Fox, who earlier shot a 62 to tie a major tournament record, is now in sole possession of the lead at 8-under.

Steadying his putter on the greens after a tough start, Rory McIlroy closed the third round with six pars and a birdie to finish at 2-under and six shots off the lead.

Through two holes, Lucas Herbert is gamely hanging onto first in the Open Championship with Ryan Fox, but the co-leaders have some pursuers coming fast.

Sam Burns (birdies on the second and fourth holes) and Jackson Suber (birdie on the second) are tied for second at 7-under.

Lucas Herbert saved par on the first hole to maintain a share of the lead with Ryan Fox.

Tommy Fleetwood has moved into a three-way tie for third place at 6-under with two birdies in the first seven holes of the third round.

Bryson DeChambeau lost a stroke after a bogey on the second dropped him to 4-under, two shots off the lead. Scottie Scheffler made a birdie putt at the fifth hole to improve to 5-under.

With all groups now officially on the course, here’s the leaderboard:

Fox -8
Herbert -8
Fleetwood -6
Kim -6
Burns -6
Gerard -6
Young -6
Suber -6

Scottie Scheffler has made consecutive pars to begin the third round as he tries to win a major tournament for the third consecutive year.

The world’s top-ranked player made an impressive save on the second hole from the deep rough at Royal Birkdale to stay at 4-under, four shots off the lead.

Bryson DeChambeau will be teeing off at 10:30 a.m. ET, returning to the Royal Birkdale course for the first time since his two-stroke penalty.

What will the mentality be for the two-time U.S. Open winner (who received a warm welcome from the gallery while making his way to the first hole)?

Here’s a discussion with Mike Tirico and Curt Byrum, recapping the penalty and analyzing DeChambeau’s state of mind:

In an interview with Cara Banks on NBC and Peacock, Ryan Fox discussed his third-round 62 that moved him into a tie with Lucas Herbert for the lead of the Open Championship.

Some quotes from Fox:

• “I think my strategy most of the week’s actually been to be aggressive. I played really well yesterday and kind of didn’t finish that well and took the same strategy today and hit a lot of really good shots, gave myself a lot of wedge shots, holds and putts and maybe got away with a couple of scruffy shots down there on the back nine but very happy with 62.”
• “We’ve had perfect weather this week. You feel like this golf course can kind of go either way. If you get it going bad, it’ll bite you really quickly, but if you hit a lot of good shots, you feel like you’ve got some chances. The greens are perfect, and it was nice to see some putts go in today. A lot of good shots.”
• On his bunker shot on the 18th: “Yeah, I felt like I had to give it a chance. It was right on the edge of carrying it with 8-iron. I heard it hit something. It must have clipped some grass or something like that. I was pretty happy to see it go forward after that. And then I think I was a bit nervy over the first part. I left it a bit short.”

Ryan Fox became the third player in two days to shoot a record-tying 62 in a major.

The New Zealander had a putt for 61 after getting on the green with an impressive shot from the bunker 192 yards from the par-4 18th hole.

Fox is the seventh man to shoot a 62 in a major, joining Lucas Herbert and Sam Burns this weekend.

Shane Lowry, Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler and Branden Grace (at Royal Birkdale in 2017) are the others to shoot 62 — all within the past nine years.

Ryan Fox has surged into a tie for the lead with Lucas Herbert, who tees off at 10:50 a.m. ET.

With birdies on three of the past four holes, Fox is at 8-under for the third round and the tournament as he heads to the par-4 18th.

Xander Schauffele, Fox’s playing partner, also is having a day, shooting a 4-under with six birdies to reach a tie for 11th.

After a stumble, Rory McIlroy seems to be finding his groove.

The Masters winner just holed out for an eagle on the par-4 ninth hole with a chip from off the green.

McIlroy shot a 1-under 33 on the front nine, rebounding from bogeys on the third and fourth hole with the eagle and a birdie on the fifth. He is 2-under and six shots off the lead with 27 holes to play.

Justin Thomas has moved into the top 10 with four birdies on the front nine.

The two-time PGA Championship winner is four shots off the lead at the turn in the third round.

After his first bogey of the third round, Ryan Fox birdies the par-5 14th to move into a four-way tie for second, two shots behind leader Lucas Herbert.

After birdies on six of the first 10 holes in the third round, Ryan Fox has cooled off on the back nine.

After pars on the 11th and 12th, he made bogey on the par-4 13th and fell back to three shots behind the lead in a four-way tie for fifth.

With Lucas Herbert set to tee off in about two and a half hours, the NBC broadcast just assessed what the Australian’s two-shot halfway lead means for the 154th Open Championship:

• Since 1892, the 36-hole leader has won 51 times.
• Since 1892, players with a 36-hole lead of at least two strokes have won 25 times.
• The previous best 36-hole position for Herbert in a major tournment was tied for 12th in the 2022 Open Championship at St. Andrews.

So despite that 62 in the second round, Herbert will have some work to do when he tees off with Jackson Suber at 10:50 a.m.

It’s still more than two hours before the tee times for the groups of players at the top of the leaderboard (the last of Jackson Huber and Lucas Herbert goes off at 10:50 a.m. ET).

But some of the big names are beginning to head onto the course. Masters winner Rory McIlroy, who fired a 3-under 67 Friday, is on the course with Collin Morikawa, Adam Scott out soon.

Jon Rahm tees off at 9:35 a.m. ET, followed by Scottie Scheffler, who is seeking his first major win this year, at 9:45.

The big mover so far on Saturday is Ryan Fox, who is halfway throgh his third round.

After starting the day at even-par throgh two rounds, the New Zealander has joined the tie for second at 6-under through 10 holes with six birdies.

There was some question about whether Bryson DeChambeau for the third round after being assessed a two-shot penalty for the fifth hole of his second round.

He was shown in a heated exchange with R&A officials about his two-stroke penalty, and he appeared to threaten withdrawing. After heading to the driving range, he ignored questions from reporters about whether he would play the third round.

But he addressed the penalty in a social media post shortly after midnight local time and indicated he would remain in the tournament. “Obviously disappointed with the ruling. I don’t agree with it, but it is what it is. This fires me up. Onto the weekend. Let’s get it.”

The first groups teed off shortly after 4 a.m. Saturday, and there have been no major changes at the top of the leaderboard.

Lucas Herbert leads at 8-under after tying a record with a 62 in the second round. Jackson Suber, Cameron Young and Ryan Gerard are tied for second at 6-under.

There’s a three-way tie of Sam Burns (who also shot a record 62), Bryson DeChambeau and Si Woo Kim at 5-under.

Before his two-shot penalty, DeChambeau would have entered the third round alone in second place, one stroke behind Herbert.

Rickie Fowler could be poised to make a charge, though. The American is playing in one of the featured groups on Peacock.