Brian Harman recovered from a bumpy start to his third round to post a 2-under-par 69 and maintain his commanding five-shot lead at The 151st Open Championship on Saturday in Hoylake, England.
Harman sits at 12-under 201 heading into Sunday’s final round at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, with Cameron Young shooting a third-round 66 to take over second place at 7 under.
Periods of rain combined with mild winds led to a softer course and lower scores throughout moving day. Jon Rahm was the first to take advantage, as the two-time major winner from Spain set a course Open record by firing a bogey-free 63 before Harman teed off.
By day’s end, Rahm was alone in third at 6 under. Viktor Hovland of Norway (66 Saturday), Frenchman Antoine Rozner (67), Australian Jason Day (69), Sepp Straka of Austria (70) and Englishman Tommy Fleetwood (71) formed a tie for fourth at 5 under.
Fleetwood, the home-crowd favorite playing in the final pairing with Harman, could not take advantage of the favorable conditions. He had one birdie and one bogey en route to his second straight 71 after grabbing a share of the lead Thursday.
Harman, coming off a bogey-free round Friday, made a mess of the par-4 first and initial four holes to drop back to 8 under, just two in front of Rahm and a charging Day at the time. Then Harman righted the ship by nearly holing a 71-foot putt at the par-5 fifth and tapping in for birdie.
He added birdies at Nos. 9, 12 and 13, the latter a 20-footer, and scrambled for pars the rest of the way.
The 36-year-old lefty from Georgia has only two top-10 finishes at majors in his career and hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since 2017. That year, he held the 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open at 12 under par before shooting 72 on Sunday and losing to Brooks Koepka.
–Field Level Media
