Hellish weather on a very difficult third day leaves the battle for the Jug open

More than ‘moving day’, what was experienced this Saturday at Royal Throneheadquarters for the tenth time of British Open, it should be called ‘hell day’ or ‘suffering day’. Open the umbrella, close the umbrella; put on your rain jacket, take it off; wet stick, dry stick…

You have to see how it rained for almost the entire course of the leaders (and for a while strong) and how the direction of the wind changed, changing the second nine holes (against, different from Thursday and Friday) of the links in Scottish. a real torture and nightmare for Lowry, Brown, Rose, Horschel, Schauffele, Scheffler, Rahm and company.

On the par 4 between holes 11 and 18, some hit the drive and wood and missed the green, and on the 17th, par 3, some hit the wood and didn’t reach the flag either. Brutal.

Over time, therefore conditioning the future of the last Grand Slam of the season, American Billy Horschel led the clubhousewho despite finishing with a bogey, made 69 strokes and had a 209 (-4).

The surprising Englishman also failed on this last hole (double bogey) Daniel Brownwho made several holes, is tied for second with 210 (-3) with three players out with the best possible conditions and the great beneficiaries of the pickle: the Americans Sam Burns and Russell Henley and the south africa Thriston Lawrence. Joining them in the afternoon and also surviving the harsh conditions, is the PGA champion Xander Schauffele and English Justin Rose.

The classification is compressed in such a way that the final result this Sunday, with the world no. Scottie SchefflerBeware, with 211 hits (-2) and the Irish leader at the start of the round, Shane Lowry (212, -1). They are all under par.

Horschel’s mistakes, and especially Brown’s (Lowry had already left his mother) opened a small window of hope to Jon Rahmtied for 15th after his 72, with 215 strokes (+2), six behind a very solid Horschel, it must be said, winner on his day of the FedEx Cup and the prestigious BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth .

Rahm’s only problem this Sunday is that there are many players ahead of him, and some very good ones, who also have their options and not all of them will fail in the last 18 holes.

The crowd favorite, obviously, is Rose; will make history by equaling the seven victories of Arnold Palmer achieved in 1962 before the British conquest, Scheffler, while the other American bets were Horschel and a Schauffele who, coming out of the backpack without winning a ‘major’, was capable of winning the second in two months .