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topicnews · July 19, 2025

The relentless Scottie Scheffler leaves the open field behind. Can someone catch it?

The relentless Scottie Scheffler leaves the open field behind. Can someone catch it?




Cnn

Illego: Even the name of Royal Portrush's 16th hole is enough to send the heart race of a golfer. If a little Scottie Scheffler hits the open championship on Saturday, the dreaded Par-Drei would have been the most likely source with his Chasmic waste.

Two metronomic swings of the club later the American picked his ball for Birdie from the trophy, hardly a flickering of a reaction to the face of the world No. 1 when he started his step to the next discount.

It was a perfect encapsulation of the clinical precision, with which Scheffler once again planned his way through Northern Ireland Causeway Coast when a Bogy-Free third round 67 started the tournament favorite into a commanding four-shot lead with 18 holes to play in the 153rd edition of the major.

An eagle on the seventh hole with Par-Five has proven the highlight of the 29-year-old as another area of the 29-year-old, who has dropped a shot more on Friday since the 11th career deep.

“I think it would be silly to say that you can never let your mind hiked, but I think most of what I can control is the time I have when we think about the shot and when I'm over the ball,” Scheffler told reporters.

“Most of it is only committed to what I do, so I don't think of wind, I don't think about how the ball will jump. I have a picture of what I want to do, and that is what I have committed to try to happen.”

With 14 Unter-PAR, Scheffler is located at a touching removal of a first clear steering jug, which would keep an American crown from completing the career grand of all four main titles with Rory Mcilroy.

It is a threatening state of play. According to the PGA Tour Communications and all three such advantages at Majors, the 16-time PGA tour winner converted its last seven 54 hole leads or co-leads on the race track. The champions in 2022 and 2024 as well as the PGA championship from May.

“I am looking forward to the challenge of tomorrow. The extraction of the big championships is not an easy task and I have put myself in a good position,” he said.

“I will climb there on the first tee and try to get the ball into the Fairway, and when I come to the second shot, I will try to get this ball on the green. It is not really going on.”

Li and Fitzpatrick lead the chase

However, there is some historical evidence that the chase can hold on. Tiger Woods is the only world No. 1 that comes to the open and obtained profit, albeit with the restriction that he did it three times in 2000, 2005 and 2006.

What is more, the closest challenger Haotong Li has a family tree on open Sunday. The four-time European Tour winner graduated from 63 in Royal Birkdale in 2017 to take third place and register the best of all time by a Chinese golfer with a men's major.

After fighting with the dreaded Yips, an involuntary muscle tension in the wrist, the world No. 11 contributed to a sharp dive in shape, but again impressed with a third round 69 to build a Sunday pair with a historical talent.

When asked how he came from him two years ago, where he was now, Li laughed out: “I don't know. It's a miracle.”

“Four shots behind … (around) to play with the world No. 1,” he added. “I will just try to play my best out there and hopefully do something. I'm getting exciting.”

Haotong li from China putts on 7 ..
Matt Fitzpatrick directed a putt on the 12th green.

The England Matt Fitzpatrick in England sits one blow behind Li, the thrust of a breathtaking chip-in-eagle, which was damped over the back nine with three bogeys. The 2022 US Open Victor had his putter moved in a blow from Scheffler after a Friday 66.

“Only fewer putts made than scottie … they just wouldn't go in,” the 30-year-old told reporters.

“His putting is day and day. From what you all talked about, how bad it was at some point, I didn't really play with him during this time. He just didn't miss a putt today … and that is obviously the difference that made him this unbeatable run.”

Home hero McIlroy is one of the four-member group, which sat six shots behind Scheffler with six under all overall, as he took a blow to his American rival with an eventful 66.

World No. 2 had said that he felt ready to take an urgently needed run and properly tore out of the blocks and open himself with a curly putt of over 36 feet for Birdie before rolling at the fourth hole in his third of the day.

His swing was slows down under bizarre circumstances under par-4-11 place when he refreshed a hidden ball while swinging to escape thick rough, his actual attempt to go out the green and ended in Bogey.

“This is the strangest, ridiculous thing I've ever seen,” McIlroy considered after his round. “Then my ball came out really strange and narrowly. Just so strange.”

Rory McIlroy celebrates a putt on the 12th hole.

A breathtaking 56-foot-Eagle putt in the following hole sparked the round of the champion in front of another birdie on the 15th, but Mcilroy has no illusions about the size of the task with which he has an effect in Scheffler and raises a second Claret mug on the home lawn.

“He plays like Scottie. I don't think it's a surprise … he's just so solid, he doesn't make mistakes,” said Mcilroy.

“He has also turned into a really consistent putter. Therefore there seems to be no weakness. If you try to hunt such a guy like this, it's difficult to do.”

McIlroy is accompanied by England's Tyrrell Hatton and the American duo Chris Gotterup and Harris English.