The hype and anticipation in the leadup to the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews has somehow been followed up by a thrilling week. We’d guess the Old Course will deliver a final round to remember, too, as Rory McIlroy looks to jumpstart the latter half of his career with a fifth major title—eight years after his last major.
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Whether Rory can hold off co-leader Viktor Hovland or any of the golfers behind him, it should be a worthwhile conclusion to a tremendous week—the 30th time St. Andrews will have hosted golf’s oldest major championship.
British Open 2022 live coverage (all times in eastern):
6:45 a.m.: Harold Varner III starts his final round with a second birdie in his first three holes. He’s got it to 6-under and is tied for 19th at the moment.
Justin Thomas delivered a pretty hilarious moment just before … speaking to how these pros are at the mercy of luck of the bumps and rolls of a links course.
6:27 a.m.: Sam Burns just finished his final round with four consecutive birdies (!) and carded a final-round 64 to make a move up the leaderboard (T-18 at the moment, jumping nearly 40 spots). He really struggled with a third-round 77, but he just bettered that number by 13 shots.
6:02 a.m.: We are still a couple hours away from the last few groups teeing off, but some of the world’s best are on the course early on Sunday. Justin Thomas is in a featured group this morning with Englishman Marcus Armitage.
So far, there are a bunch of low numbers out there. Out of the 40 or so golfers on the course, only eight of them are over par.
One of them is Cameron Tringale … who just played the 13th hole and went into a full-on SPRINT to try to see where his ball would end up. C’mon, Cameron … that’s why y’all have spotters. Pretty impressive closing speed, though, from the former Georgia Tech golfer.
5:55 a.m.: This is what it’s all about, folks. Amateur Sam Bairstow from England just completed his final round in the first game off … and the camera crew caught his parents embracing off the home hole. How cool is this:
Though there was a tiny bit of moisture overnight and early this morning, there wasn’t quite as much as some projected. And the Old Course should dry out a bit with some winds projected this morning into the afternoon.
We didn’t see much wind at all on Saturday, but the final round should have a consistent 10-12 mph wind with gusts up to 18 mph. That should be enough to defend the Old Course and prevent a round of, say, 60 or 61 in the final round. In theory, at least.
Have a look at the final-round pin positions … the placement on the Road Hole looks like it’ll be quite the challenge.
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