Congratulations to Ryan Fox; commiserations to Cameron Young and Sam Burns; and thank you, dear reader, for following this live blog.

-10: Ryan Fox
-9: Cameron Young
-8: Sam Burns
-7: Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood
-6: Casey Jarvis, Lucas Herbert, Kim Si-woo
-5: Adam Scott, Russell Henley, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Ludvig Åberg, Ryan Gerard
-4: Corey Conners, Im Sung-jae, Hideki Matsuyama, Bryson DeChambeau

… but this is all about Ryan Fox, whose Open win is right up there with his dad Grant winning the 1987 Rugby World Cup! Well, maybe you’ll get an argument from one or two traditionalists back home in New Zealand, but each to their own. He has, after all, held off the current world number one, the current Players champion, and the local hero to claim golf’s oldest prize. He’s become just the fourth Kiwi to win a major championship, after Bob Charles (1963 Open), Michael Campbell (2005 US Open) and Lydia Ko (2015 Evian, 2016 Chevron and 2024 Women’s Open). That is not bad company to be keeping!

Tommy Fleetwood talks to Sky Sports about his reception coming up 18. “It’s hard to describe how cool that is, walking down 18 … to birdie the last was pretty special … whether I made 10 or three, it was really cool … I can’t ask for any more … it’s been truly amazing … I still dream of winning the Open, of course I do, and I’ll keep chasing that … but what people have given me surpassed any dream that I could imagine … they were amazing.”

Here’s how impressive Ryan Fox was in claiming the Claret Jug in such proactive style with birdie at the last. The 18th was statistically the hardest hole of the week, with a stroke average of 4.345; it had only been birdied 27 previous times during this championship, and only four times previously today.

Fox has also equalled the record over the final 36 holes. He took 130 strokes, matching the achievements of Tom Watson in 1977, Ian Baker-Finch in 1991, Anders Forsbrand in 1994 and Marc Leishman in 2022.

Fox has also broken the record for lowest position on the leaderboard after the second round before coming back to win. He was tied 52nd after Friday, eight behind the leader Lucas Herbert. The previous record was held by David Duval, who came back from a tie for 35th at Lytham in 2001.

Fox then sets about hoisting the Claret Jug properly for the cameras, before having a word with Sky Sports. “It’s unbelievable to be honest … I still don’t know what to think … my nerves are all over the place … I’m not quite sure how I hit that putt on 18 … it’s a dream come true … looking at this trophy now, it’s the first time I’ve seen it up close, so it’s pretty amazing … I said to my caddie through six or eight holes, I feel a lot better than I thought I would feel right now … played really solid early and hit some great shots down the stretch … I stood on the [18th] tee and said to my caddie, we’re gonna try to win this … I hit two perfect shots … I’m not sure how I hit the putt, my hands were all over the place … I was just trying to get it towards the hole somewhere … it’s surreal … champion golfer of the year has a pretty good ring to it … it’s always been see a shot, hit a shot … as soon as I start thinking about it too much then some bad stuff creeps in … I just picked my shot and hit it … thankfully I kinda executed them pretty well!”

Time for Ryan Fox’s speech. “Aw wow! … I don’t really know what to think at the moment … my wife and kids are in Florida at the moment … I spoke to my kids last night and they said ‘bring back the trophy’ and I think that’s a pretty cool one to bring back for them! … the English weather was fantastic … the support was amazing … this is pretty cool … thank you very much!”

The trophy presentation. The R&A chief executive Mark Darbon carries the Claret Jug onto the 18th green, that beautiful Art Deco clubhouse the backdrop. Darbon announces the results in the time-honoured style: “With a score of 270, the winner of the gold medal and the champion golfer of the year: Ryan Fox!” At which point Fox enters from behind the grandstand, through a guard of honour, and soaks up the applause, before being handed the famous old jug and raising it carefully, gracefully to the sky!

Ryan Fox has broken the record for winning from the lowest position on the leaderboard after the first round. He was tied for 85th on Thursday, seven behind the 18-hole leader Jackson Suber. The previous record was held by Mark O’Meara, who was tied 62nd after 18 holes in 1998 … also at Royal Birkdale.

You simply have to hand it to Ryan Fox. A final round of 68. Four birdies in the last six holes. During that run, he didn’t have the luck: terribly unfortunate lies in bunkers at 15 and 17. But he took his medicine at 15, and stayed firm on 17, and this is his reward. Despite having to settle for that bogey on 15, he then seized the day with magnificent approaches at 16 and 18, setting up a pair of birdies that ripped the Claret Jug from Cameron Young’s grip. A deserved win … though hats off to Young for a final round of 64 that took this whole championship to the wire. Young didn’t lose it on the last hole today; it was the back nine yesterday that did for him. Oh, and Fox’s excellence over the weekend. He was nowhere going into Saturday, having only just survived the cut. A record-equalling 62, followed by today’s carpe-diem closing run of birdies, is some weekend’s work. He’s the new Open champion, and a very popular one!

Both players stalk the green, lining up their putts. The biggest putts in their lives. Sam Burns up first … and the right-to-left slider misses on the right. His race is run. He tidies up for par, a 72, and once again he’s failed to convert at 54-hole lead into glory. Ah well, he’s got a new baby to go home to.

Ryan Fox and Sam Burns stride up the last, both getting their flowers from the gallery. They’ve both shot 62 this week. Outstanding. Meanwhile Cameron Young pounds drives on the practice range. The tension is palpable.

Ryan Fox will have a putt to win the Open! He swishes his eight iron straight at the flag, the ball landing softly, 12 feet shy of the pin. Sam Burns makes the dancefloor in regulation too, though he’s got to make a right-to-left swinger from the best part of 30 yards if he’s to have a chance of a play-off, which is the best he can do.

Bogey at the last for Kim Si-woo, which is an awful shame. So close to becoming the first Korean winner of the Open. But in the end, it’s an underwhelming 72, and he’s -6.

Ryan Fox decides that he’s not going to die wondering. He absolutely creams his drive down the middle of 18. Sam Burns has no other option, and powers one down himself. They’re both in prime position. All sorts of possibilities opening up ahead. The final round of the Open Championship, everyone. This is epic.

A 71 for Lucas Herbert. He’ll finish the week at -6, but will always have that 62. A 71 for his playing partner Ludvig Åberg too, and he ends up at -5. It’ll be the Swede’s second top-ten finish at a major this year, following his tie for fourth at the PGA. Just 26, his time will surely come.

Fox puts for the lead … but the ball dribbles off to the right. Not so straight after all. He walks off with par, shaking his head. Par for Burns, who now has to birdie the last in the hope of forcing a play-off. Fox just needs par on 18 … or birdie for the Claret Jug! What an Open! This is going right down to the wire!

-9: Young (F), Fox (17)
-8: Burns (17)

Ryan Fox is forced to whip his ball out of the bunker while standing on the fairway, leaning in. He catches plenty of the ball and advances it up the hole. Good core strength, sir. He then wedges to ten feet, and will have a straight uphill putt for birdie and the outright lead. In the meantime, Sam Burns, having pulled his second to the left, can’t wedge close and he’ll have to make to do with par. He wears the look of a man who knows his race is run.

Kim Si-woo hits his chip from the back of 17 a little fat. He can’t make the 20-footer he leaves himself, and par means his race is almost certainly run. He’d have to hole his second on 18 to tie with Cameron Young in the clubhouse. He’s -7, and that fairway wood in was a hell of a shot. Not quite up there with Padraig Harrington back in the day, but it was something to witness nonetheless. An unlucky hard bounce. The small margins.

Bryson DeChambeau ends the week with a 72. He’s -4 overall. It promised so much, but Grassdance™ took the wind out of his sails, one way or another. Some may blame the R&A, others the player himself. But here we are. At least he made the cut, which he couldn’t manage in any of this year’s other majors. And the love spills down from the stand. It’s not quite Tommy levels, but the gallery appreciates the man’s star quality. He stops to sign a couple of golf balls as well. We’d miss him if he wasn’t here.

Ryan Fox takes an iron for safety on 17 … but a mix of adrenaline and the conditions take his ball into the fairway bunker 325 yards on the right! It’s only just toppled in, too, and he may have another almost impossible stance. What awful luck Fox is having. Sam Burns crashes his drive past that bunker and into the rough, but the lie looks reasonable. Meanwhile up the hole, Kim Si-woo padraigs a fairway wood into the green, a gentle fade in, but the ball keeps going and falls off the back. That’s so unfortunate, as well.

Ryan Fox walks in his birdie putt! That’s his third in four holes, and it’s happening for the veteran Kiwi at exactly the right time! Par for Sam Burns, who makes a fine sandy save. And with Lucas Herbert having bogeyed 17 after sending his tee shot into the thick rubbish down the left for the second day in a row, it looks like we’ve whittled it all down to four players: Young, Fox, Burns and Kim. It’s on!

-9: Young (F), Fox (16)
-8: Burns (16)
-7: Scheffler (F), Fleetwood (F), Kim (16)

Sam Burns attacks the flag on 16 with his second. He bites off too much. His ball slams into the bunker. Over to Ryan Fox. “Aw please be right!” And it is right! A wedge, pin high from 150 yards to ten feet. A big chance to reclaim a share of the lead. Just before those shots, Kim Si-woo was possibly kissing goodbye to his hopes, having missed the green at 16 to the right, from where he was unable to get up and down. He’s -7.

Sam Burns nearly makes his birdie putt … but it stays stubbornly out on the right lip. “How’s that stayed out?!” he mouths. Par will do on a very difficult hole … as Ryan Fox’s fate illustrates. He tidies up for bogey, and to be fair that’s sensational course management. There was no point risking everything on a high-tariff wonder shot. He’s taken his medicine, and he’s still in the mix. But he’s not still in the lead.

-9: Young (F)
-8: Kim (15), Fox (15), Burns (15)
-7: Scheffler (F), Herbert (16)

Fox doesn’t faff about. He knows there’s nothing to be gained in trying to be clever, so just accepts his fate. All he can do is play his ball back down the hole, and see what transpires from there. Try anything clever and he could be in a Thomas-Bjorn-infused world of pain. And it’s the right decision, because he chips up from 50 yards to six feet, and will have a good chance to limit the damage to bogey.

Ryan Fox takes the flag on at the par-three 15th. He’s on line … but doesn’t have the distance. The ball smacks into the face of the big revetted bunker … and pings back into the trap, all the way back, resting up against the front edge. At first glance, he might not have any backswing whatsoever. That’s an awful break for Fox, just as he’d scaled the heights. Sam Burns lands his tee shot about a yard further, onto the green, and will have a 20-foot look at birdie. The small margins. Oh my.

Kim Si-woo nearly drains a 30-footer across 15 for birdie. It shaves the right-hand edge of the cup. So close to joining Cameron Young in the lead. But Ryan Fox makes it! Whoops all around as the popular Kiwi – who doesn’t have a single top-ten finish at a major to his name – takes a step closer to the Claret Jug!

-9: Young (F), Fox (14)
-8: Kim (15), Burns (14)
-7: Scheffler (F), Herbert (15)

Ryan Fox is in the fescue to the left of 14. But he’s caught a good lie, and takes advantage of his luck, clipping confidently onto the green and rolling out to a couple of feet. Birdie incoming! Sam Burns however only just smacks his ball out of the bunker. He doesn’t commit to the stroke, and is fortunate the ball doesn’t topple back into the sand. He’s now got two putts from distance for par, in the knowledge that his playing partner will almost certainly be joining Cameron Young at the top.

Ryan Fox splits the fairway on the par-five 14th … then pulls his fairway wood over the back-left of the green. Sam Burns is also hitting his second from prime real estate … but his ball trickles into the pot bunker to the left of the green. Birdies still not beyond the realms, with the pin in an accessible position thanks to the contouring of the green, but the next shots are big.

Kim Si-woo knocks a fine wedge onto the green from a tight spot to the left of 14. He leaves himself an uphill look at birdie from 20 feet … and though he reads the right-to-left swing perfectly, he doesn’t give the putt enough oomph. His head drops a little, but he’s got away with that overly ambitious driver off the deck, and remains at -8.

The outgoing champion Scottie Scheffler talks to Sky Sports: “I was proud of how I fought today … I did my best … I tried to stay aggressive … I got two unfortunate bounces off the tee on 13 and 14 that really hurt … the [birdie on 17] was unusual … [the second shot] was a shot that I typically would not have played from over there! … maybe I should do it more often! … I played as hard as I could … I played a lot better than my score … the bounces not going my way … a lot of lips … I feel good that I could compete when things aren’t going my way.”

Lucas Herbert doesn’t get any spin on his chip in to 14. His ball shoots 30 feet past, and he can’t make the putt coming back. Just a par on the first of the two par-fives: he remains -7. Par as well for his playing partner Ludvig Åberg, who at -5 really needed something there. And when they clear off, Kim Si-woo decides to take driver off the deck out of rough down the right! Everyone going for broke like Scottie, it would seem. He doesn’t catch it, and sends his ball into more rough, down the left this time.

Sam Burns doesn’t take the flag on. He bundles a chip out to the right of the bunker, finding the green but leaving a 30-foot par putt. That’s a great percentage play … and he rakes in the putt, a right-to-left curler that’s perfectly judged! That could be huge; top marks for course management! Fox makes his birdie, and both men walk off with a spring in their step, for differing reasons.

-9: Young (F)
-8: Kim (13), Fox (13), Burns (13)
-7: Scheffler (F), Herbert (13)

Bother for Sam Burns down 13. Having sent his tee shot into the rough down the right, he tugs his second across the fairway and into thick nonsense on the left. He’s 50 yards out, with a bunker in his road, and not much green to play with, the pin tucked behind the trap. He’d grab a par with both hands. It’s not on offer. But birdie is a live option for Ryan Fox, who splits the fairway from the tee, then wedges to 12 feet.

Scottie chooses to putt around the left of the bunker, in the hope the topography will be his friend. But it’s not. His ball rolls harmlessly past the hole on the left, and he can’t make the six-footer coming back. A bogey to finish, a final round of 66, and a staunch defence of his title. He finishes the week at -7 … and the year without a major. Not too many people would have put cash money on that, four months ago. And so we’re now guaranteed a first-time major winner today!

-9: Young (F)
-8: Kim (12), Burns (12)
-7: Scheffler (F), Herbert (13), Fox (12)

Scottie’s lie down the right of 18 is as good as he could expect. But he doesn’t catch his iron properly. “No! No!” he cries as the ball lands apologetically in front of the bunker guarding the front-right portion of the green. He’ll need to chip in or hole a monster putt if he’s to grab a share of the clubhouse lead. It looks like his race is run … unless we’ve got a Costantino Rocca moment coming up. We haven’t got a Costantino Rocca moment coming up, have we?

Kim Si-woo takes putter from the bottom of the swale to the front of 12. He doesn’t really give it enough welly. That’s 15 feet short, and a second bogey in a row. Meanwhile back on 11, Ryan Fox drops a second shot in three holes, failing to get up and down from the right side of the green. He’s -7 and everyone at the moment is going backwards. This story is unfolding in a similar fashion to the 2003 Open at Sandwich … although to be clear, Cameron Young is on a completely different level to Ben Curtis. Then again, Curtis has a Claret Jug on his resumé; Young doesn’t. Not yet, anyway.

Meanwhile, Kim Si-woo can’t make his long par putt on 11, and it’s getting very intriguing now. Especially as his tee shot at 12 disappears into a depression to the left of the green … and Scottie Scheffler’s drive at 18 finds the rough down the right. At least he’s not in the bunker, and can go for the green. The lie not awful, either.

-9: Young (F), Kim (11)
-8: Scheffler (17), Fox (10), Burns (10)
-7: Herbert (12)

… and he makes that birdie, walking in the putt and clenching his fist in quiet determination. He’s now -8, and needs to make birdie on the last to join Cameron Young in the clubhouse lead. Only two players have made three there today. Godspeed, Scottie Scheffler!

To clarify (sort of): Scheffler’s first ball went into the hospitality centre, and everyone’s pretty sure of that. So even though they can’t find it, they can give him a free penalty drop at point of entry because it’s a temporary structure. He then gets line of sight. And finally he wedges over the huts from 100 yards to ten feet! If he birdies here, then makes another, we’re filing this one alongside Spieth for sure.

Pressure: more of it! Kim Si-woo sends his tee shot at 11 into a fairway bunker. He can only chop out, 70 yards down the track, and his ball disappears into thick rough. He finds the green with his third, and he’s pin high, but will need to rake in a 30-footer to save his par. Meanwhile more news of Scottie, whose travails on 17 are turning into a Spiethesque saga! Turns out they’ve found his first ball, and now he’s working out where he can drop. Only at the Open. Quite often at Birkdale!

The pressure is getting to everyone. Lucas Herbert’s second into 11 finds a bunker front left. He’s not got much backswing, and has a downhill lie, and he’s only able to bash out to 50 feet. Two putts later, and he slips to -7. Meanwhile it looks like Scottie Scheffler’s first ball is gone, nobody can find it, so he’ll have to play his provisional, which ended up in front of the hospitality stands, but still way left. Not sure why he went for broke with his second shot, to be honest: had he just sent an iron back into play, he could feasibly have got up and down from 100 yards, and hoped for birdie at the last to tie Cameron Young. But here we are, the jig pretty much up.

Bryson DeChambeau’s race is totally run. He’s forced to take an unplayable down the left of 11, and runs up a triple-bogey seven. He’s -2, and his story this week is all about the fescue. Meanwhile Scottie Scheffler looks to be unravelling as well: still running hot, he considers taking driver off the deck (!) with his ball sitting up, just in front of a bunker in the mounds down the left of 17. He opts for fairway wood instead, and yanks his ball towards the hospitality suites to the left of the green. Perhaps behind them. He takes a provisional, and does exactly the same thing. Oh my. It can happen to the best of them, and it’s just happened to Bryson and Scottie in short order. Open Sunday, everyone!

Scottie Scheffler is normally the coolest of customers. But he loses the place completely having sent his tee shot down the left of 17, his ball kicking further left and into thick oomska. “Why? WHY? Why … how does that even happen?! … the ball slicing … one bounce … one bounce!” Some proper full-throated yelling. Links golf, all y’all!

Bounceback birdie for Scottie Scheffler! It’s not quite over yet for the defending champion! He needs two birdies to finish, or an eagle on 17 perhaps. But he’s still alive and kicking.

-10: Kim (9)
-9: Young (F)
-8: Herbert (10), Fox (9), Burns (9)
-7: Scheffler (16)
-6: Jarvis (F), Gerard (9)

Problems for Ryan Fox on 9. His drive stops 60 yards short of the green. He overhits his chip, which trundles down the bank at the back into Fleetwood Country … then underhits the one coming back up. The ball only just reaches the top of the bank, before u-turning and disappearing into the thick grass. He does extremely well to knock his second attempt four feet past the flag, and tides up to limit the damage to bogey. Par meanwhile for Sam Burns, who has stemmed the bleeding if nothing else. Meanwhile back-to-back birdies for Lucas Herbert, who again and again simply refuses to buckle under pressure. If he wins this, they’ll be replaying that long blind iron into 17 yesterday for ever and ever.

The brilliant Cameron Young, slightly dejected but proud, speaks to Sky Sports. “I couldn’t have asked for a better start … I just kept it going nicely … very few opportunities to make bogey … at this point the greens aren’t perfect … so I was very proud … [his drive at 18] got blown really far right … it’s windy out there … then the strategy was try to make four … it didn’t work out … proud of the up and down for five … I could have made six and taken myself out of it entirely … I would have loved to be ten [under] … we’ll see … you’d expect somebody to get a few more under par.”

While all that drama was unfolding, Bryson DeChambeau was breaking his run of pars … with bogey on 9. Out in 35, and his hopes of winning this title are almost kaput. He’s -5. Tommy Fleetwood’s race is also pretty much run, with a third bogey on the bounce, this time at 11. He’s -5 as well. And it’s looking like Scottie Scheffler’s title defence is coming to an end, as he misses the green at the par-three 15th and fails to get up and down. Two bogeys in three holes, and at -6, the world number one’s been just that little bit off all week. And still only a handful of shots away from glory!

Cameron Young is going to take over from Casey Jarvis as clubhouse leader soon. But by how many strokes? Because having found the fairway bunker down the left, he thinks he can clear the revetted face. Wrong. He slams his ball straight into it. The ball pings out to the right, into the rough. He was nowhere near clearing that: there are eight layers of turf making up the face, and his ball exploded into the second from bottom. Then his third shot trickles into the bunker to the right of the green. Real trouble now. What typical Open drama!

We’ve been talking all week about Jackson Suber, Open debutant supreme. But he’s currently two over for his round, and -4 overall. Meanwhile the 22-year-old South African Casey Jarvis, also on debut, has just walked in a birdie, and timed his run to perfection! A blemish-free 66, and a player almost nobody has paid attention to all week is the new clubhouse leader at -6!

The last thing Cameron Young wants to do is send his driver into the bunker down the right of the 18th fairway … but that’s exactly what he does. Can he get over the face of the bunker to make the green? The truth will eventually out. Meanwhile a second consecutive bogey for Tommy Fleetwood, punishment for carving his tee shot miles right on 10. He’s back to -6 and the mood around Birkdale right now is best described as pensive.

Burns is two off Kim’s pace … and now two off Cameron Young as well. He bumps up at 17 to three feet, and tidies up for birdie. Meanwhile par for Kim on 7. This is going to be good.

-10: Young (17), Kim (7)
-9: Fox (6)
-8: Burns (6)
-7: Scheffler (13), Fleetwood (9)
-6: Dechambeau (8), Herbert (7), Gerard (7)

Sam Burns has to take a penalty drop from the hazard down the left of 6. His iron into the green isn’t all that, short and left, and he’s staring a double in the face. So given what’s recently happened to him, he gathers himself impressively to wedge from the top of a bank to kick-in distance, limiting the damage. But that’s still three bogeys in a row. He’s -8, two off Kim’s pace.

Rory McIlroy ends his week with bogey and a 71. He’s -1, and doesn’t hide his disappointment at a non-event of a week. Back on 17, Cameron Young sends his second just shy of the green: an up and down from the swale front-left will give him a share of the lead. And some bad luck for Bryson on 8, as he lands his approach on the green only for the spin, and then the contours of the putting surface, to take his ball back into a bunker. He makes a sandy save, but that’s now eight pars on the bounce. Faldoesque! More of that sweet, sweet irony. He’s -6.

… Kim Si-woo’s second at 6 rolls into a swale to the left of the green. He takes putter … and whistles the down-and-up-and-across 20-footer in for birdie! As Sam Burns slips out of the lead, Kim goes the other way to snatch it for himself! Meanwhile Tommy Fleetwood can’t get up and down from the back of 9, and he slips back to -7. Scottie Scheffler ends up with bogey as well, that wild drive on 13 so costly.

-10: Kim (6)
-9: Young (16), Fox (5), Burns (5)
-7: Scheffler (13), Fleetwood (9)
-6: DeChambeau (7), Herbert (6), Gerard (6)

Trouble for Scottie Scheffler on 13. His sends his driver miles right of the fairway, and his ball plugs in a sandy dune. He can only see the top half of his Titleist! He needs two big whacks to get his ball back onto the fairway. Meanwhile Tommy Fleetwood hits a hot one through the 9th green and down a bank at the back. And Sam Burns chips through the green on 5, then from the bottom of the swale at the back, overhits a putt up, 20 feet past. He can’t make the long par putt. Exceptionally careless … and now he’s pulled his tee shot at 6 into a ditch! Burns unravelling … just as Jordan Spieth did at this point in 2017. So there’s that. Leaderboard update coming in a sec, because …

Kim Si-woo could be the danger man here, you know. Sky Sports have just flashed up a graphic that shows the back-nine scoring this week of the leading contenders. Consider this! It’s something to consider as we reach the business end of this Open. And remember that old saw: major championships only begin on the back nine on Sunday.

-7: Kim
-5: Burns
-2: Fox
-1: Fleetwood
E: Scheffler

… and it continues to heat up, because Kim Si-woo lays up from the tee on 5, then sends a wedge screeching to a halt right next to the cup. He taps in to join the group on Sam Burns’ shoulder, and the 31-year-old, who has just one top-ten finish in 37 previous major appearances, is in with a big shout of becoming the first Korean winner of the Open! Bogey meanwhile for his playing partner Ryan Gerard, the result of a fluffed chip from a dirt track to the back-left of the green. Gerard slips to -6.

-10: Burns (4)
-9: Young (14), Kim (5), Fox (4)
-8: Scheffler (12), Fleetwood (8)

Russell Henley bogeys the last. A 5-5-5 finish, and yet he still signs for a 66. That could have been so much better. He’s the new clubhouse leader at -5. Meanwhile another birdie at long last for Scottie Scheffler, at the par-three 12th. The defending champ moves to within two strokes of the leader, at -8. And also moving to within two: Tommy Fleetwood, who smoothly strokes home a downhill right-to-left slider from 15 feet on 8! A clenched fist, a glance to the gallery, and good luck calling this Open now!

-10: Burns (4)
-9: Young (14), Fox (4)
-8: Scheffler (12), Fleetwood (8), Kim (4)

It’s now six pars in a row to start for Bryson DeChambeau. He’ll be pretty happy with this latest one, given the way he zig-zagged up 6, chopping his second out of thick rough on the left into some more nonsense down the right. But he chips up to ten feet and rolls in the straight uphill putt. He remains at -6.

Sam Burns looks a bag of nerves. He leaves his tee shot at the par-three 4th 15 yards short of the green. His chip up isn’t great, and he can’t make the 15-footer that remains. Bogey, his first since the 9th hole yesterday, and only his second since Thursday! Ryan Fox meanwhile gets up and down from a pot bunker at the front of the green … while on 14, Cameron Young, who appears to be in the mood to set a clubhouse target, makes birdie to move within one! Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves an Open!

-10: Burns (4)
-9: Young (14), Fox (4)
-8: Kim (4)
-7: Scheffler (11), Fleetwood (7), Herbert (7), Gerard (4)

Tommy Fleetwood can’t believe his bad luck on the par-three 7th. Having missed the green long and left, he wedges back up and starts his ball rolling on what looks like an inexorable journey into the hole. But it somehow curls around the edge of the cup on the right before turning back to stop slap-bang behind the hole. How did that stay out? The ball sits there, as if cheekily smiling back at Tommy. It’s almost cute. Jellycat should sue. Fleetwood cocks his head back in anguish. He remains at -7.

Two putts for Bryson DeChambeau, and that’s five pars in a row. Not fatal to his dreams, but not the fast start he dreamed of either. He remains -6. Sam Burns and Ryan Fox both get up and down to save their pars at 3, but in vastly different ways: Burns splashes out close from sand, but Fox bumps his chip 20 feet past the flag … only to judge the downhill snake coming back perfectly. What a putt! And on 16, Rory McIlroy three-putts from eight feet, and that’s a double bogey. He’s -1.

-11: Burns (3)
-9: Fox (3)
-8: Young (13), Kim (4)
-7: Scheffler (10), Fleetwood (6), Gerard (4)

Realistically, if the chasing pack want a chance, they’ll need the pair in the final group to stall a bit. And on 3, Sam Burns and Ryan Fox prepare to open the door. Both drive wild and approach inaccurately, Fox short of the green, Burns in a bunker. Big scrambles coming up.

More fun and games for Bryson DeChambeau on 5! No, not over there. He misses the green left, and nearly knocks his pitch into the bunker over the other side. The gallery with the pantomime ooooooohs as the ball toys with the idea of dropping off the green, where it’d be taken away into the trap by the contours. He’ll have a 30-footer for birdie.

A couple of players take a step backwards. Ludvig Åberg, who had done well to save par on 2 after racing an excitable birdie effort five feet past, gets wild off the tee on 3 and pays the price with bogey. He’s -5. And his playing partner Lucas Herbert also drops a shot at 3, taking two to extricate himself from an awkward position in a greenside bunker. He’s -6.

Tommy tidies up for his birdie on 5, and the Southport massive does its thing. Back on 2, Ryan Fox, who had clipped his second pin high to 15 feet, dribbles the downhill birdie putt straight into the cup. Then Burns makes his shorter one. A pair of birdies. Things hotting up real nice!

-11: Burns (2)
-9: Fox (2)
-8: Young (12), Kim (2)
-7: Scheffler (9), Fleetwood (5), Gerard (2)

Tommy Fleetwood’s drive at 5 finishes in a swale, front left of the green. With soft hands, he bumps a chip up to 18 inches. Meanwhile back on the nearby 2nd green, Sam Burns wedges his second pin high to four feet. A couple of big putts coming up.

Scottie can’t make his birdie on 9. It’s a poor effort, swished with great uncertainty, the ball always dying to the low side on the right. His putter has gone cold at exactly the wrong moment: he missed a birdie putt from pretty similar distance on the hole before, too. Meanwhile Sam Burns and Ryan Fox make fairly fuss-free pars at 1. And Russell Henley misses a tiddler on 16 to drop back to -6. There goes that 62 dream.

-10: Burns (1)
-8: Young (12), Kim (2), Fox (1)
-7: Scheffler (9), Herbert (2), Gerard (2)

Scottie Scheffler doesn’t take a shy at the 9th green. Instead he plays the percentages, sending his tee shot to the corner of the dogleg, then knocking a short iron from 160 yards to six. He’ll have a putt to reach the turn in 30.

The final pairing – Game No62 No39 – takes to the course. Ryan Fox splits the fairway. Sam Burns, looking a little nervous, catches a good lie in the semi-rough down the right. Having to wait all day to tee off last in a major must be arduous enough; an extra 14 minutes is putting a hat on a hat.

Cameron Young’s second into 11 kicks off to the right of the green and down a swale. He bumps his chip into the bank, up and over, the ball rolling round from right to left to eight inches. So close to a perfectly judged chip-in, wonderful shotmaking with the contours. Links mastery. He’s already got a second-place finish on his CV (2022 at St Andrews, behind Cameron Smith) after all. Young remains at -8.

Ludvig Åberg is one dimple away from opening birdie, but his 30-foot putt shaves the right-hand side of the cup. He remains at -6. Par too for one of this week’s Mr 62s, Lucas Herbert. Behind them, Ryan Gerard and Kim Si-woo get down to business. All of the groups are out now … apart from one. And they’ll be teeing off in a couple of minutes.

Bryson DeChambeau looks mildly disgusted with himself for missing a ten-foot birdie putt on 1. Jackson Suber maintains his gameface despite making bogey, the result of that wayward tee shot, which snagged in heavy rough. The 18-hole leader slips back to -5.

Cameron Young birdies 9, as so many do. Not so many cover the front nine in 29 strokes, though. Well, Ryan Fox did it yesterday, and Denis Durnian went one better here in 1983, still the Open record for the front nine. The Players champion is making up for his dreadful back nine yesterday evening: 40 strokes that may prove so painfully costly. But let’s see how it all pans out. If he posts something … and see also Russell Henley, who birdies 14. The two Americans at this rate hunting down another couple of 62s?

-10: Burns
-8: Young (9), Fox, Kim
-7: Henley (14), Scheffler (6), Gerard, Herbert
-6: Matsuyama (3), Fleetwood (1), DeChambeau (1), Åberg

… Tommy Fleetwood drains a 73-footer from the fringe at the front of 1!!! Shoulders UP! Shoulders BACK! One of those putts that looked inevitable halfway along its journey, a left-to-right swinger that disappeared into the hole like a mouse with a piece of cheese. He smiles so wide and hard that his teeth almost outshine the sun. The crowd go bonkers. What a start! The dream is alive! He’s -6.

Speaking of folk heroes: here comes Bryson DeChambeau! He’s certainly not going to die wondering, and puts everything he’s got into his opening drive. A monster that bounds down the fairway before scuttling into the semi-rough on the right. He’ll be going round with the debut sensation Jackson Suber, who toys with OB down the right but stays in. There was a huge roar as he took his shot. And that’s because …

Rory McIlroy’s momentum-free week continues to bumble along apace. Having birdied 10, he immediately hands the shot back at 11, the result of finding a fairway bunker with his tee shot and being forced to take his medicine in it. Meanwhile more news on the status of Tommy Fleetwood’s shoulders: drooped. He’s got a decent enough lie, and cracks an iron towards the green, his ball creeping onto the front, just. But he clearly wanted more, and lets those shoulders fall as he offloads to his caddie. He appears agitated, the weight of carrying the gallery’s hopes and dreams around with him all week perhaps beginning to tell. A local hero is something to be.

The final few games are running late, due to a rules brouhaha in an earlier match. So if you’ve been hammering away at refresh waiting for news of Tommy Fleetwood, here he comes now. The usual hubbub on the tee, then he takes his fairway wood, hits the ball, and twirls the club in satisfaction. Not exactly sure why, because his ball disappears into a thick clump of grass atop a bank to the left of the fairway. Some tension in the shoulders no doubt.

Another birdie for Scottie Scheffler! He crashes his drive at 5 greenside, chips up to four feet, and rolls in the putt. No fuss. The defending champion is now -7, and if he continues like this, posts a number, and the late-starting leaders have to deal with the cranking up of both wind and pressure … well now, we’d have quite the Open. A long way to go yet.

A good couple of minutes for Ireland. Rory McIlroy finally makes a putt, on 10, while Shane Lowry holes out from a bunker at 4. It’s back-to-back birdies for the 2019 champion, who clenches a fist in celebration. At -5, you can be sure he’s not going to admit defeat just yet. Rory is -4. But any faint Scottish hopes of a first title since Paul Lawrie seized the day in 1999 have gone south. Consecutive bogeys for Bob MacIntyre, at 6 and 7, and he’s back to -2.

Russell Henley keeps on keepin’ on! He sends his approach at 11 from 156 yards to 14 feet, and the putt drops for his fifth birdie of the day. The rest of his card is unblemished, so he just needs another three birdies in the last seven holes to join Club 62. And there are scoring opportunities all around Royal Birkdale.

On the subject of Bryson, who reportedly threatened to walk upon being penalised for his fescue shoe shuffle, here’s the story of one player who actually walked it like he talked it. Courtesy of an old Joy of Six on the Open.

The 16th Open Championship was the second to be held on the famous Old Course at St Andrews and the first to descend into total farce. From the outset, there was trouble brewing. The organisers had forgotten – golfers who have been unlucky in the St Andrews ballot will love this – to book the course for the tournament, so competitors had to grab tee times when they could, going out for their rounds while members of the general public hooked and shanked to their hearts’ delight around them. Delightful bedlam.

Sure enough, this would eventually ruin the Championship. It is said that the best two players of the early 1870s were Young Tom Morris and David Strath. Morris had pipped Strath to the Open in 1870 and 1872, but died of a broken heart on Christmas Day 1875, a few months after his wife and newborn baby had died during a difficult labour. With his main rival tragically out of the picture, it was assumed an Open victory for Strath would come along sooner or later.

With two holes of his second and final round to play, 1876 looked like being Strath’s year. Bob Martin was in the clubhouse having just shot 90 for a total of 176, a mark which meant Strath would win the title if he got home in 10 strokes. Having played his second straight down the middle of the fairway at the Road Hole, the group ahead were faffing around on the green. Strath – his patience worn by two rounds of nonsense on a ludicrously busy course – clipped his third shot into the green the very moment the group ahead finished the hole. But they had not completely vacated the green, and his approach hit one of the players, the ball stopping near the hole instead of bouncing through and on to the road running behind.

Strath still took two putts for a five. He should have sealed the deal with a careful passage up the last, but got caught up in the Valley of Sin and took six. He too signed for a 90, tied on 176 with Martin. A play-off was therefore scheduled for the following Monday, but there had also been complaints about the incident back on 17, and the R&A committee refused to rule until after the deciding round was complete. Understandably, Strath reasoned that there was no point playing if he was only going to be disqualified anyway and demanded a decision before they teed off. None was forthcoming. Strath walked, leaving Martin with the formality of competing in the play-off himself for the right to become Open champion.

Strath competed again the following year at Musselburgh, but only came fifth, six shots behind the winner Jamie Anderson. It was his last Open. Two years later, he left on a boat for Australia, suffering from tuberculosis and seeking a cure in sunnier climes. He had bought a return ticket, but never came back, laryngitis adding to his physical woes, and he succumbed in Melbourne not long after his arrival. Another grim story, but seven top-10 Open finishes in eight attempts, including three second-place finishes, isn’t a bad legacy to be leaving.

Rory McIlroy’s front nine has been his 2026 Open in microcosm. A plethora of birdie chances, a lot of putts steadfastly refusing to drop, momentum a pipe dream. He birdied 2 and 6, bogeyed 7, and on the short par-four 9th – birdie, birdie, eagle on the first three days – he sends a chip long and has to settle for par. Out in 33, and he’ll not be troubling the engraver this week. He’s already etched his name onto this particular Open’s story, to be fair.

Russell Henley finished in the top ten in 2024 and 2025, and the hat-trick isn’t out of the question yet. The 37-year-old from Georgia, who is something of a late bloomer in the majors – he tied for third at this year’s Masters, and for fourth at Augusta in 2023 – started the day at -1, but has made a big move thanks to birdies at 2, 3, 9 and now 10. The latest a dainty chip-in over the bunker at the front of the green, his ball landing gently on the shoulder and rolling into the cup. He’s zoomed up the standings to -5.

-10: Burns
-8: Fox, Kim
-7: Young (6), Gerard, Herbert
-6: Scheffler (3), Åberg, DeChambeau, Suber
-5: Henley (10), Neergaard-Petersen, Fleetwood

It’s fair to say the opening tee shot has got into Jon Rahm’s head. He hoicked it out of bounds down the right yesterday … and now he’s done exactly the same thing today. That leads to double bogey, just as it did yesterday, and he drops back to -2.

So is there a score out there if someone wants to make a charge? Of course there’s a score out there, we’ve had three 62s already this week. A fourth is probably a pipe dream, with the wind picking up in the afternoon as it always does … but then rule nothing out, because these gentlemen are good. There are already three players back in the house with 66s: Matthew Southgate (E), John Parry (-2) and Rickie Fowler, who at -3 is the very early clubhouse leader. But there are a couple of big names only just out who are also illustrating the point. Scottie Scheffler has thrown darts at the flag on both of the opening two holes, and his birdie-birdie start takes him to -6. Cameron Young meanwhile has birdied four of the first five holes to rise to within three of Sam Burns’ overnight lead. How he’ll be ruing his miserable back nine of 40 yesterday evening. But that hour and a half, when the wheels came off, hasn’t cost him yet.

-10: Burns
-8: Fox, Kim
-7: Young (5), Gerard, Herbert
-6: Scheffler (2), Åberg, DeChambeau, Suber
-5: Neergaard-Petersen, Fleetwood