Shane Lowry struggled to a six-over-par 77 in atrocious conditions on Saturday but remains only three strokes behind leader Billy Horschel entering the final round of the Open Championship at Royal Troon.
Lowry got into the clubhouse on one-over, with American Horschel four-under and one clear of a cluster that includes qualifier Dan Brown, who wrote another chapter in his incredible Open story to set up a thriller of a final day.
Brown - the world number 272 - held the outright lead until an unfortunate double bogey on the 18th. He sits alongside Justin Rose, Russell Henley, Sam Burns, Thriston Lawrence and Xander Schauffele on three-under, with Scottie Scheffler two-under and Lowry one more back.
The 2019 champion began the day with a two-stroke lead, briefly extending it to three following a birdie at the par-five fourth.
Lowry's troubles started at the short eighth hole, the famous 'postage stamp', which he had birdied twice over the opening two days. Leading by one stroke after a missed birdie putt on the seventh, he found the deep greenside bunker with his tee shot.
Unable to aim at the pin, his pitch trickled off the green into the rough at the back. He was unable to get up and down from there, his 10ft bogey putt sliding by the cup.
Things went downhill from there, as they entered into the back nine in the teeth of the wind.
The conditions had been at their most benign this week earlier on Saturday, with early starters Thriston Lawrence, Sam Burns and Russell Henley parachuting themselves into contention with rounds of 65, 65 and 66 respectively to sit three-under par, one off the lead at the close of play.
However, the late starters got the worst of the weather and Lowry, unsettled by the double-bogey and a number of narrowly missed birdie putts, suffered more than anyone.
Again, the ferociously difficult 11th, the 'Railway hole', was a source of woe. With out of bounds on the right, Lowry pulled his approach short and left and played a poorish recovery pitch, leaving par out of reach.
He dropped another on the 12th after missing the green to the left, losing the lead for the first time in the round.
A damaging three-putt on the par-3 14th saw him fall further back, while his unheralded playing partner Daniel Brown, saved par after a wild tee shot which veered left.
The 502 yard-15th was close to impossible into the wind and Lowry was unable to reach in two even after playing driver off the fairway.
Now back on two-under and a four shots off the pace, the frustration began to tell as Lowry bashed the ground in fury with his driver after drilling his tee-shot at the 238-yard par-3 17th into the left greenside bunker. However, this was the hole when a long putt finally dropped, Lowry sinking a terrific par putt, as the leader Brown bogeyed and slipped back to five-under.
The 18th hole was exceptionally messy for Lowry. After a wickedly sliced drive, Lowry's recovery shot wound up in the front row of the grandstand adjacent to the last. Afforded a free drop, his pitch shot was deeply underwhelming. While the subsequent par putt was decent, it again stopped one roll short of the hole. After a scarring, often traumatic back nine, Lowry reached the clubhouse on one-under.
"Three back, you're still right in the tournament but this is going to take me a couple of hours to get over," Lowry said afterwards.
"It's just hard because I felt like I played unbelievable golf. I missed the first fairway but then didn’t miss another fairway until 16.
"I hit some great iron shots but just didn’t hole the putts early on when I had the chances, and then I missed a few par putts.
"Obviously it was hard. I don’t really know what to say. It was a grind."
FULL LEADERBOARD
His playing partner Brown had more trouble, winding up in the bunker for his fourth and deciding it was prudent to aim away from the pin, resulting in a double-bogey.
In a suddenly tightly congested field, this left Horschel, playing in the penultimate group with Rose, in sole possession of the overnight lead, after a terrific 69 in the inclement weather.
Billy Horschel with a brilliant shot from the bunker on the 14th.
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2024
He has that to save par and remain tied for the lead. pic.twitter.com/sCxqCO12Ig
The American, who flipped his baseball cap the wrong way around due to rain dripping off the rim, was out in 32, after a quarter of birdies between the fourth and ninth.
This left him with something to defend as they faced into the fiendishly difficult back nine, Horschel scrambling brilliantly to save par on the way home. With regulation play essentially out of the question, the former BMW PGA champion scrambled pars on 13, 14, 15 and 17, somehow escaping without a dropped stroke from a near-impossible looking bunker shot on the 14th.
In the end, he only wound up with dropped strokes on the 11th and the 18th on the back nine. Tied for the lead coming to the last, his approach from way back in the fairway was short and left.
"There's a couple of things that are missing on my CV," Horschel said, after his round.
"Obviously being part of a Ryder Cup, hopefully a victorious Ryder Cup, and then a major. I want to win more than one major.
"I’ve won a lot of really good events on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.
"I’m also content that, if a major doesn’t happen in my career, I can be satisfied with what I’ve done in the game of golf, that I’ve given it everything I’ve had.
"And if it’s not meant to be, it’s not meant to be, but I know that I can look myself in the mirror in the next 10 to 15 years and say 'Hey, listen, I did everything I could to be the best player I could, and it just wasn’t on the cards for me to win a major.
"I look at guys that have had heck of careers, Lee Westwood, Steve Stricker, and they don’t have a major on their record.
"I’ve learned a lot about the game of golf playing 15 years professionally. I think I’ve learned how to handle my emotions.
"I’ve learned how to embrace a lot of things. I’m never afraid to fail."
His playing partner Rose, seeking to win a second major 11 years after the first at the US Open in Merion, dug in bravely on Saturday, battling to a 73 with just three dropped strokes to lie in the sextet of players on three-under par.
PGA champion Schauffele is in the bunch of players on three-under, the American carding 33 on the outward nine with early birdies on the second and third, and then holding firm with just two bogeys on the inward nine.
Scheffler is on his own in eighth spot, one stroke ahead of Lowry, after a tidy even par 71, with two birdies and two bogeys.
"The back nine, I think was probably the hardest nine holes that I'll ever play," the World No. 1 said in his press conference after the round.
"I shouldn’t say ever, but it’s definitely the hardest that I’ve played to this point. I probably don’t hit a three-wood on a par-three very often."
Earlier, Padraig Harrington posted an even par 71 to sit tied-25th, though it was a more difficult day for Holywood's Tom McKibbin, who is nine-over par after a round of 77.
2011 champion Darren Clarke, who just sneaked inside the cut-line, is +11 after posting 76.
With additional reporting: PA
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