The Open 2024: final round updates – live | The Open

It’s amateur hour on 18 … and it’s the world number one Scottie Scheffler giving every weekend hacker some succour. He takes iron off the tee for position, only to thin it into nearby rough, his ball not even reaching the fairway! He’s forced to take a drop, after which he nearly hits his playing partner Dan Brown, waiting 150 yards up the hole. He ends up wedging four into the heart of the green. Not particularly close. Scheffler’s not been on it at all this week by his usual skyscraping standards, and yet despite that fiasco on 9 and this farce, he’s still going to finish in the top ten at an Open which has laid waste to so many other big stars. He’ll be back!

… but it’s really unlikely to happen here. Xander Schauffele aims for the meaty part of the 17th green as opposed to the flag. No need to get too greedy and bring the bunkers on the right into play. He lands his ball pin high. It’s going to be up to the others to make a dramatic move … which Russell Henley does with a 25-foot rake for birdie across 15. But it’s much too little, much too late.

-9: Schauffele (16)
-6: Rose (16), Lawrence (15)
-5: Henley (15)
-4: Lowry (F), Horschel (15)

Par for Shane Lowry at the last. A 68. Yesterday afternoon cost him so dearly. He ends the week at -4 having come so close to a second Claret Jug. Licked by the Postage Stamp. He got as far up the leaderboard as -8 yesterday … but now Xander Schauffele breaks new ground, cleaning up on 16 for his fourth birdie in the last six holes! Justin Rose birdies as well, but knows the jig is almost certainly up, barring a big collapse. Schauffele looks happy and relaxed enough for that to be a majorly unlikely occurrence … and yet the closing holes of an Open … we’ve seen it happen before …

Xander Schauffele takes no chances at the par-five 16th. A fairway wood off the tee. He can’t reach the green with his second, but then that wouldn’t have been certain even with driver. He leaves himself a tricky chip over a bunker for his third. But no matter. He clips it crisply to four feet. The putt that remains has a little bit of tricky swing, but should he make it, he’d be so close to victory. Meanwhile back on 15, Thriston Lawrence finds the green in regulation, but nowhere near the flag, and he’ll have to settle for par.

Im Sung-jae joins Jon Rahm in the clubhouse lead at -1. The 26-year-old Korean, a joint runner-up at the Masters in 2020, came back in 32 strokes. He’s assured of a top-ten finish this week, his best return at the Open yet, and by some distance. Meanwhile another top-ten finish may be just outside Matthew Jordan’s reach: his 71 today means he ends the week on level par, and will need Dan Brown to do him a favour by bogeying the last if he’s to be exempt next year.

Thriston Lawrence doesn’t hit his birdie putt on 14. Xander Schauffele’s effort on 15 dies to the right. We are where we were, with the fairly major caveat that both players are one hole closer to the clubhouse, and the Californian is one step closer to claiming the Claret Jug. Birdie for Scottie Scheffler on 16, meanwhile, but it’s too little, too late for the world number one, who will surely be sickened by his double-bogey carelessness on 9. Without that, he’d still be right in this championship.

-8: Schauffele (15)
-6: Lawrence (14)
-5: Rose (15)
-4: Lowry (17), Henley (14), Horschel (14)
-3: Scheffler (16)

Shane Lowry comes up short at the par-three 17th. But never mind! He takes out the old Texas Wedge and from the best part of 50 feet steers a putt over a big mound and into the cup! He roars in wild celebration. It’s not quite over yet! Another birdie up the last, and the 2019 champion will post a number that would give the leaders something to think about as they make their way home. He’s -4.

Xander Schauffele is relentless right now. He’s on 15 in regulation with another good look at birdie coming up. But there’s a huge break for Thriston Lawrence on the par-three 14th, a tee shot leaking left but caroming off the shoulder of a bunker and kicking right, ending up pin high, 14 feet away. Couple of big birdie putts coming up, that could almost decide this Open or put it all back in the balance. “Turns out Buckfast is illegal over here,” writes a disappointed Joe Pearson of Indianapolis, who is nevertheless bearing up bravely. “I’m a Chardonnay man anyway. After all, it’s just past noon here. Cheers!” Pour one for me. I’ll be round in 28 hours.

One of the shots of the day by Billy Horschel, who had dumped his second into the thickest of filth to the right of 13. He fires a low scuttler out of the rough, judging the undulations perfectly, the ball oscillating this way and that before stopping one inch away from the cup. Simply sensational, though he’s not of a mind to celebrate it. At -4, with holes running out, he really needs something to happen quicksmart. That was so close to be painful. Par, though, and that’s all Thriston Lawrence can manage, his birdie effort always dying off to the left. He remains at -6, two behind the pace set by Xander Schauffele.

Xander Schauffele splits the middle of 15. Justin Rose cracks one down there too. Coming behind, Thriston Lawrence isn’t giving up hope, and arrows his second into 13 straight at the flag. He’ll have a look at birdie from 15 feet.

Justin Rose’s tee shot at 14 only just hangs onto the back edge of the green. He nearly rakes in the birdie putt from the fringe, but for the lack of one last rotation. He remains at -5 … but now he’s three back, because Xander Schauffele tickles in his gentle left-to-right downhill slider from 12 feet, and that’s his third birdie in four holes. He allows himself a small smile of satisfaction as he walks off the green. He’s blown up from better positions in quite a few big tournaments before … but he didn’t at the PGA this year, and now he knows he can get the job done. Four holes away from glory.

-8: Schauffele (14)
-6: Lawrence (12)
-5: Rose (14)

Thriston Lawrence has bogeyed the 13th twice already this week. That doesn’t stop him unsheathing the driver yet again today. He’s rewarded as he splits the fairway. A staunch response to dropping his first stroke of the day. “‘The Rolex hour’ has just started on Sky, or, as I like to call it in my house, the Buckfast hour,” writes Simon McMahon. “A little tonic wine to steady the nerves ahead of the final stretch. I think the R&A would approve, don’t you?” You can take the man out of Dundee, but you can’t take … actually, he’s still in Dundee, isn’t he? Mine’s an R&A-approved fortified beverage, Simon, I’ll be round in 14 hours.

Thriston Lawrence’s par putt is always dying off to the right. A decent enough effort. The tee shot cost him there, to be fair. But he’s no longer leading the Open … and the new man at the top, Xander Schauffele, plops his tee shot at the par-three 14th pin high. He’ll have a 12-foot look to extend his advantage.

-7: Schauffele (13)
-6: Lawrence (12)
-5: Rose (13)
-4: Henley (12), Horschel (12)
-3: Lowry (15)
-2: Scheffler (14)

From the centre of 13, Xander Schauffele wedges to 12 feet, and makes the left-to-right slider that remains. The birdie gives him a share of the lead at -7! Justin Rose, pin high, can’t make his birdie putt and he remains two behind. Meanwhile back on 12, Thriston Lawrence, who is in a very similar spot to the one Justin Rose found himself a few moments ago, makes a slightly better job of his bump up the bank. Safely on the green, though the 13-foot putt he’s left with is well within his wheelhouse. Big putt coming up.

Billy Horschel does indeed get a lucky break, finding his ball on a trodden-down patch behind a bush he can easily clear. He finds the centre of the green. Thriston Lawrence hasn’t got the best lie, though, and his second flies off towards the gallery on the right. The ball pings off the boot of a punter and settles down in some semi-thick rough near some TV cables. A wee spot of trouble here.

The leader Thriston Lawrence sends his tee shot at 12 into thick rough down the left. Billy Horschel’s effort is even worse – he exclaims an “aw shoot”^† as he snap-hooks it towards the gorse bushes – though the gallery may have saved him. If he catches a break here, it might restore some belief that’s been missing since his error at the Postage Stamp. Meanwhile Russell Henley comes up short at 12 with a chip, but curls in the left-to-right 15-footer he leaves himself to salvage par. He pumps the air to celebrate staying at -4.

^{† He doesn’t say “shoot”.}

The wind’s dropped a bit, and the temperature is rising, in more ways than one. So there could be a few more birdies, or at least some more aggressive play, than we’d been expecting. So having said that, there are welcome pars for Thriston Lawrence and Billy Horschel on 11, the hardest hole on the course navigated without drama.

-7: Lawrence (11)
-6: Schauffele (12)
-5: Rose (12)
-4: Henley (11), Horschel (11)
-3: Lowry (14)
-2: Scheffler (13)

Ah, Justin Rose’s ball has rolled into a tuft of thicker rough … and he doesn’t really commit to the chip coming up the bank. His ball only just makes it up onto the green. For a second it threatened to topple back, so not a total disaster, but he’s still left with a very tricky 20-foot par putt over a hump with some right-to left swing. He gives it a good go, but the ball dies off a little to the left just at the end, and that’s a bogey that drops him to -5. It’s only his fifth bogey of the week. Two careful putts for Xander Schauffele meanwhile and that’s a par he might not have been expecting after his errant drive. He remains at -6.

Xander Schauffele sends his tee shot into deep trouble down the right of 12. He’s left with a dreadful lie, but takes a vicious swipe through the grass to fire his ball out of the bother and into the heart of the green. A long two putts for par, but he’d have taken that all day long. His playing partner Justin Rose meanwhile misses the green from the centre of the fairway, though the up and down that remains from the bottom of the swale is far from impossible.

Dustin Johnson briefly arrived on the edges of the scene a couple of hours ago at level par. But he made a couple of double bogeys on the way back, a stretch he navigated in 41 strokes. A 75 in the end and he ends his week at +6, having shown brief glimpses of the old magic for the first time in quite a while. Jon Rahm meanwhile ends the week with an impressive 68. At -1 he’s the new clubhouse leader, his best showing in a major since departing the PGA Tour for LIV.

Sam Burns carves a wild drive at 11 over the railway tracks, and any slim chance he had departs with his ball. He’s -1 but won’t be there much longer. Meanwhile up on the green, Justin Rose hits an overly excitable putt from the fringe, leaving himself a missable four footer coming back. But he makes it to remain at -6 …. while Xander Schauffele, having hit a glorious second from the semi-rough on the left, over a bush 170 yards out to two-and-a-half feet, rolls in his birdie putt to insert himself slap-bang into the mix. This is going to be a nailbiter!

-7: Lawrence (10)
-6: Rose (11), Schauffele (11)
-4: Henley (10), Horschel (10)

Billy Horschel is beginning to get a bit ragged. He sends his second at 10 down a swale to the right, and slightly thins the chip coming up. He can’t make the 25-foot putt he leaves himself, and that’s another shot gone. He’s back to where he started the day at -4. Two careful putts from Thriston Lawrence, and that’s one difficult hole ticked off.

-7: Lawrence (10)
-6: Rose (10)
-5: Schauffele (10)
-4: Henley (10), Horschel (10)
-3: Lowry (12)
-2: Scheffler (11)

If Thriston Lawrence goes on to win the Open, he’d become the fifth South African champion. The unheralded 27-year-old would be instantly elevated into the pantheon alongside three genuine legends and one very, very good player indeed: Bobby Locke (1949, 1950, 1952 and 1957), Gary Player (1959, 1968 and 1974), Ernie Els (2002 and 2012) and Louis Oosthuizen (2010). No pressure, then.

Calum Scott wins silver medal

You’ll have noticed the absence of Shane Lowry on that leaderboard update. That’s because while he knocks his wedge at 11 from 50 yards to four feet, he can’t make the par saver. He drops to -3.

Thriston Lawrence would surely be the biggest shock Open champion since Todd Hamilton made off with the Claret Jug from under the nose of Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson here in 2004. He’s putting himself in position with some brave play, crashing a drive miles down 9 when others have been playing it safe. He screws his wedge from 140 yards to five feet. In goes the putt, and a potentially huge story is developing here. The 27-year-old South African has some big recent DP Tour wins on his CV – the Joburg Open and European Masters in 2022, the South African Open and BMW International Open in 2023 – but nothing anywhere near this level. He’s missed four of his five last cuts on the PGA Tour, three of his last five on the DP World … but he did tie for second in the European Open last month. So make of all that what you will.

-7: Lawrence (9)
-6: Rose (10)
-5: Schauffele (10), Horschel (9)
-4: Henley (9)

Not for the first time this week, Shane Lowry sends his drive at 11 into the filth down the right. Having come a cropper from this position before – leading to double bogey on Friday – he takes his medicine and chops out. But he’s got a job on now to save his par.

Billy Horschel splashes out from the bunker to three feet. It looks perfectly judged, but a super-slow-mo replay shows the ball shaving the top of the bank as it arcs upwards and out. A couple of millimetres lower, and that was coming back into the sand. But he doesn’t take advantage of his good fortune, pulling his short putt to the left of the cup. A careless bogey. Thriston Lawrence can’t make his birdie putt, the ball always dying to the right, but it’s a par and he’s now one of just two folk in possession of a share.

-6: Rose (9), Lawrence (8)
-5: Schauffele (9), Horschel (8)
-4: Lowry (10), Henley (9)
-2: Scheffler (9), Burns (8)
-1: Rahm (15)

This could be Thriston Lawrence’s day. His tee shot at the Postage Stamp looks like heading for the Coffin bunker, but it stops on the top of the bank and rolls back into the heart of the green. He’ll have a good look at birdie, pin high from 12 feet. Billy Horschel is the last man to play this wee beastie … and could become the last to come a cropper here, because he sends his wedge too far right, the tilt of the green taking his ball towards the depression that gathers it into the bunker on the right. Big moment coming up at the top of the standings here.

It’s been a birdie-fest on the front nine. Thriston Lawrence makes the latest of them, at 7, to join the leaders at -6; Sam Burns adds another at 8 to claw back the shot he dropped at 7, returning to -2. On Sky, Sir Nick Faldo repeats his prediction that the back nine will be a “scrambling fest”. Their analyst Paul McGinley digs deeper to explain why: as the players turn back, they’ll be facing a 15mph wind, and the back nine is averaging +2 today. Only two players so far have come back below par, and both of those were only -1 for the back nine. This is golf. Real old-school golf. The Open in Scotland!

Supreme carelessness from Scottie Scheffler at 9. From the semi-rough to the left of the fairway, he leaves his second just off the front. A strange misjudgement. A mishit? His birdie putt from the fringe trundles six feet past. He misses the one coming back, then yips from a couple of feet. The ball horseshoes out, he covers his mouth in shock, and that double bogey could be extremely costly for the world number one, who crashes back down the standings to -2. Still just four off the pace set by Justin Rose and Billy Horschel, but with six players ahead of him, and birdie chances at a premium on the back nine, the world number one has put himself behind the eight-ball.

We have a new clubhouse leader: Jason Day birdies 18 to sign for a fine final round of 68. Last year’s joint runner-up ends his week at +1. And we have a new joint leader out on the course, Justin Rose sending a tramliner into the cup and raising his fist in celebration. He really is enjoying this. Xander Schauffele’s effort looks like dropping too, but turns off to the left at the very end. Unlucky.

-6: Rose (8), Horschel (6)
-5: Schauffele (7), Lawrence (6)

… but seconds later, Billy Horschel birdies his second par-five of the day in similarly straight-down-the-middle style. Par for his partner Thriston Lawrence. Xander Schauffele meanwhile lands his tee shot at the Postage Stamp in Scheffler Country, front right of the green. Justin Rose pin high on the other side. Big birdie chances coming up.

-6: Horschel (6)
-5: Rose (7), Schauffele (7), Lawrence (6)
-4: Lowry (9), Scheffler (8), Henley (6)
-2: Burns (6)
-1: Rahm (13), An (10), A Scott (9)
E: Jordan (9), Brown (8)

London Bus dept. Xander Schauffele waited six holes for his first birdie of the day. A second has come along in the shortest of order. He sends his wedge over the flag, screwing it back to eight feet. In goes the putt. It’s all happening!

-5: Rose (7), Schauffele (7), Lawrence (5), Horschel (5)

An Byeong-hun moves into the red. He follows up birdie at 6 with his second of the day at 10. The 32-year-old Korean has yet to notch a top-ten finish at any of the majors. He’s inside that mark right now at -1. Just the treacherous closing stretch at Troon to navigate!

Dan Brown follows up birdie at 7 with bogey at 8. He’s only made one par so far today. His playing partner Scottie Scheffler is on the move, though: after his birdie at 7, he spins his tee shot at 8 pin high and walks in the straight eight-footer that remains. He’s just one off the lead now at -4, and like Shane Lowry before him, a figure that looked downcast not too long ago has renewed spring in his step!

Bounce-back birdie for Scottie Scheffler at 7. A wedge from 44 yards to 18 inches doing the business there. Xander Schauffele breaks a run of pars with birdie at 6. And Shane Lowry makes it four birdies in five holes by sticking his tee shot at the Postage Stamp to 12 feet and steering in the right-to-left curler! The 8th did a number on Lowry yesterday – five, to be precise, a misstep that sparked that collapse – but it’s paid him back today! What a tournament this is turning out to be.

-5: Rose (6), Lawrence (5), Horschel (5)
-4: Lowry (8), Schauffele (6), Henley (5)
-3: Scheffler (7)
-2: Burns (5)

Thriston Lawrence and Billy Horschel both miss the par-three 5th green. Lawrence wide left, Horschel in a deep pot bunker. But both get up and down sensationally, the former stunning his second into the bank by the side of the green and running it out to a couple of feet, Horschel nearly slam-dunking, evoking memories of Mark Calcavecchia here from the top of the bank at 12 back in 1989. Both remain at -5.

A big mistake by the world’s best player on 6. Scottie Scheffler’s tee shot finds a fairway bunker and, forced to hack out sideways, he’s always out of position. A bogey at a hole he’d have hoped to birdie. He trudges off sadly, though at -2 he’s still only three off the pace. Bogey for his playing partner Dan Brown too, his third in a row and fourth in the first six holes. His race looks run. Birdies at 5 for the penultimate pairing of Russell Henley and Sam Burns; they’re now -4 and -2 respectively. And up on 7, a third birdie of the day for Shane Lowry, who screeches his second to kick-in distance. Good luck calling the outcome of this.

-5: Rose (5), Lawrence (4), Horschel (4)
-4: Henley (5)
-3: Lowry (7), Schauffele (5)
-2: Scheffler (6), Burns (5)
-1: Rahm (11), A Scott (7)
E: An (8), Jordan (8), Brown (6)

Billy Horschel bounces back from his bogey at 3 with birdie at 4. A similarly calm and collected affair, straight down the middle, just like Justin Rose before him. A slightly more freeform affair by Thriston Lawrence, who again finds rough but again chips close to make birdie of his own. A three-way tie at the top!

-5: Rose (5), Lawrence (4), Horschel (4)