British Open: Scottie Scheffler 'in his personal world' as he eyes main No. 4

[ad_1] Rory McIlroy drew one of many nice gallery roars of his life on Saturday on the British Open. Matt Fitzpatrick as soon as once more holed a miraculous eagle chip. Chris Gotterup and defending champion Xander Schauffele charged up the leaderboard. We even bought a smile out of Tyrrell Hatton after a superb eagle of his personal.

And none of it mattered a bit, as a result of Scottie Scheffler continued his relentless assault on Royal Portrush.

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Scheffler is now simply 18 holes from his second main of the yr, the third leg of the profession grand slam, and the fourth main in his profession. He’s now 4 strokes away from the sphere at -14, after ending out a clean-card -4 spherical with two birdies and an eagle.

Exterior of Scheffler, the wildest story of the day was simply the hometown child. McIlroy birdied three of his first 4, and carded an eagle on 12 that shook all of Northern Eire. However he additionally by some means managed to unearth a second ball when firing from the tough on 11, after which a child grabbed his ball when it rolled into the gallery alongside 17. Only a regular day for the No. 2 participant on the earth, who wrapped the day at -8.

Gamers up and down the leaderboard took benefit of the day’s preferrred circumstances — heat, clear, nearly no wind — to publish scores that dove deep into the purple. Haotong Li quietly carded a -2 spherical to complete at -10 and set himself up for a Sunday final-round pairing. Fitzpatrick, within the closing Saturday group alongside Scheffler, stumbled with three bogeys within the again 9 and completed out the day at -9.

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One week after his exceptional win on the Scottish Open, Chris Gotterup completed out at -8 for the day. Harris English additionally wrapped the day at -8 after a -3 spherical on the afternoon. Hatton closed out his day at -8 as properly, one other sturdy spherical for the Englishman nonetheless looking for his first main.

However the story of the day — and, actually, of the period — continues to be Scheffler, who handed each take a look at that Royal Portrush might pressure on him. Scheffler threw down an eagle on 7 and a birdie on 8 to place some extra distance between himself and the sphere, however in any other case saved up a easy barrage of pars to maintain everybody else at membership’s size. Irrespective of whether or not Scheffler’s pictures ended up within the thatch or the bunkers, he discovered a solution to escape with nothing worse than a par.

"After I watch Scottie play loads, he simply appears blacked out to me, simply doing his factor," Schauffele mentioned after his spherical. "He is simply in his personal world and nothing's going to trouble him. He will get to that place typically, which is an effective factor for him."