Rory McIlroy ‘has half a chance' of winning The Open as he bounces back from freak incident to send Portrush wild… while ice-man Scheffler unmoved
Shane Lowry will begin his final round at 9am when he plays with Danish star Jacob Skov Olesen, who held a share of the overnight lead after the opening day, while Germany's Matti Schmid, who has Castledawson's Chris Selfridge on the bag, leads the day off in the opening group at 8:30am with Riki Kawamoto.
Other notable groups see Sam Burns and Rickie Fowler, who are both two-under, tee off at 10:55am, 15 minutes before Akshay Bhatia and Jon Rahm get their final rounds under way on the same score.
Bryson DeChambeau and Nathan Kimsey will be paired together for the second day in a row and they tee off at 11:30am, followed by Hideki Matsuyama and Tony Finau at 11:40am before Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas play their fourth consecutive round together at 11:40am.
US Open champion JJ Spaun and hole-in-one hero John Parry begin their final rounds at 12pm before the challengers to Scheffler begin to hit the course, with the final two groups the stars of the show.
08:30 Matti Schmid (+9), Riki Kawamoto (+7)
08:40: Dean Burmester (+5), Phil Mickelson (+5)
08:50: Sebastian Soderberg (+5), Andrew Novak (+4)
09:00: Shane Lowry (+3), Jacob Skov Olesen (+3)
09:10: Antoine Rozner (+2), Viktor Hovland (+2)
09:20: Adrien Saddier (+2), Ryggs Johnston (+1)
09:30: Romain Langasque (+1), Jordan Spieth (+1)
09:40: Francesco Molinari (+1), Matthew Jordan (E)
09:55: Sergio Garcia (E), Justin Leonard (E)
10:05: Thomas Detry (E), Sepp Straka (E)
10:15: Aaron Rai (-1), Jason Kokrak (-1)
10:25: Daniel Berger (-1), Jhonattan Vegas (-1)
10:35: Maverick McNealy (-1), Henrik Stenson (-1)
10:45: Takumi Kanaya (-1), Jordan Smith (-2)
10:55: Sam Burns (-2), Rickie Fowler (-2)
11:10: Akshay Bhatia (-2), Jon Rahm (-2)
11:20: Jesper Svensson (-2), Thriston Lawrence (-2)
11:30: Bryson DeChambeau (-2), Nathan Kimsey (-2)
11:40: Hideki Matsuyama (-2), Tony Finau (-3)
11:50: Justin Thomas (-3), Tommy Fleetwood (-3)
12:00: JJ Spaun (-3), John Parry (-3)
12:10: Keegan Bradley (-4), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (-4)
12:25: Marc Leishman (-4), Lucas Glover (-4)
12:35: Sungjae Im (-4), Dustin Johnson (-4)
12:45: Corey Conners (-4), Lee Westwood (-5)
12:55: Harry Hall (-5), Justin Rose (-5)
13:05: Ludvig Aberg (-5), Kristoffer Reitan (-5)
13:15: Oliver Lindell (-5), Matt Wallace (-5)
13:25: Wyndham Clark (-5), Brian Harman (-6)
13:40: Rasmus Hojgaard (-6), Robert MacIntyre (-6)
13:50: Nicolai Hojgaard (-6), Russell Henley (-6)
14:00: Xander Schauffele (-7), Tyrrell Hatton (-8)
14:10: Harris English (-8), Chris Gotterup (-8)
14:20: Rory McIlroy (-8), Matt Fitzpatrick (-9)
14:30: Haotong Li (-10), Scottie Scheffler (-14)
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Daily Mirror
33 minutes ago
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Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler's relationship clear to see with apology and wife joke
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McIlroy praises "different level" Scheffler McIlroy voiced his respect for Scheffler after the world No. 1's breathtaking display at Portrush, with the Holywood star trailing seven shots behind the victorious Scheffler. "I wish I had have been closer to Scottie going into today and been able to make a real push but he's been on a different level all week and he's been on a different level for the last two years to the rest of us," said McIlroy. "None of us could live with what he had this week. He is the bar that we're all trying to get to at this point, so hats off to him. "In a historical context, you could argue that there's only maybe two or three players in the history of the game that have been on a run, the one that Scottie's been on here for the last 24 to 36 months. Incredibly impressive. "He's been absolutely amazing over these past two to three years. He's an unbelievable player, an incredible champion and a great person too." Scheffler's US Open response The mutual admiration flows in both directions. Following McIlroy's heartbreaking defeat at the US Open last year, where he was pipped to the post by Bryson DeChambeau, the New Jersey-born Scheffler chose not to flood his mate with texts, instead allowing him space to come to terms with the crushing loss. "As far as reaching out to Rory, I didn't," Scheffler said in July 2024. "He took the next week off at The Travelers [championship] and it seemed to me like he wanted his space and so just felt like giving us his space was the best thing to do." McIlroy's words for Scheffler's parents Their respect runs so deep that McIlroy even made time for Scheffler's mum and dad. In August 2022, McIlroy claimed the FedEx Cup for a third time in his career to beat Scheffler to the prize. After departing the 18th, McIlroy bumped into Scheffler's parents, Scott and Diane. 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Scheffler hit back after McIlroy's wife jibe Scheffler had a witty response to McIlroy's comments over a hand injury that kept Scheffler out of action at the turn of the year. The 29-year-old cut himself on a broken wine glass while cooking ravioli on Christmas Day and missed the opening two events of the PGA Tour. McIlroy queried: "Like, why are you cooking yourself? I was hoping it was going to be more of a fun story than that. It's good that he's tearing it up this week, but yeah, get a chef." Never to let McIlroy have the last word, Scheffler later hit back: "I got a chef. Her name is Meredith [Scheffler's wife]. She's pretty cute." However, word on whether Meredith found the jibe funny isn't clear.
Daily Record
an hour ago
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