SOUTHPORT, England (AP) \u2014 Scottie Scheffler rapped an 8-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole and gave a fist pump, which about summed up a third straight day for the defending British Open champion.<\/p>\n
It was a mock fist pump. He missed another one.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s been the story all week for Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world on the verge of getting shut out of the majors. He has made only one bogey over the last 37 holes but could manage only three birdies during that span. He shot 70 on Saturday and was six shots behind.<\/p>\n
Asked what he needed to do, Scheffler replied, \u201cJust make more birdies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m hitting the ball the way I need to in order to score,\u201d he said. \u201cThat part is frustrating, but knowing my game is in a good spot is a good feeling as well. There\u2019s been times this year where I feel like I was getting a lot out of my game. This week feels I\u2019m playing a lot better than my score.<\/p>\n
\u201cA little bit frustrating, but if I continue to do this and hole some putts tomorrow, I could shoot a really low round and move my way up the leaderboard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scheffler won his first tournament of the season at The American Express, and it was looking like a third sequel to the previous two years. But that remains his only victory, and last week he ended his cut streak at 78 tournaments when he missed the cut in the Scottish Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I can do is continue to try and execute and give myself opportunities, which I did another good job of today,\u201d he said. Two players atop the leaderboard spent a lot of time with the No. 1 player in the world.<\/p>\n Sam Burns, the 54-hole leader, has been a close friend of Scottie Scheffler since they competed against each other in college. They are frequent practice round partners. Burns said it has taught him to throttle back when necessary if he\u2019s being too aggressive.<\/p>\n \u201cIt helped that I got to play a lot of golf with the best player on the planet and watch what he does,\u201d Burns said. \u201cHe makes so few mistakes, and he doesn\u2019t take on unnecessary risks very often, if ever, and seems to always hit the correct shot in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Si Woo Kim is tied for second and is part of Scheffler\u2019s money games at home in Dallas. Scheffler even helped the 31-year-old from South Korea get a membership at Royal Oaks.<\/p>\n Kim said earlier this year the matches have been one-sided. He said of Scheffler, \u201cHe calls me ATM.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI could lose my money, but I want to watch his shot and learn,\u201d Kim said. \u201cI ask questions. He always give me his opinion, so it helps me a lot.\u201d Lucas Herbert\u2019s British Open challenge was already going off the rails thanks to back-to-back bogeys when he was forced to take an unplayable penalty at the par-5 17th after hitting his tee shot way left and into a dune.<\/p>\n The Australian stood over his third shot thinking: \u201cThis is either going to be unbelievable or this could be the end of my tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n With one slash of a 3-iron, Herbert stayed in contention. His blind shot of some 238 yards somehow found its way onto the green \u2014 nearly hitting the flagstick \u2014 and he two-putted for par, eventually signing for a 71.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that slots into the top 10 of shots that I\u2019ve hit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Herbert, who tied the scoring record of a major with a 62 on Friday, started the third round with a two-shot lead. He finished it three back from Sam Burns. Ryan Fox felt pretty smug after his third round at the British Open \u2014 and it wasn\u2019t just because he\u2019d tied the lowest score at a major championship.<\/p>\n After going out early and becoming the latest player to shoot 62 at Royal Birkdale, Fox said he\u2019d spend the rest of the day watching some golf but also taking in a replay of a rugby international between his native New Zealand and Ireland.<\/p>\n Seems Fox and Shane Lowry, an Irishman, had had a wager on it. With New Zealand winning 40-21, Fox had come out of it richer.<\/p>\n \u201cI watched a decent chunk of that this morning and I was pretty happy with that result, too,\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n \u201cI just saw Shane on the screen, and I\u2019m looking forward to taking 100 quid (pounds) off him, the little bet we had.\u201d Ryan Gerard has a real chance of winning the British Open at the first attempt, and the No. 28-ranked American \u2014 who is just three shots off the lead \u2014 is getting plenty of support from the locals along the way.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because his name bears a similarity to one of the great soccer players to come from these parts in recent decades \u2014 the former Liverpool and England midfielder Steven Gerrard.<\/p>\n Liverpudlians in the galleries were heard chanting songs they once reserved for Gerrard \u2014 but simply replacing Steven with Ryan.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s quite a few songs \u2014 I think some of them I can\u2019t repeat. The lads were out in full force today,\u201d the 26-year-old Gerard said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of funny,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s not even spelled the same, but I\u2019ll take it. I\u2019ll take any support that we can from across-the-pond folks.\u201d<\/p>\n Gerard said it was \u201clike a Tony Romo situation\u201d \u2014 a nod to the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback who, after retirement, has worked on his game and has tried (unsuccessfully) U.S. Open qualifying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SOUTHPORT, England (AP) \u2014 Scottie Scheffler rapped an 8-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole and gave a fist pump, which about summed up a third straight day for the defending British Open champion. It was a mock fist pump. He missed another one. That\u2019s been the story all week for Scheffler, the No. 1 … Continue reading Scottie Scheffler\u2019s hopes for another British Open are hurt by a lack of birdies<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1525843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-07-21 12:13:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1525843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1525844,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525843\/revisions\/1525844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1525843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1525843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1525843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\nThe Scheffler effect<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nHerbert\u2019s gamble pays off<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nFox is in the money<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nWhat\u2019s in a name<\/strong><\/p>\n