The Open Championship 2013 Leaderboard: Early Results on Moving Day

Just nine men managed to crawl around 36 holes of the Muirfield course under par. With six shots separating over 30 players at the start of Saturday’s play, this year’s Open Championship is crying out for someone to seize the initiative.

Surely someone is going to have a monster round—it’s inevitable.

The questions facing the players teeing off this morning were: “Do I go all out to improve my score but risk losing it in difficult evening conditions tomorrow? Or do I play safe today, keep myself four shots off the lead to get an earlier Sunday tee-time and then really attack?”

It’s a tough decision. Day 1 leader Zach Johnson didn’t play a particularly bad round yesterday, aside from a three-putt at 15, but posted a 75 late in the day to take him back to one-under.

This morning's conditions were attacked perfectly by the first pair out on the course, Richard Sterne and Shingo Katayama, who sailed up the leaderboard to post scores of 68 and 69, respectively.

Sterne briefly looked as though he was heading for another rough round by bogeying the fifth, but the South African came strong with a series of birdies including on the tricky par-five 17.

Sergio Garcia was another man on the move. Despite his talent, the Spaniard has never won a major. Upon returning to the clubhouse yesterday, he was perched above the cut. Fortunately for him, the testing conditions on Friday afternoon ensured him of a weekend spot.

He’s struggled with consistency all weekend—for every birdie on the front nine, two have followed on the back stretch. However, he pulled it together and birdied the last to post a score of 68. At three-over, he’s still in the hunt for an unlikely top-10 finish.

Defending champion Ernie Els also scraped through to the weekend, but unless he produces the greatest round of all time on Sunday, he won’t be retaining the Claret Jug. He sits five-over after shooting a solid 70 in Round 3.

Home-favourite Paul Lawrie shot a one-under 70, but at one stage was on course for a score in the high 60s after birdying the 11th, 12th and 14th. He couldn’t use the momentum, though, and finished seven-over.

With the conditions steadily declining as morning turned to afternoon, the lead may continue to shrink back toward par as the day evolves. If that happens, even those sitting two-over could still have a shot of glory.