Jam-Packed Leaderboard Setting Up Crazy Monday Finish at Wild 2015 British Open

ST ANDREWS, Scotland — Truth be told, we are absolutely no closer to finding out who will be the latest “champion golfer of the year,” as tournament organisers prefer the winner of the Open to be known.

The third round of a tournament is known as “moving day,” and at St Andrews on Sunday, they all seemed to move toward the same point. The leaders went backward, the stragglers surged forward, with the upshot being that almost everyone is in the hunt with 18 holes still to play.

Sixteen years ago, Paul Lawrie famously won the Open after starting the final round 10 shots off the lead. Based on that precedent, there are 66 players who will start on Monday with a chance of victory (with Lawrie, a mere six shots back, very much among them).

The eclectic trio of Louis Oosthuizen, Paul Dunne and Jason Day—a former champion, an unheralded amateur and a rising star—may share the overnight lead at 12 under par, but behind them is a leaderboard as strong as we have seen at this stage of a major championship for many a year.

Jordan Spieth, the man hunting the Grand Slam, is ominously positioned at 11 under after his Sunday round of 66, with two-time Open champion Padraig Harrington the fifth man in double figures under par. Behind that duo are nine players at nine under, all of whom will tee off with entirely realistic aspirations of victory come Monday evening.

At most golf tournaments, a five-shot deficit with 18 holes to play is considered eminently surmountable. This week might be the rare exception. Eight players sit at seven under and thus have that margin to close, but with 17 players standing between them and the lead, they might have to shoot the first 62 in the history of the majors to even have a chance.

Yet considering how unpredictable everything has been all week—starting, but not necessarily ending, with the weather—that is not out of the question.

“You know, there's so many people that can win this event,” one of the leaders, Day, said afterward. “Anyone can win this event. You just don't know how the weather is going to be, how the leaders are going to fare.

“I can't afford to think about other people. I can't afford to look at their scores or see how they're playing, if they're charging up the leaderboard on the front nine. I've got to just be patient and just let it happen.”

Jon Super/Associated Press

To paraphrase the old Woody Allen joke, on days such as this, challenging at a major championship is like a shark: You have to constantly keep moving forward or you die. On Sunday, a number of prominent contenders found themselves dying on their feet, overnight leader Dustin Johnson (75, seven under overall) and home favourite Lawrie (74, six under) among them.

With the average score for the day a shade under 70, even shooting par (as Danny Willett, nine under, and Marc Warren, seven under, did) lost you ground on the field. But Johnson’s troubles—what is it with him and Sunday at the majors?—were a boon for the rest of us, opening up the race for seemingly everyone else who made the cut to push themselves into the mix.

At one point on Sunday afternoon, 21 players were within two shots of the lead, while soon after there was a brief moment when a full 13 were within a stroke. It became almost impossible to keep track of all the shifts going on across the Old Course, but by the end of it, three had separated themselves from the rest by the slenderest of margins.

“I think obviously everyone within three, four shots has got a really good chance of winning, and it's all about composure now,” Oosthuizen, one of those leaders, acknowledged. “Everyone playing for a major championship gets a bit nervous, and a lot of people, that drives them to even play better.”

Oosthuizen has little reason to fear that likely charge, having won his sole major championship to date on this very course five years ago. The South African will not be burdened by doubts about his ability to win this event, on this stage, and may be one of the few players not unduly affected by the presence of Spieth lurking.

Oosthuizen will not be the crowd favourite, however, even in the final pairing. That honour will go to 22-year-old Paul Dunne, who breezed around the course in 66 strokes to become the first amateur in 88 years to hold a share of the 54-hole lead at this event.

On that occasion, the amateur in question, Bobby Jones, went on to win the Claret Jug.

“It's surreal I'm leading the Open,” Dunne, remarkably assured all afternoon, acknowledged, “but I can easily believe that I shot the three scores that I shot. If we were playing an amateur event here, I wouldn't be too surprised by the scores I shot.”

Jon Super/Associated Press

He was roared around the course on Sunday, getting far and away the biggest reception on the 18th green as spectators showed their admiration for what he had achieved.

Joking that his aim on the first tee on Monday would be “just to hit the ball,” the Irishman added, “It feels great. I felt like I had so much support from the crowd today. I kind of felt like I was at home. Every shot I hit was getting cheered from start to finish, so big thanks to the crowd out there. They kept me lifted the whole way through.”

Dunne and Oosthuizen are certainly at opposing ends of the golfing spectrum, something reflected throughout the top of the leaderboard. Among the contenders are recent major champions (Spieth, Justin Rose, Adam Scott), perennial nearly men (Day, Sergio Garcia), veteran champions (Harrington, Retief Goosen) and first-time contenders (Robert Streb, Eddie Pepperell and another amateur, Jordan Niebrugge).

They all have very different biographies, but they enter Monday with the same challenge to confront.

“You’ve still got to hit the shots. Look at the amateur [Dunne] ... he’s got no experience,” two-time U.S. Open champion Goosen said. “At the end of the day, you’ve just got to hit the shots.”

Inevitably, much of the focus will rest on the second-youngest man at the top of the leaderboard, Spieth (he is a week older than Niebrugge). Chasing the third leg of a historic Grand Slam, this was the day that Spieth made his move. The Texan’s turning point came after he punched his bag in disgust at a sloppy bogey on the ninth—a moment of rage that sparked a back nine of 32 and a surge into contention.

“I didn't want to hit Michael [Greller, his caddie], so I figured I'd hit my golf bag,” Spieth joked afterward. “That was as frustrated as I've been in a tournament.”

His ensuing play fully restored his confidence. He added, “I'm going to play to win, I'm not playing for a place. I don't want to place third tomorrow. I want to win. It’s going to be hard. I highly doubt somebody really breaks through in the pack tomorrow given this golf course can yield a lot of birdies, so it'll be a pretty bunched leaderboard. So it's just giving myself as many chances as I can.”

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

Nevertheless, considering how he has separated himself from the pack in similar circumstances in the last two majors, few will be betting against the Texan. But the field of contenders this time is huge, and it only takes one of them getting hot to change everything.

“I don’t think he’s the only guy to beat,” Spieth’s playing partner on Sunday, Sergio Garcia, added. “There’s a lot of really, really good players there that are going to have a chance tomorrow.”

Monday’s weather suggests conditions will be favourable in the morning, with wind and rain picking up the longer the afternoon goes on. That creates the intriguing possibility of the field condensing even further, leaving everything up for grabs down the back nine.

“It looks like there will be some people shooting low scores in the morning,” Spieth warned, analyzing the weather forecast. “Then [the overnight leaders] will have to make birdies in the afternoon to keep it going.”

On Sunday, the pressure of the situation proved too much for some leaders—the inscrutable Johnson, from one shot ahead to five back, among them. Yet even his race is not yet run, assuming he bounces back tomorrow.

“It's super bunched, so it's really going to be a shootout,” Adam Scott said. “This course is soft and it's taking on a lot of good scores, so it is surprising the leaders didn't really get it going today. But that's the pressure of the Open.”

A tournament almost pulled apart by weather conditions over the first three days suddenly sprouted into life on an action-packed Sunday. If we get a repeat of even a fraction of that drama on Monday, there is a great chance we will not know the destination of the Claret Jug until the final putt drops on the 18th green.

After a stormy start, that would be the perfect finish. 

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise stated.