India’s Shubhankar Sharma, who spent three hours waiting to find out whether or not he had made the cut, moved up the leaderboard with a third round 67 at the 152n Open at Royal Troon in Scotland on Saturday.
Taking advantage of the benign course as against the tough and windy conditions on the first two days, Sharma shot a superb 4-under 67 that included an incredible eight birdies against two bogeys and a double bogey.
He moved from overnight T-69 to T-21, but the leaders were still on the course.
With the first half of Saturday providing some wonderful playing conditions, no pairing produced as many birdies as Sungae Im (66 with six birdies) and Sharma (68 with eight birdies). The duo fed off each other and between them they birdied 12 of the 18 holes.
Despite a double bogey on the 15th, his third round 67 was a career-best round at the Open. It bettered the 68s he had shot twice before in the final round of the 2019 Open at Portrush and in the first round at the 2023 Open in Liverpool.
Sharma’s best Major finish came last year at Royal Liverpool, where he shot par or better each day and finished tied eighth.
As the benign weather gave way to tough conditions in the afternoon, Shane Lowry stayed ahead and added a birdie in his first six holes and moved to 8-under, while Dan Brown, dropped a shot and then picked two birdies to move to 5-under.
PGA champion Xander Schauffele (4-under through 10) and Billy Horschel (3-under through 7) were tied third.
Justin Rose was fifth at 4-under and four players — Thriston Lawrence (65), Sam Burns (65) and two others Russell Henley and Scottie Scheffler — were tied sixth. Henley and Scheffler were yet to finish the thiord round.
Sharma opened birdie-birdie with a 28-footer and then a 14-footer for birdies. Despite a bogey on the third he birdied the Par-5 fourth and the sixth. After a par on the Postage Stamp eighth, he missed the green in regulation on the ninth and gave away a bogey to turn in 2-under.
The 10th was a birdie after a superb second shot. Two pars later he came to Par-4 13th, where he birdied from 13 feet and holed it. That made it six birdies in 13 holes.
Then came the double bogey disappointment on the 15th. Yet Sharma rallied with a 30-footer for birdie on 16th and saw a birdie putt miss narrowly on the 17th. Then he holed a 18-footer on 18th and pumped his fist.
Sharma said, “I was not disappointed (with the score on 15th) actually. We got a bad ruling there. We were put on the clock after there was a ball search and everything that happened, so that was why I was unhappy.
“But concentrating on the good things, we made two birdies coming in so I’m quite happy.” As for Friday evening, Sharma said “it was a ‘nervy’ three hours” after his second round of 72. The cut line hovered between 5-over and 6-over and changed almost every 5-10 minutes.
He added, “When I finished I was 72nd. Then we went to 66th, and I was like, nice, everything is good now. But then it was 68th, 67th and in the end it turned out 69th.
“But sure, I would have been very upset if I had missed the cut so narrowly. Now I have a chance to make up,” he concluded. PTI Cor AH AH
