Royal Troon shows its many faces, offering kindness to some, wrath to others at Open Championship

There is nothing in golf quite like the Open Championship, especially on a weather-whipped day like Saturday at Royal Troon.

“Yesterday I hit 4-iron, sand wedge off 18,” Canadian Mackenzie Hughes said. “Today I hit driver, 4-iron.

“The golf course is unrecognizable, really.”

While the morning wave at Troon was able to take advantage of down winds and relatively calm conditions, the day got worse through the afternoon with torrential, never-ending rain streaming down coupled with cold winds.

Hughes shot a 4-over 75. And that was just fine.

“I don’t even know how to describe if 75 is a decent score,” Hughes said.

“It's really tough. Very difficult because every single shot requires attention, focus. Even the little basic ones. You're just fighting for every single shot. It's a long, gruelling day, and happy to be done.”

Hughes may have had trouble describing if his 75 was good or bad, but it was certainly better than his fellow Canadian Corey Conners, who shot a third-round 80.

Conners was even par through six holes before hitting his drive thin on the par-4 7th to only about 150 yards, directly into a gorse bush en route to a triple bogey. He wound shooting 41 on the front nine, and although Conners ended with five straight pars, his 9-over 80 in one of the final groups of the third round ended his chances this week. Hughes is 5 over through three rounds.

The Canadians will be well back heading into Sunday as they’re all chasing Billy Horschel, who’s found himself in a surprising position through 54 holes. Horschel, at 4 under, is leading or co-leading for the first time in his career at this point in a major. In fact, he’s never been better than tied for 40th at this point in the Open Championship and has only been within six shots of the lead at a major once in his career — back in 2013.

But Horschel is a gritty competitor and managed to do everything right on Saturday. He shot a 2-under 69, tied for the low round of the afternoon, rocking a backwards hat to avoid having rain fall on his face and even leaving the rain jacket in the bag in favour of bare arms.

“I love it. I've worked my entire life to be in this position,” Horschel said. “Listen, I've been in the lead many times going into a final round. Obviously, this is a major. It means a little bit more. We all know that. We know what this means to everyone. I know what it means to my legacy in the game of golf and what I want to do and accomplish.

“But I'm excited to be here. I've wanted to be here my entire life. I'm finally here. I'm embracing it.”

Horschel will be in the final group along with Thirston Lawrence of South Africa, who shot the round of the day, a 6-under 65, and finished nearly four hours before the final group of Shane Lowry and Daniel Brown.

Lawrence is tied for second at 3 under — one back of Horschel — along with five others, including PGA Championship winner Xander Schauffele and 44-year-old Justin Rose, trying to make one more late-career run at a second major title.

“It's going to be massive, just from an experience point of view. Those are days that I dream about. Those are days I've been working hard for. Those are days I've still been believing that I can have,” Rose said. “The key tomorrow is to do my best to make the most of it.”

Lowry, the second-round leader, struggled to a 5-over 76 after a disastrous
back nine.

How tough was it for Lowry and Brown as they came to the end of their
day? They both hit driver off the tee on the par-3 17th.

“Driver into 17. Then you're standing on the 18th tee wondering if you can actually hit the fairway, if you can reach the fairway, and it's 230 yards to the fairway. Bear in mind my driver pitched about 220 yards on the 17th hole. So, yeah, it's not much fun out there,” Lowry said.

Scottie Scheffler, the six-time winner already this season on the PGA Tour, was not immune to the conditions, either. It feels like Scheffler hasn’t done much yet this week, but he sits at 2 under, just two back of the lead and one of just nine golfers under par through three rounds.

Scheffler is first in strokes gained: approach for the week, but is 114th in strokes gained: putting. The longest putt he made Saturday was just seven feet. That’s been the difference for Scheffler, who could be running away with this championship if his putter warmed up.

“The back nine, I think that was probably the hardest nine holes that I'll ever play. I shouldn't say ever, but it's definitely the hardest that I've played to this point, I think,” Scheffler said.

Funny enough, the reward for playing so well through two rounds is the opportunity to play in one of the final groups in the third round.

That was a punishment, however, on Saturday.

“I know it’s not really necessarily the draw that we had, but just playing at this time in the afternoon compared to playing at, let’s say, 10 this morning — we almost would have been better off to be at 4-over, go out there and shoot 4-under and get near the lead that way,” Hughes said, “because right now it’s just playing so hard.”

And there’s still one round to go.