So, this was weird: Rory McIlroy, playing his second shot from the rough on the 11th at Royal Portrush in Round 3 of the British Open, somehow managed to unearth another ball in mid-swing. The second ball was apparently embedded in the ground a few inches ahead of McIlroy's ball, and popped into the air as McIlroy's shot flew greenward.

With six birdies coming home, Westwood rocketed back up the leaderboard with an Open record-tying back-nine 29.

Finau fired a 1-over-par 72 in the third round to go with his rounds of 70-68 and that effort left him watching the contenders pull away. Most of the movers and shakers fired rounds of four to five under par as Scottie Scheffler rocketed to a huge lead heading into Sunday.

Scottie Scheffler shot a 4-under 67 at Royal Portrush Golf Club to improve to 14-under 199 – his lowest 54-hole total at a major

The R&A announced The Open will carry the same prize pool as 2024's record-setting purse with the winner taking home a $3.1 million check like Xander Schauffele did last year. That is a handsome payday but not one all that uncommon at this time in professional golf.

Five golfers are on top of The Open Championship leaderboard after one round of play at Royal Portrush. Matthew Fitzpatrick, Harris English, Jacob Skov Olesen, Haotong Li and Christaan Bezuidenhout all sit at four-under.

Widespread showers in the morning become scattered in the afternoon on Friday, but forecasters expect a much lighter wind of 5-10 mph coming from the southwest with a high temperature around 65 degrees. Much of the same Saturday. Cloudy with off-and-on rain, high temperatures in the mid 60s and winds from the southeast at 5-10 mph.