For a man who finds so little fulfilment from winning, Scottie Scheffler is showing no willingness to entertain the alternative. Those big, plodding feet are planted on the throat of all challengers and growing heavier by the hole.
With an four-shot lead going into the final round of the Open, the American is now one loop away from his second major title of the season, his fourth in all, and another step towards the career slam.
The lumps, bumps and hidden gremlins of Portrush offer hope to the chasers, with Li Haotong the closest on 10 under and Matt Fitzpatrick five back, but they both know a collapse would be wildly unusual.
And that is down the metronomic brilliance of a man whose pulse and scores forever live in the low numbers. Boring? He is trending towards being one of the finest sportsmen of the era, which is quite something when we consider how jaded he seemed with the relentless pursuit of success at the start of the week.
Here, in the third round, he reached 14 under par by carding a bogey-free 67, which was excellent in small bursts but hugely impressive for how reliably he rose whenever the moment called for it.
That ability to time his charges, as much as the all-round level of Scheffler’s game, will sap optimism from his pursuers, who include Rory McIlroy and Tyrrell Hatton in the cluster at eight under par.
Scottie Scheffler leads The Open by four shots heading into the final day at Royal Portrush
The American was brilliant on the third day and is arguably one of the top sportsmen of his time
Rory McIlroy is six back and is reliant on others collapsing in order to lift the Claret Jug
Those two both profited from a compelling moving day, shooting 66 and 68 respectively in the sedate conditions, but the entire field is relying on a capitulation. The chances of that happening feel slim, based on what happened to Fitzpatrick each time he attempted to apply pressure on his playing partner.
Granted, that got off to a bad start when Fitzpatrick, starting one behind on nine under, bogeyed the first, but his eagle on the second had them level. Crucially, it gave Fitzpatrick the momentum, but on went Scheffler, shooting par after par after par. Six in all to open his round from the calmest guy in Northern Ireland.
The seventh was where his foot pressed on the pedal. The golfer whose ability to handle links golf was rather naively questioned by a few of us, uncorked an exceptional low fade into the green of the par five from 209 yards and negated the breeze and terrain like an old Scot. It was superb.
When Fitzpatrick then left himself a tap-in for birdie and the lead, Scheffler sank the eagle putt. It’s the kind of subtle murder for which Tiger Woods was famous.
A birdie at the eighth took the lead to two and there followed six more pars. Among them was a shanked an approach into a buried lie on the 11th, but here he showed the art of nursing a battlefield wound – he hacked to 10 feet and saved the four. Ditto when he drove into a nasty fairway bunker at 12 and another 10-foot putt for par on the 14th reiterated how strong he has become on the greens. A birdie on 16 gave him daylight on Li, who shot 69.
‘I think anytime you can keep a clean card around a major championship, you’re going to be having a pretty good day,’ said Scheffler. ‘Winning major championships is not an easy task, and I’ve put myself in a good position.
Fitzpatrick will be disappointed – he has been brilliant this week, but his 71 was the highest of anyone in the top 13.
The potential for better had already been established by the time he and Scheffler stepped on the first tee at 3.35pm. Of the first 20 players out, 14 had wrapped up their rounds under par, bombing a course softened by a week of rain and left unprotected in the absence of much wind.
Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick is five back – every time he put Scheffler under pressure, his adversary rose to the occasion
Haotong Li is the closest but is still four shots behind and reliant on Scheffler capitulating
Englishman Tyrrell Hatton is level with McIlroy after playing some impressive shots
As such, it was ripe for chargers. American Russell Henley was the first to bolt with a 65 to get to six under, and next was the defending champion Xander Schauffele, who reached seven under with two eagles.
Lower down, Lee Westwood, 52, laboured to a 40 on the front and then annihilated the back in 29 – one of only two men in the 153-edition history of the Open to do so. Helen, his wife and caddie, appears to have triggered the birdie rush.
‘On the 10th tee she asked if I want half a tuna sandwich,’ he said. ‘Nothing gets me going like a tuna sandwich.’
With the links were there to be conquered, McIlroy went on a charge. A birdie at the first from 35ft set the tone for three birdies in four holes, before a stall of six straight pars. His driving was the best it had been all week, but too many of the approaches were coming down in that tricky range of 25ft.
A bogey at the 11th came in surreal circumstances. He had ballooned his drive on the right onto a trampled path between mounds of thorns and heather, but confusion ensued when the follow through of his recovery struck a long-buried ball. That flew off behind him and the one in play came up short of the green, from where he failed to get up and down.
‘It’s never happened to me before,’ he said.
After the bogey dropped McIlroy to five under, he had the highlight of his tournament by holing a monster putt for eagle from almost 60ft at the 12th, and a birdie at 15 kept him on the fringes of contention.
‘I’ll try to find something to watch tonight,’ he said. ‘I started “Oppenheimer” last night and I will try to get through another hour of it tonight and maybe finish it tomorrow morning. I always do better with distraction.’
Hatton joined McIlroy on eight under and he, too, flew on the wings of an eagle. Draining his approach from 140 yards out on the fairway brought a grin to a man who usually plays his golf in a rage.
An outward nine of 33 and a birdie on the easy par-five 12th had him well placed, before he overcooked a chip from a grassy bank with his second at the 16th.
