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Today’s final round of the 2025 Open Championship is up and running at Royal Portrush Golf Club, Northern Ireland.
Scottie Scheffler is chasing his fourth major title, playing with Haotong Li. Rory McIlroy is in the penultimate group alongside Matt Fitzpatrick.
With conditions perfect for low scoring, a great final day awaits. Follow all the action live below.
Leaderboard:
TV: USA, NBC (U.S.); Sky Sports (UK); Streaming: Fubo (try for free)
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Can Scottie Scheffler lose this Open Championship?
A chip-in eagle at the second hole vaulted Matt Fitzpatrick into a tie for the lead early in Saturday’s round. He didn’t hold the position long, though.
The 2022 U.S. Open champion played the rest of his round in 1-over-par, however, seeing his one-shot deficit entering Saturday expand to five by the time he walked off the 18th green.
Fitzpatrick holed eight putts of 10 feet or longer in the first two rounds this week, buoying his lofty leaderboard spot. He made just one of those on Saturday, a 15-footer for birdie at 15.
The last player to overcome a final round deficit of five strokes or more to win the Open was Phil Mickelson in 2013.
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McIlroy -9, Fitzpatrick -9 (2)
It's a tough eagle putt for McIlroy, double breaker, on a bit of a slope. Lovely weight and pace, it drops a little short but Fitzpatrick lets him knock it in for a birdie, which sees both on -9.
That is, if Fitzpatrick can hole his par putt … which he can. The Englishman has done well to escape without a bogey after some ordinary shots so far.
McIlroy -8, Fitzpatrick -9 (1)
On the second, a 557-yard monster of a par-5, Rory McIlroy has smashed it, twice, to drop on the greenside fairway, 20 yards from the pin.
A tough eagle shout, but he's a great lag putter, so he'll likely have a birdie shot.
Fitzpatrick has found things tough going so far. Fairway bunker, back onto the fairway, greenside bunker, but a magnificent fourth shot puts him inside 5 feet for the par putt.
Scheffler -15, Li -11 (1)
Two tee shots on No. 2. Both land in the fairway.
Haotong Li had the honor first, going 299 yards in the middle of the fairway. Scottie Scheffler elected the shorter club, hitting the tee shot 288 yards in the fairway.
Both golfers are in a stellar position to make at least a birdie on this par-5.
A week ago at the Scottish Open, Haotong Li missed the cut with horrific iron play, shooting 74-71. This week in Northern Ireland? Ball striking beauty.
That perfect shot on 1 to give himself a short birdie just highlights the week he's having in approach, second only to Scottie Scheffler with 2.44 strokes gained with irons.
Nobody really thinks Li can win, and maybe that's reasonable, but in terms of playing Royal Portrush, Li and Scheffler are truly in a tier of their own this week.
Haotong Li will be in the final pairing with Scheffler, facing steep odds in his attempt to become the first male from China to win a major championship.
Haotong, who leads the DP World Tour this season in strokes gained approach per round, has hit three more greens in regulation than any other player through three days.
He ran off a streak of 23 consecutive GIR within Rounds 1 and 2, the longest such streak in the last two Opens held at Portrush.
Eight years ago, Haotong capped off his Open debut at Royal Birkdale with 63. He will likely need something close to that to catch Scheffler.
He'll need more birdies like that on the first to do so!
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Scheffler -15, Li -11 (1)
It might be time to start engraving the Claret Jug. Because Scottie Scheffler just had the dream start to his final round.
He lands his 143-yard approach from the rough to one foot from the pin, tapping in for birdie to improve to 15-under.
Haotong Li did provide an answer though. Facing a seven-foot birdie attempt, the Chinese golfer knocked in the putt to move to 11-under.
Scheffler leads by four heading to the second.
T8: Matsuyama -7 (13)
Oh darn… I’m gutted for Hideki Matsuyama. He was smoking hot on the back nine, carrying through a run of four successive birdies and 6-under for his round through 12 holes.
Alas, he finds the right greenside bunker off the tee at the 13th and cannot then save par from 8 feet.
A first bogey, and back to 7-under for the week he drops.
Scheffler -14, Li -10
Scottie Scheffler, we aren't worthy! Despite missing the fairway in the left rough on No. 1, the American hits an exquisite approach from the rough, riding the slope on the green to a tap-in birdie range. What a golf shot!
Haotong Li, from the middle of the fairway, landed his 146-yard approach to 7 feet from the pin. Almost a must make for birdie if he wants to keep pace with Scheffler.
With every playing group out now, let's take a look at that gorgeous Claret Jug, resplendent in the Portrush rays.
Can anyone prise it out of Scottie Scheffler’s fingers today?
McIlroy -8, Fitzpatrick -9 (1)
Fitzpatrick grimaced and said “sit down” after slightly overhitting his second shot on the first. It didn't listen. But his ball is all ears now as he coaxes a delicate chip to less than 6 feet.
Probably about the best he could have done from there. He holes a tricky-ish one for par too.
McIlroy has an outside shot at birdie from 41 feet, but it comes up narrowly short. Easy par.
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The theoretical path to someone not named Scottie Scheffler winning the 2025 Open surely began with Scheffler finding out of bounds left or right on No. 1. Instead, Scheffler gets a fortuitous bounce from the edge of the tall grass to a clean lie just off the fairway. He's both lucky and historically good.
T10: DeChambeau -7 (13)
An incredible turnaround for Bryson DeChambeau this week, who now is just one shot out of the top five despite an opening 78.
The last player to shoot 78 or higher in round one of a major and finish in the top five was Nick Price at the 1986 Masters.
He is 5-under for his final round through 13.
Scheffler -14, Li -10
Scottie Scheffler, the 54-hole leader, starts his final round by landing his 275-yard tee shot in the first cut of rough. He is looking to win his second major of 2025 and fourth total.
Haotong Li, Scheffler's playing partner, finds the fairway on No. 1. The final group is off at Royal Portrush.
It looks like absolute madness up and down the first hole as Rory McIlroy makes his way to the green.
Traditionally all of those people are waiting for the leader to tee off, and plan to follow him on his day.
But in this particular case, how many will wait for Scottie Scheffler and how many are going on the Rory McIlroy Journey?
The scenes the last three days suggest the latter.
McIlroy -8, Fitzpatrick -9 (-)
Decent second shot from McIlroy, onto the green, and he will have two putts to clean up from 40 feet.
Fitzpatrick overcooked his shot from the rough on the left and will have a tough job to salvage an opening par from the first cut beside the green.
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Scheffler's potential two-major calendar year would reflect his rare dominance of the sport.
As Dan mentioned, back-to-back years of two-major champions is basically a once-a-decade occurrence.
If Scottie Scheffler wins today, he will have two majors this year (with the PGA Championship). It would mark the second straight year a player won two majors. In 2024: Xander Schauffele.
The last time that happened was 2014 (Rory McIlroy with the PGA Championship and Open Championship) and 2015 (Jordan Spieth with the Masters and U.S. Open).
It’s been a while since we heard an audible “Ugh…” from the gallery at the first tee — but that was what Matt Fitzpatrick got.
Fortunately it crept back from the brink to the left a bit and should be workable from there.