The stage is set for a spectacular final day as Thomas Björn takes a one stroke advantage into the final round of the 132nd Open Golf Championship at Royal St George’s with eight European Tour Members occupying top ten places within four strokes of the lead.
The great Dane, joint runner-up in the Open Championship in 2000 at St Andrews, carded a third round 69 to move to one under par 212, one clear of Davis Love III. A further shot back on one over par more of golf’s big guns are gathered with European Tour Members Sergio Garcia and Vijay Singh lying alongside Americans Ben Curtis, Kenny Perry and World Number One Tiger Woods.
More European Tour Members are well to the fore with Philip Price, who continued his rich vein of form since winning the Smurfit European Open with a 69 to lie on two over par, and four players on three over par - Gary Evans, who missed out on a play-off place last year, Pierre Fulke, Fredrik Jacobson and Peter Lonard.
Nick Faldo, runner-up when the Open Championship was last hosted by Royal St George’s in 1993, shot a best of the week 67, a score later matched by Fulke, to lie a further shot back and the group on five over par, which includes another six European Tour Members, are also still in the melting pot. In total 15 European Tour Members lie within the top 20 and six shots of the lead.
It could have been one more but Mark Roe, along with playing partner Jesper Parnevik, was disqualified for signing for the wrong score under 6-6d of the rules of golf. Roe had just finished a round of 67 to move to one over par but the score did not count because the two players did not exchange their scorecards and the error was not discovered until it was too late.
Björn has become a major force in recent years, the Ryder Cup player finishing in the top ten of the Open Championship three times in the last five years in addition to finishing third in the US Open in 2000.
Björn, a winner of seven European Tour titles, started the day two behind Love III and, with Love III dropping a shot on the first, moved to the top of the leaderboard with an eagle three on the fourth hole. He dropped a shot on the sixth but got it straight back with a birdie on the seventh before parring in, not dropping a shot on the tough back nine at Royal St George’s for the second day running.
“I’m very pleased,” said Björn. “From tee to green I felt that was the best I have played for two years. I felt really comfortable and had a lot of belief in myself today. I hit it very well off the tee and that was the key.”
Looking ahead to the final day, Björn added: “This is where you want to be. There are a lot of big names up there and I am going to have to play some solid golf to beat them and that is what I am going to set out to do. I am going to enjoy tomorrow and see what happens.”
Love III, the 1997 US PGA Champion, is Björn’s closest challenger after a one over par 72 left him on level par, an eagle three on the 14th repairing some of the damage from four earlier bogeys.
Among the players in the group a further shot back is Garcia, the young Spaniard fighting back from a shakey start in which he dropped two shots in the first four holes with four birdies in the next nine. But it was the 17th which stood out as he holed his pitch for a miraculous par four after finding trouble off the tee. With his ball in a treacherous lie in the thick rough, Garcia’s first attempt to extricate himself served only to bury the ball even deeper. He managed to hack out with his third shot but was staring at a bogey at least until he holed from about 80 yards with a classic bump and run shot up the green. A dropped shot on the last did nothing to dampen his enthusiasm as he carded a 70.
“That was probably the best par I have ever made in my life,” remarked Garcia. “The crowd went crazy. The most important thing as a golfer is to score when you are not at your best and that is what I did today. Now I am looking forward to tomorrow.”
Singh, a player with plenty of Major Championship experience having won both the Masters Tournament and the US PGA Championship, will be keen to add the Open title to his collection. The Fijian bounced back from four bogeys at the start of the back nine with three birdies in the last four holes for a 69 to lie on one over par.
Woods, beaten by Björn when they went head-to-head in the 2001 Dubai Desert Classic, put together one of the great front nines in Open Championship history with eagles at the fourth and seventh holes and a birdie at the ninth for an outward half of 31. That included holing a bunker shot on the seventh from a tough downhill lie, a shot which took Woods into the lead for the first time. But once again Woods made heavy weather of the back nine with four bogeys and just one birdie to complete a two under par 69.
Perry, winner of three of the last four tournaments on the US PGA Tour, is also in the frame as is Curtis, playing in his first Open Championship.
Roe should have been among that group but it was not to be. He had completed a stunning 67, four under par, to claim the clubhouse lead at Royal St George’s at one over par but his hopes of challenging for the title on the final day were dashed when the scorecard error was discovered and he was disqualified.
“It was quite a comical error really,” said a philosophical Roe afterwards. “We didn’t change scorecards on the first tee for some reason, Jesper and I, so I wrote down his scores on my card and he wrote my scores on his card. I checked that scorecard three times when I came in, checked the figures, counted them up with the scorer and nobody in the scorers hut noticed we had the wrong scorecards so we were disqualified.
“What can I do. I have just played one of the greatest rounds of my life and I can’t play tomorrow. I am extremely disappointed. I am usually very diligent, very careful with the scorecard and it is just an accident, a freak thing. It is the first time it has ever happened and probably at the most costly time. But at the end of the day that is life and I will go home and see my wife and children.”
