The Athletic has live coverage of the final round of the 2025 Open Championship.
Scottie Scheffler, once again, is inevitable.
The world’s top-ranked player authored another masterclass Saturday, firing a bogey-free 67 to take a four-shot advantage into the final round. Scheffler will enter championship Sunday on a run of 25 consecutive holes without a bogey. He’s in search of his fourth major and first Claret Jug.
Here are the top numbers and notes to know entering the final round at Royal Portrush.
1. Scheffler hit seven fairways, 15 greens in regulation and made seemingly every critical putt he looked at in the most ho-hum, casual flawless golf one could ever conjure up. The brilliance of Scottie’s ball striking is a given, as he’s dominated every key tee-to-green metric in the sport over the last three years. But Scheffler has had the most criticized club in his bag match the other 13 this week: Scottie leads the Open field in strokes gained putting with one round to play.
Consider this: On the PGA Tour this season, players make putts of 5 to 10 feet at a clip of right around 56 percent. Two seasons ago, Scheffler was ranked 155th on the tour in make rate from that range. Scottie is a preposterous 9-of-10 putting from 5 to 10 feet so far this week.
Just one week ago, Scheffler was among the worst putters in the field at the Scottish Open. Now, inexplicably, it could be his biggest strength on the road to an Open victory.
2. While the putter will get plenty of credit, it’s not like Scheffler’s irons have been slacking. Scheffler is T5 in the field in greens in regulation and second in strokes gained approach this week, elite figures that, at this point, serve as the minimal expectation for him. Scheffler has hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation in each of the last two rounds, just the second time he has done that in back-to-back days in a major (he also did it at St. Andrews in 2022).
Scheffler was the only player in the field to birdie the difficult par-3 16th hole in both Rounds 1 and 2 — he went ahead and did it Saturday, too. Scottie is 6 under on the par 3 holes this week, three shots better than any other player.
Scheffler extended his lead at the Open on Saturday. (Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
3. The numbers don’t lend much oxygen to the hopes of a comeback winner. Scheffler has successfully converted all three of his previous 54-hole leads in major championships: the 2022 Masters, 2024 Masters and 2025 PGA Championship. Across all tour events, he has gone on to win each of the last nine times he has held the outright 54-hole lead.
While the golf world might have some of its perspective on finishing tournaments skewed by the career of Tiger Woods, that kind of Mariano Rivera-like closing rate isn’t normal. Over the last 50 years, players with an outright 54-hole lead in majors have gone on to win 46 percent of the time. In all PGA Tour events over the last decade, players to lead outright entering the final round win at a clip of just 47 percent.
Woods was, famously, 14-of-15 closing out majors, and that included instances when he shared the 54-hole lead. Woods’ dominance is impossible to equal but what Scheffler is building is the closest facsimile in the years since.
4. With a victory, Scheffler would be just the fourth player in golf history to win the Masters, PGA and Open all before age 30. The other three are Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.
Scheffler is trying to become the eighth man to win a fourth major before turning 30 — four of the previous seven to do it went on to complete the career Grand Slam. A year ago, Xander Schauffele became the sixth player to win a PGA and Open in the same season — if Scottie closes out the victory Sunday, it will mark the first time that has happened in consecutive seasons.
5. 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.
6. 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.
Fitzpatrick shot an even-par 71 on Saturday. (Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
7. Rory McIlroy made an eagle and four birdies Saturday to shoot 66, tying his lowest ever weekend round in an Open Championship. He will headline a Sunday quartet of players at 8 under, six shots behind Scheffler to begin the final round.
Despite hitting just 14 fairways this week — fewest of any player to make the cut — McIlroy is tied for third in the field in greens in regulation (77.8 percent). The reigning Masters champ has been excellent on the greens at Royal Portrush this week, ranking firmly in the top 10 in strokes gained putting per round.
While McIlroy has never won a major when trailing entering the final round, he has more PGA Tour titles when trailing through 54 holes than any other player since joining in 2010. His largest come-from-behind win as a pro is seven shots at the 2014 BMW PGA Championship.
8. Lee Westwood had an inauspicious start to his third round, carding three bogeys and a double on his way to a front-nine 40. He was a completely different man on the back side, making six birdies to finish his day. Westwood’s back-nine 29 ties the lowest in any single round in the history of the Open. Six years ago, Ryan Fox also shot 29 on the second nine of Royal Portrush, doing so in the opening round.
The round of the day belonged to Russell Henley, whose 65 tied his lowest career round in any major championship. Henley, who finished fifth last year at Royal Troon, entered the week coming off three consecutive top-10 finishes, including a tie for 10th last month at Oakmont.
9. Englishman John Parry aced the 13th hole Saturday, the first hole-in-one of the week at the Open. It was just the 26th ace in the Open over the last 40 years, and the second at Royal Portrush in the modern era. Six years ago, Emiliano Grillo also aced the 13th, doing so in the opening round.
Parry’s ace was one of 15 eagles or better on the day, the most in Round 3 of an Open since 17 were made in 2006 at Royal Liverpool. Over the last 30 years, the most in any round is 28 — in Round 1 that same week.
10. The field scoring average dipped below 70 in Round 3, by far the lowest of the week. It’s the first Open round with a field score in the 60s since Sunday in 2022 at St. Andrews.
Since the beginning of the 2000 season, just 11 of 102 men’s major winners have been four or more shots off the lead entering the final round.
(Top photo: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
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