Some of our favorite days on the golf calendar are moving days at the majors. This one, in particular, brings a ton of intrigue. Richard Bland—the 48-year-old Englishman who’s just making his fourth-ever major start—is the storyline of the week thus far, and he’s joined in the final pairing with Russell Henley, who is also in rarified air, without a top 10 in his major career.
(Scroll down for the latest updates)
Torrey Pines treated golf fans to one of the most iconic U.S. Opens in the championship’s history, so we’re waiting for the fireworks to start. There are stars in the game waiting to do it: Louis Oosthuizen and Matthew Wolff start the day one back (4:24 p.m. tee time, eastern); Jon Rahm and Bubba Watson are two back (4:13 p.m.); and names like Xander Schauffele (-2), Scottie Scheffler (-1), Brooks Koepka (even), Justin Thomas (even) and Bryson DeChambeau (even) have the opportunity to get closer to the lead Saturday.
There have been some decent scores early on Saturday, so we’ll see how this glorious seaside muny plays this afternoon.
Here are the latest updates from Day 3 at Torrey Pines (most recent updates at the top, all times eastern):
2:40 p.m.: Jon Rahm will be preparing for the biggest opportunity of his career as he eyes up his first major title. Think the nerves are big for the Spaniard? Doesn’t look like it so far, as the telecast caught Rahm walking into Torrey Pines and chatting up fans!
2:30 p.m.: Paul Casey’s tremendous round has gotten even better. The Englishman just carded his sixth birdie of the day after adding another at the 15th hole. He’s now tied for 10th place—what a move as he’s now 1-under and just four back of the lead.
2:19 p.m.: How about this start from Daniel Berger? The champion at Pebble Beach this year sticks it real tight on No. 1 to get it back to even par for the championship, which is just five back of the lead of Richard Bland and Russell Henley.
2:04 p.m.: As you might’ve seen above, USGA outgoing CEO Mike Davis grabbed a bag and looped on Saturday at the U.S. Open. With an odd number of competitors making the cut, Akshay Bhatia needed a marker to play with him in the first tee time of the day. USGA player relations director Jason Gore—a U.S. Open contender back at Pinehurst in 2005—stepped up, and he asked Davis to carry his bag around. The duo did it and looked like they had a blast.
“That was the first time I caddied since high school,” Davis said after. That undoubtedly made a memorable week even more memorable for the outgoing USGA CEO.
1:53 p.m.: Paul Casey has the round of the morning thus far at Torrey Pines—and one of his five birdies thus far came on this terrific putt:
1:43 p.m.: Here are all the pin positions for the third round at Torrey Pines:
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