Monday 16 / December / 2024
CARNOUSTIE, Scotland: A charging Tiger Woods was leading the British Open with nine holes to play on Sunday as defending champion and overnight co-leader Jordan Spieth began to feel the strain.
Woods, the 14-times major champion began the day four shots adrift of fellow Americans Spieth, Xander Schauffele and Kevin Kisner but was leading as he reached the turn on seven under.
The 42-year-old, who won the last of his 14 majors a decade ago, has rolled back the clock at Carnoustie and after a sizzling third-round 66 he was at it again.
With the strong westerly breeze causing havoc at the top of the leaderboard, Woods played the opening nine holes in 34 strokes, sinking birdies at the fourth and sixth.
Spieth and Schauffele had begun steadily but both came to grief with bogeys on the fifth.
When Spieth double-bogeyed the next after needing a penalty drop out of a gorse bush and Schauffele followed suit with a double on the seventh, Woods found himself leading a major on a Sunday for the first time since 2011.
He was one stoke ahead of playing partner Francesco Molinari who began his final round with 10 straight pars.
The predicted winds materialised on cue to add an extra ingredient to what was already looking like a thrilling climax.
Only three of the first 42 players to complete their rounds on Sunday scored in the 60s.
Kisner, who had begun the day on nine-under with Spieth and Schauffele, suffered a dreadful start with a double bogey at the second and a bogey at the third to slip back, although he responded with a chip-in birdie at the fifth.
Two more bogeys followed but a birdie at the 10th kept him in the hunt at six under.
Parched Hoylake
Woods, playing at his first British Open since 2015, rolled back the clock on Saturday with a sparkling 66 -- his best round at an Open since winning at a similarly parched Hoylake in 2006.
He won the last of his 14 majors a decade ago since when he has been written off after a battle with injuries and personal problems.
But in his traditional last-day red shirt he continued where he left off the previous day to turn the screws.
A deafening roar reverberated around the course when he sunk a long birdie putt on the fourth. Then at the sixth he rolled in an eight-footer.
England's Eddie Pepperell was the clubhouse leader after a superb round of 67 took him to five-under.
Fellow Englishman Justin Rose failed to make a run on his front nine and dropped a shot at the fifth to slip to three under at the turn but he eagled the 14th to keep his hopes of a first Open victory alive.
It was a similar story for several others who had started the final round with high hopes of a surge.
England's Tommy Fleetwood began the day four shots off the lead and gained a stroke on the first but his challenge began to evaporate with a bogey-double bogey-bogey run before the turn.
Four-times major champion Rory McIlroy was another to struggle. He began the day at five-under but dropped two shots in his opening seven holes to slip back to three-under.
