The Open: SA’s Thriston Lawrence in final group at Royal Troon

South Africa’s Thriston Lawrence will play in the final group alongside the USA’s Billy Horschel when the final round of the 152nd Open Championship tees off at Royal Troon on Sunday.

The pair will go off at 3.25pm SA time in search of the Claret Jug after a tough and demanding third round on Saturday.

Lawrence, a recent SA Open champion at Blair Athol in Joburg, got himself into prime position to launch an assault on the year’s fourth Major by playing earlier in the day on Saturday when conditions were still good for golf.

Third round 65

The big-hitter was in stunning form on Saturday, going round the Royal Troon course in 6-under-par, 65 shots after a brilliant front nine. Lawrence made birdies at the first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth holes to turn in 30. He made another birdie at 11 before dropping his only shot at the par-four 13th.

It got him to a score of three-under-par after earlier rounds of 71 and 74 and he’d then watch as the weather came in and made the playing conditions extremely difficult later in the day.

Horschel, with an excellent 69 in the wet later in the day, finished on a total of four-under-par on Saturday to sit alone at the top of the leaderboard and be ahead by one going into Sunday’s final round.

Challengers

The poor weather though has blown the challenge wide open with several players in the mix. Alongside SA’s Lawrence, one shot back of the lead are the likes of Russell Henley, Sam Burns, Xander Schauffele, Justin Rose and Daniel Brown.

A further shot back is world number one Scottie Scheffler, while second round leader, Shane Lowry is three shots back of Horschel after shooting 77 on Saturday.

The other South Africans who made the halfway cut also suffered in the rain and wind.

Dean Burmester shot a 76 on Saturday to be at 3-over-par and in tied 25th place, while Darren Fichardt could only manage an 80 to be last on 15-over-par.

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