The 42 reports from Royal Portrush

ON TUESDAY SCOTTIE Scheffler looked coolly down on all of our silly little het-up emotions and excitements and told us that none of it really matters because, when you think about it, what’s the point? 

He did the same to us all today, but this time on the golf course.

Rory McIlroy brought the spark plugs to ignite an electrifying Moving Day with a raucous, rollicking 66, but Scheffler eased to a 67 to leave everyone merely moving at a yawning distance below him. He takes a four-shot lead into Sunday. . . this Open looks done.

For all of McIlroy’s brilliance, he started the day seven from Scheffler and ended it six back, as Scheffler shot a bogey-free 67 to take a four-shot lead into the final day. Haotong Li has solo second at 10-under, while Matt Fitzpatrick is third, a single shot back. 

McIlroy, at minus-eight, is alongside Tyrrell Hatton, Chris Gotterup, and Harris English in a tie for fourth.

“He’s playing like Scottie”, said McIlroy. “I don’t think it’s a surprise. He’s just so solid. He doesn’t make mistakes.”  

McIlroy was the energy’s epicentre but the pulses thrummed out in all directions. Tyrrell Hatton holed out for eagle from the seventh fairway; Xander Schauffele eagled two of the par-fives; Matt Fitzpatrick chipped in for eagle on the second; John Parry made a hole-in-one on the 13th. 

But once again Scheffler remained exquisitely above the madding fray; standing at easy, phlegmatic distance from all this base human drama like some philosopher-king.  

Scottie Scheffler. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

McIlroy didn’t make the weekend here in 2019 and so he started like a man eager to make amends. He took a driving iron to safely find the first fairway and left himself 35 feet for birdie. . . which he poured right into the hole. The roar erupted and rumbled all the way back down the fairway to slam in the face of any wandering fans elsewhere. 

He then gave him an eagle look on the second hole, only to leave his putt agonisingly short. He nonetheless tapped in to open up with two-straight birdies. The crowds McIlroy magnetised were extraordinary, with great masses of people moving behind him, like mudslides flowing down the walkways. 

Keegan Bradley and Nicolai Højgaard were playing in the group behind and must have felt like they were consistently arriving in some suddenly-evacuated town, with the grandstands emptied and detritus drifting around trampled-down walkways. 

The Rory Run continued with a tidy par on the par-three third and then another birdie on four to fling him to within three of Scottie Scheffler’s lead. Then, however, the momentum stalled for a while, with some terrific, arcing putts agonisingly skirting the hole. 

McIlroy also threw in a penchant for the utterly bizarre: when he went miles right on 11, the follow-through of his shot from the rough spat up a long-buried golf ball from some round in the mists of time. McIlroy beheld the ball like Yorick’s Skull before tossing it away. Alas, he made bogey, and moments after Scottie Scheffler awoke with an eagle on the par-five seventh. This swing sent him back to seven shots off the lead.

But we know Rory well. There immediately came another heady rush of adrenaline, as McIlroy trickled in an epic, 56-foot putt for eagle on the very next hole. He raised his arm aloft as the wreaths of greenside crowds erupted. It was, he said later, the loudest roar he’s ever heard on a golf course.

The frenzy was amped up and suddenly things were going well even when they were going badly. He took a driving iron off the 15th tee and still went left and into the rough, and then saw his second shot hit the pin and drop to within a couple of feet for a shot less gained than gifted. He went to Calamity – the par-three on which you cannot go right – and went right, but saved his par with a stunning pitch to four feet. He blew his tee shot on 17 miles to the right but got a friendly lie among the crowd to get down for par. 

But all the while Scheffler offered no encouragement. While he didn’t roar away from the field across his back nine, he crushed the field with flashes of sorry hope. A missed iron into 11 was a kind of black swan event, but from a gnarly lie on a mound to the left of the green, he pitched himself into range to get up and down. He then left himself 10 feet for his par on 14. . . and made it. He then birdied 16 for the third-straight day, saw a birdie putt shave the hole on 17, and made par on 18.

Earlier, Shane Lowry’s misery was somehow compounded even further en route to a three-over 74. Having lost two shots to a penalty ruling by the R&A last night, he awoke in the middle of the night with a vomiting bug. He thus visited almost as many bathrooms as fairways across a brutally draining round, and will be among the early starters on Sunday, at three-over for the tournament. 

But for all the anarchic energy around him, it was yet again Scottie Scheffler’s day. 

But goodness, what a day all the same. 

Written by Gavin Cooney and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.