Everyone was trying to catch Brian Harman on Moving Day.
Jon Rahm certainly did his best.
Rahm went off on Saturday morning at the British Open to try and put the pressure on Harman, who flew out to a huge five-shot lead after his 6-under performance on Friday at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England. Rahm carded a bogey-free 8-under 63 on Saturday, which moved him up 37 spots on the leaderboard and put him right back into contention. It also set the tournament course record at Royal Liverpool.
Although Rahm’s round was impressive, it wasn’t enough to catch Harman — who was just getting his day started with Tommy Fleetwood when Rahm entered the clubhouse.
Harman, despite making two bogeys in his opening four holes, carded a 2-under 69 on Saturday to maintain his five-shot lead. He briefly took a six-shot lead, but Cameron Young made a clutch up-and-down birdie save from a bunker at the last to get to 7-under on the week.
Harman has won just twice in his career on the PGA Tour, most recently at the 2017 Wells Fargo Championship. He’s never won a major championship, although he finished T2 at the US Open in 2017 and T6 at last year’s British Open at St. Andrews.
According to Golf Digest’s Shane Ryan, only 12 players have ever held a 36-hole lead of exactly five shots at a 72-hole major championship in history. Of those 12 golfers, 10 of them won — most recently with Scottie Scheffler at the Masters last year. The only two who blew it were Bobby Clampett at the British Open in 1982, and Henry Cooper at the Masters in 1936. Harman also holds the largest 36-hole lead any player has had in the 13 times that the British Open has been played at Royal Liverpool.
Viktor Hovland, Antoine Rozner, Jason Day, Sepp Straka and Tommy Fleetwood are all tied for fourth at 5-under on the week. Alex Fitzpatrick and Shubhankar Sharma are a shot back at 4-under.
A win for Harman is by no means solidified. There’s still a full day of golf to be played. But if Rahm’s round is any indication of what’s to come, Harman can’t slow down.
Keep up with all of Saturday’s third round action at the British Open with Yahoo Sports:
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