The Open 2026: fourth and final round at Royal Birkdale – live

Key events11m agoPreamblePreambleSam Burns is playing with house money today. Sort of. The 29-year-old from Louisiana was planning to sit this one out, with his wife Caroline slated to give birth earlier this week. But Caroline delivered earlier than expected, then encouraged her husband to give the Open a whirl. And now look!So it’s a free hit. Kind of. Thing is, once you’re in this position, there’s a hell of a lot to lose. And remember how heartbroken Burns was to come up short at last year’s US Open. He’s been on the verge of the big breakthrough for a couple of years now, and maybe this is his time. But there are other in-form players lurking, dreaming of a maiden major, so expect a lot of nerves to jangle today.And then there’s Bryson DeChambeau. We’re about 40 hours on from Gardengate™, so let’s try to put that one to bed now. But rightly or wrongly, the two-time US Open champion and social-media behemoth is fuelled by a righteous fury, and plenty in the gallery will be four-square behind him. Plenty more will be pulling for local hero Tommy Fleetwood, though. Ludvig Åberg would be a popular champion as well.Or will someone come bursting from of the nether regions of the leaderboard, just as Ryan Fox did yesterday, leaping 50 places in benign early conditions to shoot the third 62 of the week? It’s not beyond the realms. So let’s see how this pans out. It promises to be so much fun.Here’s how the top of the leaderboard looked after the third round …-10: Sam Burns -8: Ryan Fox, Kim Si-woo -7: Ryan Gerard, Lucas Herbert -6: Ludvig Åberg, Bryson DeChambeau, Jackson Suber -5: Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Tommy Fleetwood -4: Xander Schauffele, Eric Cole, Kazuma Kobori, Hideki Matsuyama, Daniel Brown, Cameron John, Shane Lowry, Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler… and here’s when everyone went out / will go out today (all times BST). It’s on!7.40 am: Jesper Svenson, Keegan Bradley 7.50 am: Matthew Southgate, Laurie Canter 8 am: Jack McDonald, Ben Griffin 8.10 am: Peter Uihlein, Kazuki Higa 8.20 am: Sepp Straka, John Parry 8.30 am: Andy Sullivan, Aldrich Potgieter 8.40 am: Marcus Plunkett, Ryo Hisatsune 8.50 am: Min Woo Lee, Tyrrell Hatton 9 am: Nick Taylor, MJ Daffue 9.15 am: Eugenio Chacarra, Rickie Fowler 9.25 am: Naoyuki Kataoka, Thomas Detry 9.35 am: JJ Spaun, Victor Perez 9.45 am: Chris Gotterup, Patrick Cantlay 9.55 am: Michael Brennan, Kurt Kitayama 10.05 am: Brooks Koepka, Bud Cauley 10.15 am: Alex Fitzpatrick, Pierceson Coody 10.25 am: Corey Conners, Johnny Keefer 10.40 am: Patrick Reed, Adam Scott 10.50 am: Michael Thorbjornsen, Shaun Norris 11 am: Marco Penge, Alex Noren 11.10 am: Russell Henley, Matt Wallace 11.20 am: Francesco Molinari, Collin Morikawa 11.30 am: Jordan Smith, Rory McIlroy 11.40 am: Hennie Du Plessis, Sahith Theegala 11.50 am: Casey Jarvis, Kristoffer Reitan 12.05 pm: Cameron Young, Robert MacIntyre 12.15 pm: Nico Echavarria, Im Sung-jae 12.25 pm: Jacob Bridgeman, Justin Thomas 12.35 pm: Max Homa, Alex Smalley 12.45 pm: Jose Luis Ballester, Scottie Scheffler 12.55 pm: Jon Rahm, Shane Lowry 1.05 pm: Cameron John, Daniel Brown 1.15 pm: Hideki Matsuyama, Kazuma Kobori 1.30 pm: Eric Cole, Xander Schauffele 1.40 pm: Tommy Fleetwood, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen 1.50 pm: Jackson Suber, Bryson DeChambeau 2 pm: Ludvig Aberg, Lucas Åberg 2.10 pm: Ryan Gerard, Kim Si-woo 2.20 pm: Ryan Fox, Sam Burns