Ryan Fox moves up leaderboard at British Open after strong third-round finish

New Zealand's Ryan Fox plays his tee shot on the 4th hole on the first day of the Open Championship at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England. Photo / AP

Ryan Fox continues to turn his fortunes around at the British Open.

Fox, who scored a triple bogey on the 18th hole for a seven-over 78 on his opening round, has played under par since, following up his second-round 67 to make the cut with a two-under 69 today to move up the leaderboard.

On moving day, that sent Fox up 21 places on the leaderboard, into a tie for 41st, at one-under.

American Brian Harman continues to lead the charge, retaining his five-shot lead over the field, after also shooting a two-under 69 in round three, to go to 12-under.

Harman has two victories in 335 tournaments over 12 years on the PGA Tour. Now he’s one round away from one of the grandest titles of all.

Leader Brian Harman reacts after a fine final putt in his third round.

The 36-year-old lefty’s final act was an eight-foot par putt, with Harman lightly clenching his fist, that made it that much more difficult for Cameron Young, Jon Rahm or anyone else to catch him.

Young, the runner-up at St Andrews a year ago, hit a superb shot from the front bunker on the par-five 18th for a tap-in birdie and a 66 that got him into the final group.

No-one was more spectacular than Rahm, who had seven birdies over his last 10 holes and set the Open record at Royal Liverpool with a 63. No-one had ever gone lower than 65 at Hoylake. He still was six shots behind.

Harman made it feel like an even larger deficit the way he’s been playing – on the grass, not in the pot bunkers, and rarely out of position.

Harman was paired with Tommy Fleetwood, the local star who grew up some 45 minutes up the Lancashire coast in Southport and had a throaty English gallery on his side. They were roaring when Harman bogeyed the opening hole and then went long of the fourth green for another bogey. His five-shot lead suddenly was down to two shots.

And then it wasn’t.

Harman hit a beautiful lag from 70 feet for a two-putt birdie on the par-five fifth. He closed out the front nine with a tee shot to four feet for birdie at the ninth. And then he poured it on, hitting another beauty to five feet at No 12 and rolling in a 20-foot birdie on the next hole.

Harman was at 12-under 201 and has history on his side. Jean van de Velde is the last player to take a five-shot lead into the final round of a major and not win. That was in Carnoustie in 1999 and featured one of the most dumbfounding triple bogeys ever on the 72nd hole of a major.

The day was a big disappointment for so many others, starting with Rory McIlroy.

He opened with three birdies in five holes – he had birdie chances of 10 and 12 feet on the other two holes – and looked primed to post the kind of score Rahm did earlier. But he didn’t make birdie the rest of the way, and the finish was particularly painful. McIlroy missed birdie chances from eight feet, 12 feet and 10 feet.

He chose not to speak to the media for the second time this week, heading straight to the putting green. McIlroy shot 69 and was nine shots behind, making it likely he will have to wait nine months for a chance to end his aggravating nine-year drought in the majors.

Rahm started 12 shots behind and now at least has a chance. He was dynamic as ever, playing bogey-free in the morning rain that gave way to damp, breezy conditions.

Fleetwood had to settle for a 71, leaving him in the group at five-under 208 – seven shots out of the lead – with Jason Day (69), Viktor Hovland (66), Sepp Straka (70) and Antoine Rozner (67).

Harman has been in full control as he goes after his first win since the Wells Fargo Championship in 2017. He has been steady inside and outside the ropes, not wanting to get too far ahead of himself.

“I’ve got 18 holes,” he said.