Rory McIlroy drew one of the great gallery roars of his life on Saturday at the British Open. Matt Fitzpatrick once again holed a miraculous eagle chip. Chris Gotterup and defending champion Xander Schauffele charged up the leaderboard. We even got a smile out of Tyrrell Hatton after a brilliant eagle of his own.

And none of it mattered a bit, because Scottie Scheffler continued his relentless assault on Royal Portrush.

Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Scheffler is now just 18 holes from his second major of the year, the third leg of the career grand slam, and the fourth major in his career. He’s now four strokes clear of the field at 14-under, after finishing out a clean-card 4-under round with two birdies and an eagle.

Outside of Scheffler, the wildest story of the day was easily the hometown kid. McIlroy birdied three of his first four, and carded an eagle on 12 that shook all of Northern Ireland. But he also somehow managed to unearth a second ball when firing from the rough on 11, and then a kid grabbed his ball when it rolled into the gallery along 17. Just a normal day for the No. 2 player in the world, who wrapped the day at -8.

“If I hadn’t have won a major this year, if I hadn’t have won the Masters, I might have felt differently,” McIlroy said after the round. “I’ve just really tried to embrace everything this week. I’m having an incredible time. I’m really enjoying myself, and I feel like I’ve given myself half a chance now.”

Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Players up and down the leaderboard took advantage of the day’s ideal conditions — warm, clear, almost no wind — to post scores that dove deep into the red. Haotong Li quietly carded a -2 round to finish at -10 and set himself up for a Sunday final-round pairing. Fitzpatrick, in the final Saturday group alongside Scheffler, stumbled with three bogeys in the back nine and finished out the day at -9.

“They just wouldn’t go in. That’s the long and short of it,” Fitzpatrick said. “They went in yesterday. They didn’t go in today.”

One week after his remarkable win at the Scottish Open, Chris Gotterup finished out at -8 for the day. Harris English also wrapped the day at -8 after a -3 round on the afternoon. Hatton closed out his day at -8 as well, another strong round for the Englishman still searching for his first major.

But the story of the day — and, really, of the era — continues to be Scheffler, who passed every test that Royal Portrush could force on him. Scheffler threw down an eagle on 7 and a birdie on 8 to put some more distance between himself and the field, but otherwise kept up a smooth barrage of pars to keep everyone else at club’s length. No matter whether Scheffler’s shots ended up in the thatch or the bunkers, he found a way to escape with nothing worse than a par.

Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

“Anytime we’re going around the course I’m trying to take advantage of my opportunities. Sometimes I do a better job of that than other times,” Scheffler said. “It’s more just a matter of trying to make the best of the opportunities that you can get, and sometimes I’m good at it, sometimes not as good.”

“When I watch Scottie play a lot, he just looks blacked out to me, just doing his thing,” Schauffele said after his round. “He’s just in his own world and nothing’s going to bother him. He gets to that place often, which is a good thing for him.”

He’s also dominant when he holds a 54-hole lead:

“Winning major championships is not an easy task, and I’ve put myself in a good position,” Scheffler said. “Going into tomorrow I’m going to step up there on the first tee and I’m going to be trying to get the ball in the fairway, and when I get to the second shot I’m going to be trying to get that ball on the green. There’s not really too much else going on.”

Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

We don’t want to say that this is a done deal, but the British Open’s engraver has already started carving S’s into the Claret Jug.