On moving day at the British Open, Tony Finau found himself stuck in neutral at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland on Saturday.
Finau fired a 1-over-par 72 in the third round to go with his rounds of 70-68 and that effort left him watching the contenders pull away. Most of the movers and shakers fired rounds of four to five under par as Scottie Scheffler rocketed to a huge lead heading into Sunday.
Finau began Saturday’s round exactly as he did Friday by going bogey, birdie, birdie. When he made birdie on the par-4 No. 9 hole he was 5-under and in the top 10.
But bogeys on the ninth, 11th and 13th holes dropped him to 1-over on the day and 3-under for the tournament, a middle-of-the pack standing heading into Sunday’s final round.
Finau arrived to Northern Ireland and Royal Portrush seeking some local knowledge. Finau left his caddie Mark Urbane back in the U.S., and hired local caddie Colin Byrne.
“Yeah, Colin Byrne is my caddie this week,” Finau said in his interview after the second round. “He’s obviously a very well-known caddie. He caddied for Retief Goosen for many years and had a lot of success with him.
“But being on this side of the pond, he’s from Ireland, so it’s pretty cool to have him on the bag, knows this golf course pretty well, and he’s definitely been helpful the first two days.”
Finau and the rest of the field had a tough job keeping up with the No. 1-ranked Scheffler who raced to -14 under par and a four-shot lead heading into Sunday’s final round. With other contenders struggling at different points, Haotong Li from China and Matt Fitzpatrick from England were the closest competitors, four and five strokes back respectively.
The other story of the day was the 5-under par effort by local favorite Rory McIlroy, who finished the day 8-under and is tied for fourth.