Young charges into British Open lead as Scheffler comes up short / Photo: ANDY BUCHANAN - AFP
Young charges into British Open lead as Scheffler comes up short
Cameron Young faces an anxious countdown to see if his wait for a major win is over after setting the clubhouse lead at the British Open on nine under par as the overnight leaders faltered on the final day at Royal Birkdale.
The world number four's shot appeared to have gone with a four-over par back nine on Saturday to leave the American seven shots off the lead at the beginning of the day.
But Young stormed through the front nine in 29 shots to go from three under to eight under par and added more birdies at the two par fives on the 14th and 17th coming home to move to 10 under.
However, he found the sand off the tee at 18 and smashed his second shot into the face of the bunker for a costly bogey.
"I've played around the lead in majors enough to know that scraping out even par on a Sunday in a major championship can be really difficult. So you figure those guys at the top, somebody's probably going to make a run, but I was just close enough," said Young.
"Right now that's holding true. So we'll see where we are at the end of the day."
Sam Burns held a two-shot overnight lead, but that vanished in three consecutive bogeys at four, five and six that dropped the American to eight under.
South Korea's Kim Si-woo moved within sight of his first major at the turn but also dropped back to eight under with bogeys on 11 and 12.
New Zealand's Ryan Fox and Australian Lucas Herbert are also still in contention at seven under with six holes left to play.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler just left himself too much to do as he finished at seven under after a rollercoaster final round.
The world number one's defence of the Claret Jug has been blighted by poor putting.
Scheffler began the final round six back, but halved that deficit with three birdies in his opening five holes.
But bogeys at the 13th, 15th and 18th ensured he will end 2026 without adding to his four major wins.
Just a stone's throw away from where he learned to play the game in Southport, Fleetwood's fast start delighted the home fans.
The world number nine was three under for the day through eight holes to close to within one of the lead.
But the wait since 1992 for an English winner of the British Open is set to continue after three consecutive bogeys dropped Fleetwood back to where he started the day at five under.
Rory McIlroy was never truly in contention to land his seventh major and ended with a 71 to finish at one under par for the tournament.
"Any time I got a little bit of momentum out there, I seemed to make a bogey," said the world number two. "Just one of those weeks I couldn't get it going."
Bryson DeChambeau's two-shot penalty after his second round on Friday ultimately did not prove decisive in the destiny of the championship.
The American's challenge fell away with a triple bogey seven at the 11th to fall to four under with four holes remaining.
L.Sastre--MP
