His grip on the green jacket loosened a little bit, but – still – Brooks Koepka finished his work in the third round on a cool Sunday morning and which enabled him to take a two-stroke lead over Spain’s Jon Rahm into the final round of the Masters tournament.
If we’d thought it would be a straight shoot-out between Koepka, one of LIV Golf’s poster boys, and Rahm, one of the PGA Tour’s main advocates, there was another who gatecrashed a way into mix as Viktor Hovland transformed his fading quest with a remarkable run of five straight birdies in his reconvened homeward run, to head into the final 18 holes three behind Koepka.
Both Koepka, seeking a fifth career Major and first Masters, and Rahm, signed for 73s, with the American reaching the 54-hole mark on 11-under-par 205, with Rahm two adrift.
Shane Lowry, too, was impressive in also completing his third round’s work. The Offalyman – playing beautifully from tee to green – recommenced his play on the 10th with a par and claimed one birdie and eight pars for his journey around Amen Corner and onward to the 18th as he signed for a 73 for three-under-par 213.
Denis Walsh: Irish sport’s underdog mentality has been replaced with an unabashed hunger to be the best
The year in sports quotes: The wit and wisdom - from Damien Duff to Daniel Wiffen, Kellie Harrington to Rory McIlroy
Four of Ireland’s top five most admired sports people in 2024 are women
A box of Pro V1s is the Christmas present of choice for many. But do they help the average golfer?
Lowry had the ball on the proverbial string off the tee, with an exhibition of driving (he missed only one fairway in the third round across the two days in difficult conditions) and could have been even closer to the leaders if he’d managed to sink a number of birdie chances.
Still, there could be no complaints in truth with a well-crafted, patient round that moved him inside the top-10.
“I’m obviously a long way back, but I’m in a decent position into this afternoon ... lying around 10th going into the final round here is pretty good. Obviously, Brooks and Rahm and Viktor are doing something; but look at the run Viktor just did down the back nine. So it’s out there. Hopefully we get a few Sunday pins here that will give us some chances. I felt like the pins were quite difficult this morning actually and hard to get at. But, yeah, we’ll give it a go!”
Lowry’s only birdie of his morning’s work came on the par-five 15th where he changed his weeklong strategy of laying up to being more aggressive and going for the green in two.
“I normally hit low driver off there and it doesn’t give me a chance to go for the green. I said to Darren [Reynolds, his caddie] I’m just going to try to make something happen here. I went for a high draw and hit a great tee shot. I hit a four iron in and made a great shot. You know like, when the ball’s in the air, you’re at the mercy of the gods then. I just hit two great shots. Thankfully I rolled in that birdie because that would have been annoying. I was trying to make eagle. I was trying to make something happen,” said Lowry.
Séamus Power closed with two birdies – on the eighth and ninth holes – as he shot a third-round 73 for two-over-par 218 which had him in 39th:
“It was a lovely finish. I actually lipped out on seven [for birdie] as well, or it would have been a really good finish. Still, it gets me back in some reasonable shape for a good round to make a bit of a difference,” said Power.
