Sunday at the Open Championship couldn’t have offered us a better day, except for one small thing. It was only the third round.
The Old Course was so very gettable and it seemed that everyone was able to get more than their share of birdies and an exciting final it would have been. But with the weather delays we are headed for a Monday finish. Oh, if it can only live up to today.
Almost everyone was able to get in the act except for second round leader Dustin Johnson. He struggled all day and didn’t get into the birdie fest until the fourteenth hole and then ran off three straight bogeys to finish with a 75 and essentially end his run at this Claret Jug. 
But red numbers dominated the scoreboard today as player after player took advantage of calm winds and soft greens to bring the Old Course to its knees.
Marc Leishman set the tone early with a best of the day 64 and if you couldn’t manage something in the 66-68 range you were left in the dust.
Jordan Spieth seized on the opportunity to card a 6 under 66 to get to -11 and sit alone in fourth. And two time Open Champion Paddy Harrington shot a sterling, bogey free 65 to jump into fifth place.
The lead is shared by three golfers who combined for a total of eighteen birdies and only two bogeys on the day.
Jason Day crept into a tie for the lead with a bogey free 67 and 2010 Open Champion Louie Oosthuizen balanced two bogeys against seven birdies for his 67.
But the story of the day may be the young 22 year old amateur Paul Dunne, who sits atop of the leaderboard tied with Day and Oosthuizen.
Dunne carded bogey free 66 to jump up nine places and become the youngest third round leader since Bobby Jones in 1927. Dunne acted all “Spieth-like” as he seemed to display a maturity well beyond his years and acted more like a seasoned veteran than a lad on the verge of making history.
Dunne is actually lucky to be in the field as he barely made his tee time to qualify for the Open. He had misjudged the time he needed to get to the 10th tee and with one minute left on the clock, he showed up and made the cut to St. Andrews.
Monday’s pairings have Dunne playing with his third round partner, Oosthuizen and the two seemed to get on quite well on Sunday. But the final round of a major tends to be a bit different.
Spieth and Day are in the penultimate group and each are carrying their own burdens.
Day has been in the conversations as the best player without a major for some time. And he has an extraordinary record in majors over the years.
Spieth is flirting with history in more ways than one. A win here ties him with Ben Hogan as the only two men to win the first three majors of the season. And of course, if he does win that keeps the Grand Slam alive and he’ll only need the PGA Championship to be the first man to ever win the professional Grand Slam.
It’s bound to be one hell of a Monday.
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