Stop me if you've heard this song and dance before, but Scottie Scheffler has a commanding lead going into Sunday. What's unfamiliar, though, is that Scheffler is leading after 54 holes of The Open Championship at Royal Portrush. Historically, the top-ranked golfer in the world has struggled whenever he's had to travel across the pond for The Open (at least relative to his overwhelming success otherwise), but that certainly hasn't been the case this week.
While Scheffler surged to a four-shot lead going into Sunday's final round, Rory McIlroy in his home country of Northern Ireland provided some fireworks on Moving Day, getting off to a hot start and putting himself much closer to the top of the leaderboard. However, it's going to be a tall task for him or anyone to catch Scheffler — but this is also major championship golf, where even the greats are still fallible and wild things happen on Sunday.
So, whether or not we get a Scheffler victory lap or a surprise finish at Portrush to cap off The Open Championship, golf fans will want to have the coffee ready and be ready to watch. We have the leaderboard after 54 holes, Sunday tee times and everything else golf fans need to watch.
Open Championship leaderboard and standings entering Sunday
Leaderboard | Total Score (R3 Score) |
|---|---|
1. Scottie Scheffler | -14 (-4) |
2. Haotong Li | -10 (-2) |
3. Matt Fitzpatrick | -9 (E) |
T4. Rory McIlroy | -8 (-5) |
T4. Chris Gotterup | -8 (-3) |
T4. Harris English | -8 (-3) |
T4. Tyrrell Hatton | -8 (-3) |
8. Xander Schauffele | -7 (-5) |
T9. Russell Henley | -6 (-6) |
T9. Nicolai Hojgaard | -6 (-2) |
T9. Robert MacIntyre | -6 (-1) |
T9. Rasmus Hojgaard | -6 (-1) |
T9. Brian Harman | -6 (+2) |
There were definitely low scores to be had on Saturday at The Open Championship. Scheffler, again, found one of them to surge well ahead of the peloton trying to chase down the World No. 1. Rory McIlroy provided perhaps the biggest thrills of the day, though, with a beautiful round that was close to being even better if some putts hadn't burned the edge of the cup. Matt Fitzpatrick and Brian Harman failed to keep things all that close with rounds of even-par and 2-over, respectively, though Haotong Li also kept himself in the mix. It should set up either a coronation of Scottie on Sunday, or an epic comeback from the chase pack.
Sunday tee times, pairings at The Open Championship
Sunday Pairing | Tee Time |
|---|---|
Matti Schmid, Riki Kawamoto | 3:30 a.m. ET |
Dean Burmester, Phil Mickelson | 3:40 a.m. ET |
Sebastian Soderberg, Andrew Novak | 3:50 a.m. ET |
Shane Lowry, J.S. Olesen | 4:00 a.m. ET |
Antoine Rozner, Viktor Hovland | 4:10 a.m. ET |
Adrien Saddier, Ryggs Johnston | 4:20 a.m. ET |
Romain Langasque, Jordan Spieth | 4:30 a.m. ET |
Francesco Molinari, Matthew Jordan | 4:40 a.m. ET |
Sergio Garcia, Justin Leonard | 4:55 a.m. ET |
Thomas Detry, Sepp Straka | 5:05 a.m. ET |
Aaron Rai, Jason Kokrak | 5:15 a.m. ET |
Daniel Berger, Jhonattan Vegas | 5:25 a.m. ET |
Maverick McNealy, Henrik Stenson | 5:35 a.m. ET |
Takumi Kanaya, Jordan Smith | 5:45 a.m. ET |
Sam Burns, Rickie Fowler | 5:55 a.m. ET |
Akshay Bhatia, Jon Rahm | 6:10 a.m. ET |
Jesper Svensson, Thriston Lawrence | 6:20 a.m. ET |
Bryson DeChambeau, Nathan Kimsey | 6:30 a.m. ET |
Hideki Matsuyama, Tony Finau | 6:40 a.m. ET |
Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood | 6:50 a.m. ET |
JJ Spaun, John Parry | 7:00 a.m. ET |
Keegan Bradley, Christiaan Bezuidenhout | 7:10 a.m. ET |
Marc Leishman, Lucas Glover | 7:25 a.m. ET |
Sungjae Im, Dustin Johnson | 7:35 a.m. ET |
Corey Conners, Lee Westwood | 7:45 a.m. ET |
Harry Hall, Justin Rose | 7:55 a.m. ET |
Ludvig Åberg, Kristoffer Reitan | 8:05 a.m. ET |
Oliver Lindell, Matt Wallace | 8:15 a.m. ET |
Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman | 8:25 a.m. ET |
Rasmus Hojgaard, Robert MacIntyre | 8:40 a.m. ET |
Nicolai Hojgaard, Russell Henley | 8:50 a.m. ET |
Xander Schauffele, Tyrrell Hatton | 9:00 a.m. ET |
Harris English, Chris Gotterup | 9:10 a.m. ET |
Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick | 9:20 a.m. ET |
Haotong Li, Scottie Scheffler | 9:30 a.m. ET |
Scheffler and Li will make up the final group with Rory playing himself into Sunday's penultimate pairing with the beautiful round on Saturday. Honestly, though, golf fans should be a little peeved that we didn't get Rasmus and Nicolai Hojgaard paired together, if only to see the NBC broadcast team have some struggles throughout the day telling the Danish twins apart while playing the same hole. Alas, we'll have to settle for some great golf at Portrush.
What channel is The Open Championship on for Sunday? What time does it start in the U.S.?
TV coverage of The Open will begin at 4 a.m. ET on USA Network for Sunday's final round. The coverage will then shift from USA to NBC for the remainder of the final round at Royal Portrush at 7 a.m. ET with the broadcast currently scheduled to conclude at 2 p.m. ET. Streaming coverage remains available via Peacock with a paid subscription to the service.
Where is the 2025 Open Championship being played?
As mentioned, the tournament is being played at Royal Portrush Golf Club, the Dunluce Links course, in Northern Ireland. This is only the third time in the history of The Open that the venue has hosted this championship, the last coming in 2019 and the first all the way back in 1951. Given the reception of the two modern Open Championships at this course, however, one has to believe that the R&A will return to Northern Ireland in relatively short order once again in the future.
Royal Portrush weather forecast for Sunday's final round
When the first group tees off for the final round of The Open, the forecast is calling for it to be in the low-60s (Fahrenheit) with cloudy conditions and around a 10 percent chance of rain. The wind is only also supposed to be mild, blowing at only a sustained 6 mph. Cloudy conditions and temperatures in the mid-to-low 60s will persist throughout the day at Royal Portrush, with the chance of precipitation climbing to above 20 percent in the afternoon, though winds should remain relatively benign (at least for an Open Championship) with the highest forecasted sustained winds at 8 mph for Sunday.