Hoylack, England – After par 18 holes on a wet and dreary Saturday at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Max Homma and Rory McIlroy were separated by just one shot, but their gazes on their games were wide apart.
McIlroy lined up to the green as quickly as he could after he finished. With spectators staring out of the clubhouse windows, McIlroy wore his frustration on his face while Harry stood on the caddy behind him at every practice stroke and watched how he lined up. Once he missed one, McIlroy swung his club disappointedly in the air, as if he was still there in the course.
It was this kind of day for McIlroy. And Homa too. They both missed their share of putts inside 20, 15, or even 10 feet. It’s likely that both of them realized in depth that, with Brian Harman leading at 12-under, and two being 9-and-10-shots, they wouldn’t be getting in the way on Sunday.
But Homa was smiling. He was delighted with his performance, and how he stayed inside himself in every take when everyone around him was screaming for McIlroy. Homa said he had to make a mental decision to accept his reality and try to thrive in it, using it almost as a test.
“I had a guy yell at me, ‘Hurry up, nobody’s watching you anyway today,’ which I absolutely love, if I’m being honest,” Homa said. “Obviously I didn’t think of myself as the opponent, but he was clearly the protagonist of the day. I was kind of thinking if I could make this Ryder Cup team it would have a very similar feel to that, so I thought that would be a good exercise for that if and when I can make that team.”
The 32-year-old still has plenty to play on Sunday. The big powers aren’t his forte (he only has one top-15 finish in his career) and this year he missed losing at home at the US Open in Los Angeles. A top-10 finish is within his reach, as well as a more solid spot on the US Ryder Cup team.
For McIlroy, the equation is different. His major drought is likely to extend to nine on Sunday and although he has had a season worthy of being one of the world’s top three players, his results in the majors since being bested by Cam Smith in the final round of last year’s Open have been a whirlwind of performances and emotions.
At the Masters, his desire to win was so strong that he played himself out of the tournament by Friday. In the PGA, he said he didn’t have his best but still had a shot on the outside. It wasn’t meant to be. At the US Open, I felt like everything was clicking. He dropped no bets on Sunday, losing by one stroke in what looked like a comeback for St Andrews. On Saturday, he birdied three of the first five holes, making it look like a shot to give Harman a fight on Sunday. Instead, he will now have to work towards another top-10 finish in a major—his third this year and his eighth in the past two years.
What Harman did at Hoylake was impressive, and it colored the rest of the field with a bit of managing expectations. Barring the 36-year-old’s complete meltdown, Sunday will be little more than a claret decanter for many players further down the leaderboard. Take Cameron Young, for example, who was realistic on Saturday when discussing his chances, realizing that he would have to get aggressive if Harman remained as steady as he seemed all week.
“I think you have to see how the first couple holes play tomorrow, and then maybe start shooting for things that might not be,” Young said. “I feel more in control of my game and equally in control of my mind and kind of has that little extra level of focus and intent that you have in these situations.”
Even if Young can’t get 5 shots back, his performance this week already carries a lot of weight when it comes to the Ryder Cup. Young was probably on the bubble in terms of captain selection. Finishing near the top of the leaderboard at Raid will greatly boost his chances of making the team. Winning, of course, would settle it.
Young isn’t the only one fighting for a place in the Ryder Cup. On the other side of the fairway, Sepp Straka has also made some noise this week and stands at 5 under, 7 shots back, through Sunday. The Austrian is one of many names being touted for some of the final few spots in the European squad for this year’s tournament in Italy. Straka has already won once this year, and tomorrow’s strong finish will further his case.
“You just have to go out there and try to hit low points,” Straka said. “You don’t have to do anything crazy because he’s just one guy in there. You just try to play your game and see what happens.”
One player who doesn’t have to worry about his place in the Ryder Cup is Victor Hovland. The story with him is about when, rather than if, he will one day win a major. After finishing outside the top 25 and missing the cuts in the first three majors of 2022, Hovland has turned 2023 into his official upcoming party.
The 25-year-old Norwegian finished inside the top 10 in his first two majors of the year and is now 5-under and 7 shot by Harman heading into Sunday. His chances are slim, but Hovland’s top-10 finish would give him his strongest year in the majors and make him one of many favorites to win one next year.
“To be able to put myself in a position to win tournaments without my stellar game, I think that’s been really cool,” Hovland said. “I think my short game has improved a lot, which has really allowed me to be able to do that.”
Who else needs a top 10 badly? Perhaps none more so than Alex Fitzpatrick. The brother of US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick may be the messier and less analytical of the two, Matt said earlier this week, but he plays better (two strokes better, in fact) and stands a chance of turning his major championship debut into a two. Fitzpatrick’s top-10 finish means he’ll be back next year and play The Open Championship at Royal Troon Golf Club, but to hear him speak the result will be even more important to his larger goal of getting his career headed in the right direction.
“It would be nice if she finished high. It would be nice if she did well, but she’s more confident,” said Fitzpatrick. “I have work to do for the rest of the year, which is to try and get out of the Challenge Tour. [Finishing high] That would help.”
Despite all the aforementioned names, there is no single player on the leaderboard with the potential to actually track down Harman Sunday and possibly even win, more than John Rahm, who scored a historic round of 63 on Saturday that was not only good enough for the new course record, but also good enough to put him in the penultimate group on Sunday, six shots from the lead.
“This is the best round I have ever played on Links Golf Course,” said Ram. “We train hard, and many of us at least expect certain things. It gets to a point where it’s like you picture it in your head and what you see is supposed to happen. It doesn’t happen often… [Today] You see everything the way it’s supposed to happen, which is very unusual.”
Ram may be the most aggressive of the bunch coming into the final round, partly because he’s one of the most aggressive golfers in the round, and also because there’s no downside to him swinging. It’s how he went from 2 at the start of his run today to 6 less by the end of the day.
“It feels really good, but there is a lot of work to do tomorrow,” said Ram. “I’ve done what I need to do, which is give myself a chance. I’ll go eat, see myself, and enjoy some family time before I go to bed. It’s that simple.”
The third-ranked player in the world doesn’t play for check, fight for a spot on a team, or do anything besides try to make history. Not only has he won his second major of the year—the first to do so since Brooks Koepka in 2018—but he’ll also complete a comeback for the ages. Ram, who came back from 9 strokes on the final day to beat Colin Morikawa in Kapalua earlier this year, said golf felt like it was meant to be a Saturday. The challenge of carrying that groove into a new day is at the core of what makes the sport so challenging. But if anyone can do it, it’s Ram.