A day after shooting 62 and entering the record books, Sam Burns followed it with a 64 (-5) to take a two-stroke lead over Ryan Fox and Si Woo Kim at the 2026 Open Championship. If Burns goes on to win, he would become the 13th consecutive first-time winner of this event.
Burns has four top-10 finishes in four of his last nine major championship appearances. He has only converted one of his five 54-hole leads/co-leads to a victory. At last year’s U.S. Open, he held the lead after 54 holes and finished T7.
Fox became the third person this week joining Burns and Lucas Herbert to shoot a round of 62. His third round moved him 50 spots up the leaderboard to put him in the final group pairing with Burns. The 39-year-old from New Zealand has two career PGA Tour wins and is looking to become the second golfer from New Zealand to win The Open Championship.
Kim, playing in his 38th major championship, is trying to become the first player from Asia to win The Open Championship. His best finish in this major thus far is T15 at the 2022 Open Championship at the Old Course at St Andrews. He will play in the penultimate group with Ryan Gerard, who sits three strokes behind Burns. Gerard is trying to become the 11th player to win The Open Championship in his debut appearance. His lone PGA Tour victory came at the 2025 Barracuda Championship.
The final round begins with the first pairing of Jesper Svensson and Keegan Bradley teeing off at 2:40am ET. Burns and Fox will tee off in the final group at 9:20am ET.
