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2019 British Open Live Coverage: Highlights from Sunday’s final round at Royal Portrush

By GOLF Editors
July 21, 2019
Shane Lowry begins the final round of the 2019 British Open with a four-shot lead.
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The opening 54 holes at the 2019 British Open are over, and now only the final round remains at Royal Portrush. You can follow the entire British Open final round on Sunday with our British Open Live Coverage blog below, featuring live score updates, highlights from your favorite players, and video clips of the best shots.

After three rounds at Royal Portrush, one man sits alone on top of the leaderboard. Ireland’s Shane Lowry shot a stunning course-record- 63 on Saturday to build a four-shot lead for the final round. Lowry tees off in the final group at 8:47 a.m. ET alongside his top challenger, Tommy Fleetwood.

But Fleetwood won’t be the only player Lowry has to fend off on Sunday. Major winners Brooks Koepka and Justin Rose are within striking distance of the lead. Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler could also get into the mix if Lowry falters at the start.

shane lowry
Tournaments
Tour Confidential Daily: Who triumphs Sunday at Royal Portrush?

Our British Open Live Coverage final round blog kicks off at 8 a.m. ET on Sunday.We will continue tracking all the live action through the day.

Follow the entire final round of the 2019 British Open below.

British Open Live Coverage Coverage: Sunday’s Final Round (ET)

FULL BRITISH OPEN LEADERBOARD | ROUND 4 TEE TIMES
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Thanks for following along throughout the week. Shane Lowry wins the Open Championship, the year’s final major. Keep up with GOLF.com through the rest of the day and into the week with all the reaction and analysis.

1:10: And it’s official. Shane Lowry is your Open Championship. A masterful round in the worst of conditions. A masterful week beginning to end.

1:08: Tommy finishes out with a two-putt par. He’ll finish second at nine-under.

1:05: Lowry will walk with the putter and wash in the cheers. He’s enjoying every second of this, as he should. The fans swarm behind him down the 18th fairway.

12:59: A casual swing, a perfect shot for your soon-to-be Open Championship. He and Fleetwood are both in the fairway.

12:58: The scene at Esker Hills in Ireland, where Lowry learned the game.

12:56: Another easy par for Shane. Should be some scene on 18.

12:44: Lowry’s 57-foot putt trickles a bit right and past the hole. He makes the par. The last two holes are a celebratory stroll. He’s six shots clear.

12:39: Lee Westwood finishes his week at six-under. He’s going to finish top-10, maybe even top-5. A pleasant surprise this week.

12:32: Birdie. 15-under. Massive roar.

12:30: Lowry sticks one into the 15th green to about 10-15 feet. It’s his week, folks.

12:23: Brooks Koepka isn’t gonna win this thing, but he’s now tied for third. Birdie at 15 sends him to seven-under for the week.

12:21: Lowry’s par putt goes begging. He’s 14-under. Fleetwood’s bogey putt scoots to the right. He makes double. Just killer.

12:18: Fleetwood’s par putt comes up well short. He’s just taking all the pressure off his playing partner, who appears primed to lift the Claret Jug.

12:16: Shane Lowry, watching Fleetwood’s mess, leaves himself about 10 feet for par. Fleetwood is on the fringe with quit a difficult par putt, to say the least.

12:14: After an errant tee shot for Fleetwood found the bunker, he leaves the approach into the green way up in the long grass on a hill. A big score here, and you’d think it’s over.

12:11: Stenson!

12:01: Elite bunker shot from Lowry. Solid pitch from Fleetwood. Both make their par putts. Onto 14, four-shot lead for the Irishman.

11:55: Fleetwood absolutely sails the green on 13. Tough to gauge a club choice for 198 yards with 20 mph down winds. Holmes takes pitching wedge and he’s in that bunker on the left. Not a good spot to be.

11:51: Both Fleetwood and Lowry two-putt. Fleetwood for birdie. Lowry for par. Lead to four…

11:48: Spieth was walking a tightrope all week here. And it looks like he fell off that tightrope today. He’s all the way back to two-under for the tournament.

11:44: Koepka misses another fairly easy birdie look, this one on No. 12. Behind them on 12, this is Tommy’s chance to take advantage, if he’s gonna make a move. And he sticks one to 20 feet for eagle… Alrighty.

11:36: Lowry is doing all he can to avoid that left miss, but the wind takes his fade into the right rough on 12.

11:34: So, hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it does not seem to be J.B. Holmes’ day. He’ll be lucky to break 80 at this point. For what it’s worth, not Koepka’s day either.

11:30: Fleetwood two-putts. Lowry three-putts. Lead back to five, with Lowry to down to 15-under. Seven holes to play.

11:24: Brooks leaves his par putt short on 11. Hasn’t been his week on the greens, that’s for sure.

11:19: A-1 drive for Lowry at 11. Fleetwood finds the second cut, perfectly fine.

11:16: Fleetwood misses a five-footer for par. Two bogeys in three holes. Back to 10-under, six shots off Lowry. It’s not quite over, but…

11:14: Shane’s chip leaves a little meat on the bone at No. 10, but he makes it and pumps his first.

11:09: Lowry’s approach clears the green, but he’s in a fine spot on the fringe. Par is the name of the game from here on.

11:00: Fleetwood hits a great chip from just off the front of the 9th green that stops 1-2 feet from the hole. He’ll turn that into an easy par. Lowry leaves his 10-footer on the high side, so he makes his second-straight bogey.  Lowry’s lead shrinks to five shots with nine holes to play at The Open.

10:56: Fleetwood muscles his second shot up just short of the green at 9. He’s in much better shape than Lowry, at least on this hole. Lowry has 134 left for his third, and he knocks a beauty onto the green within 10 feet. He’ll have that for par.

10:53: Lowry’s lie at 9 it so bad that he has to hack it out and move it up the fairway. He’ll need to pull off a great up-and-down from there to avoid dropping shots on consecutive holes.

10:50: Here’s a clip of Justin Thomas just now to give you an idea of how bad the weather is at Portrush at the moment:

10:47: With an iron in his hand, Lowry flares his tee shot at 9 right and watches it hop into some fescue. He could have some trouble there, especially with the sideways rain that is currently pounding everyone on the course. Fleetwood takes driver but ends up with similar results.

10:43: Lowry three-putts the 8th green to surrender his second shot of the day and fall back to 17 under. But Fleetwood makes bogey too, so the lead remains at six shots.

10:39: The rain and wind is getting worse and worse at Portrush:

10:34: Fleetwood’s drive, and the ensuing lie, at 8 was even worse than Lowry’s. He’s forced to chip out into the fairway well short of the green. We could see another lead increase in just a few minutes. And the weather is making a drastic turn for the worse…

10:31: Lowry left his drive at 8 in a deep patch of grass, but he hacks it out and gets a fortuitous bounce that sends his ball onto the putting surface.

10:26: Hometown hero Graeme McDowell just finished off his final round at The Open, and the fans at Portrush showed him a lot of love on 18:

10:22: Lowry makes it official at the 7th by tapping in his birdie putt. Seven holes into the final round of the Open, Lowry’s lead is now SIX shots, after Fleetwood saved par.

10:18: Lowry opts to chip from just in front of the 7th green and hits a very nice one that nestles up a few feet from the hole. He should have no problem tapping that one in. Fleetwood’s third ended up in a greenside pot bunker. He hits a nice one from there giving himself a chance at par.

10:13: Fleetwood successfully hacks out of deep fescue and back into the fairway on the par-5 7th. Lowry is next, and he hits a low-trajectory bullet that runs up to the edge of the green over 260 yards away. A two-putt from there will give him another birdie, and further deflate the hopes of the rest of the field.

10:09: Weather conditions are definitely deteriorating right now at Portrush:

10:06: Lowry hits “a terrific tee shot” at 7, to quote Paul Azinger on the NBC broadcast. Fleetwood sends his drive wide right into trouble. We could see the lead grow here.

10:01: Lowry two-putts for par at 6, and Fleetwood makes a solid up-and-down to stay within five of Shane’s lead.

9:57: J.B. Holmes makes another bogey, falling to six under. It looks like this week won’t by J.B.’s breakthrough. Lowry safely reaches the green at the par-3 6th, leaving himself a 25-30 footer. Fleetwood misses the green and will have a difficult up-and-down.

9:51: Back-to-back! With the wind and rain starting to pick up, Lowry sinks his birdie putt at 5 to move to 17 under. Fleetwood two-putts for birdie after driving the green, so Lowry’s lead remains at five.

9:48: Lowry opts to lay up at 5 instead of going for the green, and it proves to be a good choice. His approach with a wedge sets up a 10-footer for another birdie chance.

9:45: Koepka sinks his short eagle at the 5th and just like that he’s back at seven under. But he’s still a distant nine shots behind Lowry.

9:40: Fleetwood nearly sank his long birdie try at 4, but came up less than an inch short. Lowry, on the other hand, drains his short birdie putt eliciting a huge applause from fans ringing the green. Lowry’s lead is now five.

9:37: Just when you thought he was down and out, Brooks Koepka comes roaring back. He just laced a drive at the short par-4 5th and will have a short putt for eagle. That’s one way to recover from four straight bogeys.

9:35: WOW. Shane Lowry just went right at the flag at the 4th, and it’s a beauty. He’ll have 5-10 feet for birdie to get back to even par. Fleetwood hits a nice one too, but he’ll have over 20 feet for birdie.

9:32: Brooks Koepka just made his FOURTH straight bogey to begin the final round. That shocking development leaves the reigning PGA Champion 10 shots back at five under. It’ll take a heroic effort to keep his incredible major streak alive. Meanwhile, Lee Westwood just sank a birdie at 5 to move to 10 under. He’s now in solo 3rd.

9:30: With his lead back to four, Lowry pounds a drive down the center of the fairway at No. 4. Maybe he’s finally shaking off the nerves. Fleetwood follows suit with another nice drive.

9:28: Uh oh, and that’s a bogey for Fleetwood at 3 — his first in 23 holes. He’s four back again, just where he started today.

9:24: Lowry with his downhill birdie try and he lags it to about a foot. Good putt, easy par.

9:21: Lowry finds the green on the par-3 3rd. Will be a long birdie putt but two-putt pars all day might be plenty good enough to win.

9:17: Meanwhile major machine Brooks Koepka has started bogey-bogey-bogey. Yikes.

9:14: Fleetwood barely misses a birdie putt on 2, so he won’t pick up here either. Good news for him is Lowry missed his birdie putt too. Three-shot lead remains; on to the third hole.

9:08: It will be an interesting day, that’s for sure. J.B. Holmes, who was the second-closest to Lowry through 54 holes, is all of a sudden two over after two. It will be a grind, and the rough weather is still to come.

9:04: Koepka bogeys the 1st, so not a good start for him either. Meanwhile Lowry finds the left rough on the par-5 2nd, but should be fine.

9:02: Huge save for Lowry there. Makes his bogey putt and he drops just one shot. Could have been a three-shot swing there if he missed and Fleetwood made his. On to the second hole, three-shot lead for Shane.

9:00: And Tommy Fleetwood pushes his birdie putt out to the right. What an opportunity missed there. Although Lowry sill has about 8 feet for bogey here.

8:57: Here’s Lowry from the sand. About a 60-yard shot here and he spins it back right before a swell…. Rolls back down and he’s gonna have a good 40 feet for par, at least.

8:56: And here comes Tommy Fleetwood, four shots behind to start the day, to about 7 feet on 1. Great birdie look for him while Lowry might be in for a bogey. We’ll see.

8:53: Lowry with 217 remaining from the left rough, and he puts it into the front bunker.

8:52: Koepka grinding already at the first hole. He’ll need to make about an eight-footer to save par.

8:49: Fleetwood leads off and finds the fairway with an iron. Shane Lowry, who gets a huge applause (although Fleetwood got a nice applause too), takes an iron and goes left off the tee. In the rough, so not out of bounds. Onward.

8:44: And here comes Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry in the final group of the day.

8:39: Oh no, and now J.B. Holmes, playing in the penultimate group with Brooks Koepka, goes out of bounds on the first hole! A few of these contenders are not starting out the way they want.

8:33: Next up is Holmes and Koepka, second-to-last pairing here. Can Brooks pull another major out of his hat?

8:30: And yes, there’s internal out of bounds on the first hole. Here’s what you need to know about it.

8:26: Wow, rough break for Rickie Fowler. Hits his tee shot on the opening hole wide of the fairway, but it hits a marshal and ricochets out of bounds! That’s the hole where they have the internal out-of-bounds markers. Yikes.

8:20: Great stat from Brandel Chamblee just now. Lowry and Fleetwood have failed to get up and down only ONCE EACH this week. That’s ridiculous short game and what you need to do playing links golf, which they are both plenty comfortable with.

8:16: Cool little clip here from Golf Channel. The last time the Open was here Max Faulkner won … and bet on himself!

8:09: Early highlight of the day. Here’s a nice chip in for birdie from Patrick Reed.

8:04: Justin Thomas is two under through four and down to six under, but he’s gonna have to make a lot more birdies to get in the hunt here. What wins? Lowry is at 16 under. Bad weather is coming…..You would think 18 under is more than enough. That’s only a two-under 69 for Lowry and means Fleetwood would have to shoot 65 to catch him. Not likely.

8:00: Francesco Molinari shot five under this morning and finished three under overall. That will wrap up his Open Championship title defense. He’s T25 now, although that’s likely to change before the day is over.

7:55: Here are the last remaining tee times to go off:

8:07 a.m. – Tony Finau, Jon Rahm
8:17 a.m. – Danny Willett, Lee Westwood
8:27 a.m. – Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose
8:37 a.m. – Brooks Koepka, J.B. Holmes
8:47 a.m. – Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry

7:50: Hey everyone! Today we will crown a Champion Golfer of the Year. Right now it seems like it’s a good chance it could be Shane Lowry, but a lot can change in the next six hours. Our final pairing of Lowry-Fleetwood is less than an hour away from balls in the air.

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