Early starters take advantage of favourable conditions at Open

Relatively benign conditions for the third day of The Open presented the first real chance of the week for low scoring and many of the early starters took full advantage.

With winds dropping from Friday’s 25mph gusts to a more gentle breeze, Royal Troon’s front nine offered plenty of opportunities for birdies with Sungjae Im carding four in six holes from the third to get to two over.

However, that was still nine behind leader and 2019 champion Shane Lowry, who is not scheduled to tee off until 3.45pm, when rain is forecasted to arrive.

The South Korean’s playing partner Shubhankar Sharma had four birdies in his first six holes, although he did bogey the third.

Home favourite Robert MacIntyre, who battled back from a nightmare start on Friday to make the cut, opened with a birdie to get back to four over, while former Masters champion Adam Scott, pipped by MacIntyre to last week’s Scottish Open title, birdied the first two holes to get back to three over.