The Open 2026: Fox equals major record, McIlroy blasts DeChambeau, and day three updates – live

Updates from the third round at Royal Birkdale
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McIlroy lashes out at DeChambeau over penalty row

It's the same old story for Rory McIlroy: he just can't keep any momentum going this week. He follows that chip-in eagle on 9 with bogey at 11. Back to -1, and a second Claret Jug continues to hover out of reach. At least he's got one. Jon Rahm has a strangely underwhelming record at the Open: a couple of high finishes in 2019 and 2023 without ever really looking likely to win. And it's threatening to happen again. He carves his opening drive over the bushes to the right and out of bounds, and starts with a double-bogey six. His fume is internal, but it is real, registering eight-and-a-half out of ten on Bryson DeChambeau's patented R&A-o-meterTM.

Ryan Fox speaks to Sky. The game plan was to be aggressive ... I hit driver a lot ... your strategy changes with the wind around here ... I had a couple of interesting shots on the back nine and kinda got away with them ... pretty happy with 62 in the end, that's for sure ... had a lot of fun with [Xander Schauffele] ... he played really well too and we kind of fed off each other ... was pretty happy to make par [on 18] from that fairway trap ... I haven't really put four rounds together [at the Open] ... hopefully this is a sign ... I'm in a pretty good place to give myself a chance so we'll see what happens!"