The 36-year-old Georgian waggler maintained his grasp on the 151st Open Championship with a steady 69 on Day 3. It was a superb reply to Jon Rahm’s morning 63, which piled on the pressure and made it clear the current Masters champion is not done yet. Asked about his response to Rahm’s statement of intent after a shaky start, Harman said: "Yeah, I mean, it would have been really easy to let the wheels start spinning and really kind of let it get out of control, but I just kind of doubled down on my routine and knew I was hitting it well, even though I hadn't hit any good shots yet.” Cameron Young moved himself into solo 2nd, with a classy round of 66, yet remains five strokes behind the inconspicuous Brian. Young, although still without a PGA Tour title, seems to be the obvious candidate to mount a [...]

Understandably, much has been made by the golfing press of ‘Little Eye’, the new 17th hole here at Hoylake. Its status as a championship test has been pondered and debated, but the stats from Round 1 and 2 prove it’s not playing much above its par. It even relinquished an ace on Friday. Just a stone’s throw away from 17’s amphitheatre tee box, however, is the beginning of 18, Dun, a hole that’s spectacle has been rather overshadowed. Played as the 16th for the members, this long dog-leg Par 5 with internal out-of-bounds, seven sand traps and a colossal amphitheatre around the green will go a long way to ensuring the best champion is crowned. In the first two rounds, Dun was the only Par 5 on the course that played over par (+4). The 5th (-101) and the 15th (-92) have surrendered a host of birdies and are [...]

The course on Day 1 made a statement to the players that they best keep their ball out of the bunkers. After plenty of build-up about the greenkeeper’s use of the hay rake, which with wider teeth can cause the ball to nestle a little further down in the sand, the players found the sand traps to be penal hazards indeed. Perhaps more noticeably challenging on Day 1, was the way in which the bunkers have been dug flat, with balls getting trapped in the corners and up against the faces. With 81 traps in total on the links, we saw plenty of players finding trouble in the sand and I found it very interesting to watch. It’s proving to be a conversation that splits opinion, amongst the pros, the media and the patrons in attendance this week, but I think it has been tremendous fun seeing the players navigate [...]

A wonderful start to The 151st Open Championship. Alarms were set for 5:30am to ensure we were in the grandstand in good time to watch local boy Matthew Jordan hit the opening tee shot. The group - also featuring friend of the jar Richie Ramsay, and Brandon Grace along with a strong showing from the Royal Liverpool membership to support their man - would be the one we’d follow. Here are the top 5 takeaways from the morning’s action: 1. The bunkers are no joke. The work by James Bledge and team to flatten the base of the sand and remove the bowls that you would typically expect to see in the bunkers have been replaced with a flat floor of sand. The result is one where the ball will race up to whatever edge is in its way, without consideration for the player's stance or ability to progress the [...]

So much has been said about the new 17th hole here at Hoylake and the unique challenge it will pose the players this week. As Cookie Jar’s roving reporter for the day, I headed over there to see how the first 30 players took on the challenge and how they fared. After seeing Michael Kim’s tweet late last night with the Round 1 Pin Sheet attached, before I had even arrived at Little Eye, I knew that the pin was going to be tucked front right. Just as I arrived at the greenside stand, the greenkeepers were finishing cutting it in that very spot and it looked daunting. Home boy Matthew Jordan and his group that arrived first at 17, set the tone for how the first 30 would decide to tackle it on Day One. There was certainly a bit of breeze up there, nothing major, but enough to [...]