Three Share Lead at Open Championship


Irish amateur Paul Dunne, South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen and Australia's Jason Day head into Monday's final round with a share of the lead at the Open Championship. The third major of the year, which saw its third round wiped out by high winds Saturday, is taking place on the Old Course at St. Andrews.

Dunne, a 22-year-old who played his college golf at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, carded a 6-under 66 to reach 12-under 204, the same number as Oosthuizen and Day, who each shot 67s. Lurking just a stroke back is Jordan Spieth. The winner of the first two majors of the year also fired a 66.

"It's surreal I'm leading the Open, but I can easily believe that I shot the three scores that I shot," said Dunne, who will play in the final group with Oosthuizen, who won the Claret Jug at St. Andrews in 2010. "If we were playing an amateur event here, I wouldn't be too surprised by the scores I shot. It's just lucky that it happens to be in the biggest event in the world.

"Hopefully, I can do it again tomorrow. But whether I do or not, I'll survive either way."

Dunne came into the Open as a 1,500-to-1 long-shot, according to the UK punters. "Hopefully I can steal from the bookmakers a little more tomorrow," Dunne told ESPN. "I've felt comfortable all week. I've played well. Today it was on No. 10 [when I first knew I had the lead]. There was a leaderboard behind that green. It was cool to lead the Open on the back nine on a Sunday."

Spieth told reporters later that he "figured something out" with his putter on Sunday's back nine. He also likes his position heading into the final round. "My mind is strictly and solely on setting a goal for tomorrow and putting the right mental approach to our round, setting the right expectations given the conditions, and see if we can just go get the job done again."

Trailing the leaders by two is Ireland's Padraig Harrington, who posted a 7-under 65. Tied for sixth at 9-under is a big group that includes Australians Marc Leishman (who recorded the low round of the day, an 8-under 64) and Adam Scott (70), Spain's Sergio Garcia (68), Englishmen Justin Rose (68) and Danny Willett (72), South African Retief Goosen (69), and Americans Zach Johnson (70), Robert Streb (70) and amateur Jordan Niebrugge (67).

After struggling to cope the high winds Thursday and Friday, Leishman said he enjoyed playing in balmier conditions Sunday morning. "I think getting out with no wind was amazing," the 31-year-old told reporters. "We played Thursday afternoon, or I played Thursday afternoon, and it was really, really windy, really strong, and then Friday morning it was strong, as well. So we played all 36 holes in a pretty heavy wind. So to get out with no wind, it makes everything a lot easier, but particularly putting. You can be over a 15-footer and actually feel like you're going to make it rather than being worried about getting a gust and it going five feet past.

"You don't want five-footers when you've got that wind. Definitely knew that there was a score out there to be had. The pins were actually reasonably tough I feel like on the - a few holes on the front nine, and we just managed to get through them holes and then birdied the ones that were there to be had."

Dustin Johnson began the third round with a one-stroke lead over Willett. But the 31-year-old South Carolinian couldn't get anything going Sunday en route to making just one birdie and four bogeys for a 75 to drop into a tie for 18th at 209.

"I didn't feel like I played that bad," Johnson said after his round. "Just couldn't hole the putts. I felt like I was hitting good putts. They just weren't going in the hole."

Johnson, who suffered much disappointment after a three-putt on the final hole during the U.S. Open to lose to Spieth, still hopes to get back atop the leaderboard. "I'm going to have to put together a special round [Monday] to have a chance," he said. "Get off to a really good start, maybe. You never know what happens. Anything can happen."

For all the scores, visit http://www.theopen.com/leaderboard#!/traditional.