Shubhankar stays in touch with leaders

On a day when Jon Rahm charged around the Royal Liverpool Golf Club like a Toro Bravo let loose, India's Shubhankar Sharma was a picture of consistency and remained in touch with the leaders midway through the third round of the 151st Open Championship.

- Joy Chakravarty

When the leaders made the turn in Saturday's third round, American Brian Harman retained his spot on top of the leaderboard without adding anything to his overnight score of 10-under par. But the gloomy weather at the coastside Wirral town morning rain softened the golf course and the wind never picked up any more than a gentle breeze - made it ideal conditions for Spain's world No. 3 Rahm to tear it apart.

Rahm put together a round of eight-under par 63, making up for all his disappointments over the first two days when he could do no better than a two-over par total. The uber-aggressive Rahm made the most of the conditions and jumped 37 places to tied second at six-under par.

The leaders were not making much of a move, but some of the players who teed off in the middle of the day did. Norway's Viktor Hovland (66) and Frenchman Antoine Rozner (67) were tied at five-under par, while Alex Fitzpatrick, the younger brother of 2022 US Open champion Matt, showed his class with a 65 that moved him to four-under par.