2014 OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

(The 36^th of 41 events in the PGA TOUR Season)

Royal Liverpool GC                              July 17-20, 2014                                    FedExCup Pts: 600

Hoylake, England                                                                                            Par/Yards: 37-37—72/7,312

Weather: Overcast, with rain throughout the day.  WindsW/NW 8-15 mph. High of 80. Due to expected weather issues, the third round was played in threesomes off split tees between 9:00 a.m. – 11:01 a.m. local time. The Open Championship had previously never resorted to the measure of beginning off tees 1 and 10.

Third-Round Leaderboard

Rory McIlroy                 66-66-68—200 (-16)

Rickie Fowler                69-69-68—206 (-10)

Sergio Garcia                68-70-69—207 (-9)

Dustin Johnson             71-65-71—207 (-9)

Third-Round Leader Stats

Rory McIlroy’s 6-stroke lead after 54 holes is the largest at The Open Championship since Tiger Woods led by the same amount at the 2000 event at St. Andrews. Louis Oosthuizen and Adam Scott led by four after the third round in 2010 and 2012, respectively.

In Open Championship history, the third-round leader/co-leader has held on for the win 63 times. The most recent to achieve the feat was Darren Clarke in 2011.

The largest lead after 54 holes by a player who didn’t go on to win: five strokes (MacDonald Smith/1925, Jean Van de Velde/1999).

The third-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win 17 of 34 stroke-play events on the PGA TOUR in 2014, most recently Brian Harman at last week’s John Deere Classic.

The largest 54-hole lead in Open Championship history of 10 strokes was held by Henry Cotton in 1934.

At the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in 2006, Tiger Woods led by a stroke at 13-under over Chris DiMarco, Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia after 54 holes.

The largest final-round, come-from-behind win at the Open Championship (and on the PGA TOUR) is 10 strokes by Paul Lawrie at the 1999 Open Championship.

The lowest third round at the Open Championships is 63, set by Isao Aoki in 1980 (Muirfield) and Paul Broadhurst in 1990 (St. Andrews).

Rory McIlroy (66-66-68—200)

Rory McIlroy eagled two of his last three holes (16 and 18) for a 4-under 68 and six-stroke lead headed into the final round. It’s just his second sub-par score in the third round at the Open Championship, besting his 69 from 2011 (T25).

En route to his first major championship crown, the 2011 U.S. Open, McIlroy led by eight strokes after 54 holes.

Making his seventh Open Championship start, and sixth straight, McIlroy is looking to add a third different major championship title to his resume. McIlroy won the 2011 U.S. Open and 2012 PGA Championship. McIlroy won the U.S. Open in wire-to-wire fashion.

McIlroy is a six-time winner on the PGA TOUR and is in search of his first win since the 2012 BMW Championship. He has amassed six titles on the European Tour, with the most recent coming at this year’s BMW PGA Championship.

McIlroy has produced six top-10 finishes in 10 starts on the PGA TOUR this season, and has yet to finish outside the top-25. On the European Tour, he has claimed four top-10 finishes in nine starts.

Here’s a look at McIlroy’s six previous finishes at the Open Championship: T42-2007, T47-2009, T3-2010, T25-2011, T60-2012 and MC-2013.

McIlroy is making his 24^th start in a major championship this week, where he has collected eight top-10 finishes.

McIlroy takes the 54-hole lead for the sixth time on the PGA TOUR with today’s 68. The three that resulted in victory were the 2011 U.S. Open, 2012 Honda Classic and 2012 PGA Championship.

Should McIlroy win, it will be the second consecutive major championship this season won in wire-to-wire fashion. Last month, Martin Kaymer achieved the feat at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst.

Should McIlroy win, he would become just the seventh player in Open Championship history to win in wire-to-wire fashion. The last to do so was Tiger Woods in 2005.

One of just two players to post his first three rounds below 70, should McIlroy post another round in the 60s in the final round and win, he would become just the fourth champion to achieve such a feat. The last was Tiger Woods in 2000 at St. Andrews.

Rickie Fowler (69-69-68—206)

Making his fifth consecutive start in The Open Championship, Rickie Fowler followed birdies at his first two holes of the day with additional ones at Nos. 5, 6, 10, 11, 12. Bogeys at 14, 16 and 17 gave way to a final birdie, his eighth of the day, at the par-5 home hole.

Fowler is looking to improve on his best finish in the event of T5 in 2011. Fowler missed the cut last year at Murifield, finished T31 in 2012 and T14 in 2010.

With a T5 at the Masters and T2 at this year’s U.S. Open, Fowler is the only player to have finished in the top-5 in the season’s first two majors. Should he claim a top-10 this week, he would become the first to claim top-10 finishes in a season’s first three majors since Tiger Woods in 2005.

Fowler, winner of the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship, is looking for his first major championship title in his 19^thstart. In them, he has collected three top-10 finishes.

Fowler is making his 20^th start of the 2013-14 PGA TOUR Season this week. In addition to his top-5 finishes in the year’s first two majors, he finished inside the top 10 at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship (3^rd) and at the Shell Houston Open (6^th).

Sergio Garcia (68-70-69—207)

For the second straight day, Sergio Garcia bogeyed Royal Liverpool GC’s first hole. His bogey-5 was offset with birdies at 2, 5, 8, 9 and 16.

In 17 previous Open Championship starts, Garcia has collected seven top-10 finishes, three of which being top fives. In 2007, he lost in a playoff to Padraig Harrington at Carnoustie.

Garcia ranks second in most major starts without a victory entering this week: With 61, he trails Lee Westwood by just two.

At the 2006 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, Garcia opened with rounds of 68-71-65, before finishing T5.

Coming into the week, Garcia had collected an impressive six top-10 finishes in just 10 starts on the PGA TOUR. His best among them is a share of second place from the Travelers Championship, his last TOUR start prior to this week. On the European Tour, Garcia has two top-10 finishes in nine starts. One of those was a win at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in January.

Dustin Johnson (71-65-71—207)

After his tournament-low round 65 in round two, Dustin Johnson wasn’t able to keep the pace in round three, posting a 1-under 71.

Johnson is making his sixth consecutive Open Championship appearance this week. In his previous five, he collected top-15 finishes in 2010 (T14), 2011 (T2) and 2012 (T9). Johnson finished T32 last year at Muirfield. His lone missed cut came in his first start in 2009.

Johnson is making his 23^rd major championship start this week. His best showing is a T2 at the 2011 Open Championship. At the U.S. Open last month, Johnson finished T4. Overall, he has amassed seven top-10 finishes in major championships.

Victor Dubisson (74-66-68—208)

Despite a 2-over 74 in round one, France’s Victor Dubisson bounced back in rounds two and three with scores of 66 and 68, respectively. At 8-under, he will begin Sunday’s final round eight strokes back.

Dubisson made a much bigger name for himself at this year’s WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, when he faced Jason Day in Sunday’s Championship Match. Despite a lot of off-road adventure in the Arizona Desert with some of his shots, Dubisson would not relent and took Day to 23 holes before Day managed to emerge victorious.

Edoardo Molinari (68-73-68—209)

After an encouraging opening round of 4-under 68 in this week’s Open Championship, Edoardo Molinari hit a speed bump in round two, posting a 1-over 73. He got the wheels back on track in round three with a second 68. At 7-under, he will beginSunday’s final round nine strokes back.

Molinari is making his fifth Open Championship start this week, and first since 2011. His best finish in the event is a T27 at St. Andrews in 2010.

This marks Molinari’s first start on the PGA TOUR in the 2013-14 Season. He has made 14 starts on the European Tour this season, with runner-up honors at the Irish Open his best showing. He is a two-time winner on the European Tour.

Edoardo Molinari’s brother Francesco is also competing this week. Francesco matched his brother’s opening- round score of 68, but ensuing rounds of 70-75 have him at 3-under, and 13 strokes back.

Tiger Woods (69-77-73—219)

Tiger Woods got off to a solid start in round three, making birdie at his first two holes, Nos. 10 and 11. For the second straight day, he would succumb to a triple bogey. In round two, the 3-over-par score came at the par-4 17^th. In today’s third round, it happened at the par-4 seventh hole. He would finish with a 1-over 73 and, at 3-over, will begin Sunday’s final round 19 strokes back (T58).

Since turning professional, Woods has never finished an Open Championship outside the top 30 (15 starts).

Today marked the 24^th time as a professional that Tiger Woods has started a weekend round on the 10^thhole. His most recent before today was earlier this year in round three at the Farmers Insurance Open.

Woods, the 2007 and 2009 FedExCup, enters this week’s Open Championship ranked 212th in the standings. Should he advance to the FedExCup Playoffs, he would become the lowest ranked player entering the Open Championship to qualify for the Playoffs (since 2009 under current structure). The current distinction belongs to Dean Wilson who, in 2010, came into the Open ranked 195^th.

Through 54 holes: 27/42 fairways (59.3 percent) and 37/54 greens (60.5 percent).

Phil Mickelson (74-70-71—215)

Defending champion Phil Mickelson didn’t mount much of a Saturday charge, posting a 1-under 71. At 1-under through 54 holes, he will begin Sunday’s final round 15 strokes back. Through 54 holes last year, Mickelson was five strokes back at 2-over.

Mickelson comes into the week remaining in search of his season’s first top 10. He has never previously made it in a season to The Open Championship with fewer than three top-10 finishes already under his belt. Of the 18 years in which he has played The Open Championship as a professional, he has averaged nearly six top-10 finishes a year before the third major of the season.

Miscellaneous Notes

Past Open Championship Winners remaining in the field

Darren Clarke                            72-72-67—211 (-5)

Louis Oosthuizen                       70-68-76—214 (-2)

Phil Mickelson                           74-70-71—215 (-1)

Stewart Cink                              71-75-73—219 (+3)

Tiger Woods                             69-77-73—219 (+3)

Tom Watson                             73-73-75—271 (+5)

First-Timers at the Open Championship

There are 37 players making their Open Championship debut this week. Only nine players have won the Open Championship in their first appearance: Ben Curtis (2003), Tom Watson (1975), Tony Lema (1964), Ben Hogan (1953), Denny Shute (1933), Jock Hutchison (1921), Mungo Park (1874), Tom Kidd (1873) and Willie Park Sr. (1860).

The par-4 seventh hole again played the toughest in round two, yielding a 4.319 average and just seven birdies. The easiest hole was again the par-5 fifth at 4.611.