• South African one shot ahead of Collin Morikawa
• Spieth two shots further back after missing from two feet
No wonder Jordan Spieth beat a hasty retreat from the 18th green. He had just been involved in the kind of horror moment as defines championships and triggers nightmares for the individual involved. If the Texan, who excelled for so much of day three at Royal St George’s, falls one shy of Open glory he will rue a careless episode.
Spieth was two feet from the hole for par. A player of his short-game expertise could typically hole such putts without the use of one arm. Spieth’s attempt barely touched the hole, such was its astonishingly wayward nature. Suddenly, momentum had shifted the way of Collin Morikawa and Louis Oosthuizen. As spectators flocked towards the bars of rural Kent, Spieth was still hitting practice putts. And replaying, surely replaying, his aberration.
