U.S. Open leaderboard 2016: Shane Lowry separates himself on Sunday morning

OAKMONT, Pa. – Shane Lowry separated himself from the field at the U.S. Open at the end of his third round on Sunday morning at Oakmont Country Club.

Lowry’s round was suspended due to darkness on the 15th tee on Saturday night, with the Irishman sitting in the lead at 5-under. He resumed play Sunday with two birdies in his final four holes, moving to 7-under and a four-shot lead over the rest of the national championship field. Lowry now tees off with Andrew Landry at 3:30 ET, with 18 holes standing between him and his first major title.

Saturday is typically Moving Day, and Lowry certainly moved. He’d carded solid scores of 68 and 70 in his first two rounds, but Lowry’s 65 between Saturday and Sunday matched the best round of the tournament, which has only been replicated two other times. The result is that the world’s No. 41 golfer is the clear favorite to win the 116th U.S. Open.

A Lowry win would be an upset, but success isn’t exactly new to him. He won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in 2015 and also won three times on the PGA European Tour, and he finished tied for ninth in last year’s U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. He’s got a strong track record, and his lead is so big that he’s the far-and-away favorite on Sunday.

Oakmont is firming up after rain soaked the course last Wednesday and Thursday, and it figures to be harder to post low scores here on Sunday. If Lowry can avoid a long run of bogeys, he’ll challenge someone to have the round of his life to catch him. It’s a pretty great place to be, as Lowry tries to wrap the biggest win of his career.

Lowry is four strokes up on Andrew Landry and Dustin Johnson, five strokes up on Lee Westwood and Daniel Summerhays, six strokes up on Branden Grace and seven strokes up on Sergio Garcia and Scott Piercy. Unless someone else makes a remarkable charge forward, that’s who he’s looking at holding off.

Here’s a full leaderboard as play gets started on Sunday: