The 145th edition of The Open heads into the weekend with two veterans at the top of the leaderboard. Phil Mickelson grabbed a three-shot lead with a 63 in Thursday’s first round, and Henrik Stenson pulled to within a stroke of the lead by carding a 65 on Friday, the best round of the day. Stenson is two shots clear of the rest of the field, setting up a final-grouping showdown with the left-hander on Saturday, at least until someone else breaks through.
British Open TV schedule 2016: Start time for Saturday’s third round at Royal Troon
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Mickelson is 46 now, and it’s started to feel more possible in recent months that he might never win a sixth major. He didn’t make the cut at the U.S. Open in June, and he’s fallen to a still-formidable 19th in the World Golf Ranking. He hasn’t won a major since he edged Stenson at Muirfield in 2013, but he’s 36 great holes from disabusing the world of the notion that he’ll never win another big one.
Stenson’s story, should he win, might be even more redemptive. The Swedish No. 6 in the world is the highest-ranked player anywhere without a major trophy to his name, despite having notched top-fours in three of the sport’s four biggest tournaments. Stenson has missed the cut in each of the three PGA Tour tournaments he’s played since April’s Masters, which belies that he’s still capable of playing at an extraordinary level On the Euro Tour, he won the BMW International Open just a few weeks ago, ending a near two-year winless streak.
There’s danger lurking not far beneath Mickelson and Stenson on the leaderboard. Keegan Bradley and defending champion Zach Johnson, with three major titles between them, are both within five shots of the lead. (Soren Kjeldsen is even with Bradley at 7-under, forming Saturday’s penultimate group behind Mickelson and Stenson).
Golf Channel has the early morning slate of coverage on Friday, running from 4 a.m. through 7 a.m. ET. The broadcast moves to NBC from there, where it’ll stay until the end of play around 2:30 p.m. ET. Streaming is available at various homes on the event’s official channels, also running all day. There are plenty of ways to take in this Open moving day.
Saturday’s third-round coverage
Television:
4 - 7 a.m. -- Golf Channel
7 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. -- NBC
Online streams:
4 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. -- Golf Channel broadcast simulcast stream
4 - 9:30 a.m. -- "First Tee" stream
4 a.m. -- Featured holes stream
3:55 a.m. -- Jordan Spieth / Brandt Snedeker
8:15 a.m. -- Rickie Fowler / Tyrrell Hatton
Radio:
4 a.m. - 2 p.m. -- Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio (Ch. 92/208)
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