The 146th playing of The Open Championship concludes Sunday at Royal Birkdale, the famous course in northwest England. There’s a great chance that an American will win the Claret Jug for the 10th time since the turn of the millennium (and the first since 2015, when Zach Johnson’s win preceded Henrik Stenson’s last year.)
British Open 2017 live stream: How to watch Sunday online
NBC and Golf Channel have the final-round telecast.
Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images
The 54-hole leader, by three strokes, is Jordan Spieth. If he holds that advantage, the Texan will conquer a third leg of the career grand slam, less than a week before he turns 24. It’d be the latest chapter in an already brilliant young career.
If Spieth gets caught, the likeliest man to do it is 39-year-old Floridian Matt Kuchar. He’s the No. 18 player in the world, and he’s been in major contention many times before. But Kuchar’s never won one, and at 8-under through 54, he’s three shots clear of every non-Spieth player in the field. If Spieth slips, Kuchar might pounce.
British Open live stream 2017
Sunday’s final round coverage
Television:
4-7 a.m. -- Golf Channel
7 a.m.-2 p.m. -- NBC
Online streams:
4 a.m.-2 p.m. -- Golf Channel broadcast simulcast stream
4-9:30 a.m. -- “First Tee” stream
6:30 a.m.-1 p.m. -- Featured holes stream
TV schedule for Sunday at The Open
NBC has the broadcast until the end of the tournament.
Beyond Spieth and Kuchar, there are good stories in this field.
One is Austin Connelly, a 20-year-old Canadian who’s risen to prominence by tying for third at 5-under through three rounds. Connelly is the 524th-ranked player in the world, and he doesn’t yet have a World Golf Ranking-qualified win to his name. He’s been a great story at Birkdale, though, and shot an excellent 66 on Saturday.
Brooks Koepka, the U.S. Open winner, has hung around in his quest to win back-to-back majors. Koepka isn’t likely to pull that off, but it’s not impossible if the final group slips. Tied with Koepka is world No. 2 Hideki Matsuyama, who at this point is pretty clearly the best player on the planet without a major win to his name. The 25-year-old has finished top-six at least once in all four majors. Someday, he’s going to win one.
Still, it’s Spieth’s tournament to lose.
Spieth hasn’t won a major since the 2015 U.S. Open, and it speaks to his greatness that a two-year drought feels like a long one. But Spieth has been competitive more often than he hasn’t been, and he’s been utterly locked in all week long at Birkdale. It’s hard not to like his chances of ending his major-less spell on Sunday.
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