Key events
Of the three, Neal Shipley is the big story. Having already beaten Tiger at Augusta this year on his way to winning the Silver Cup and then breaking the internet with his side-eye skills, he’s now going big guns at Pinehurst. Birdies at 8, 9 and 10 take him to three under for his round, currently up to 12, level par overall… and yet he’s by no means a shoo-in to end the week as a low amateur. Luke Clanton just scored his second 69 in a row and ends Moving Day at +4. However, the third amateur to make it to the weekend, Gunnar Broin, is currently in trouble: bogey on 8, double on 9 and triple-bogey on 10. He is +11 and hey, it’s all a good experience for the 22-year-old from State Ohio.
…so of all 56 players who have completed their third round or are currently on the court, only nine are undersized for the day. Of those nine, only three are more than one bull’s-eye: Spain’s newest rising star David Puig, two-time major champion Collin Morikawa, and this year’s Silver Cup winner at Augusta, amateur Neal Shipley. They are respectively +2, +1 and level par overall. It was heavy.
Let’s start by taking a look at today’s pin positions. Pin positions on turtle-back greens with small landing areas and ample run-out. As if Pinehurst No2 wasn’t difficult enough.
Preamble
It’s moving day! This is what the top of the rankings looked like after 36 holes…
-5: Åberg
-4: DeChambeau, Detry, Cantlay
-3: McIlroy, Finau, Pavon
-2: Matsuyama
-1: T Kim, Hatton, Schauffele, Bhatia, Widing, Conners, Blair
…here is a selected list of players who missed the cut…
Robert MacIntyre, Viktor Hovland, Max Homa, Justin Rose, Webb Simpson, Will Zalatoris, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Im Sung-jae, Justin Thomas, An Byeong-hun, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods
…and here are today’s start times (BST). It is on!
1344 Ryan Fox (NZ), Sahith Theegala
1355 Brooks Koepka, Francesco Molinari (Italy)
1406 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Max Greyserman
1417 Justin Lower, Dean Burmester (SA)
1428 Tom McKibbin (NI), Brandon Wu
1439 (a) Luke Clanton, Brendon Todd
1450 Ben Kohles, Shane Lowry (Ire)
1501 Cameron Young, Scottie Scheffler
1512 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Greyson Sigg
1523 Austin Eckroat, David Puig (Spa)
1539 Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley
1550 JT Poston, Wyndham Clark
1601 Aaron Rai (Eng), (a) Neal Shipley
1612 Kim Si-woo (Kor), Daniel Berger
1623 Matt Kuchar, Cameron Smith (Aus)
1634 (a) Gunnar Broin, Brian Campbell
1645 Martin Kaymer (Ger), Jordan Spieth
1656 Harris Engels, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (SA)
1707 Adam Svensson (Can), Mark Hubbard
1718 Isaiah Salinda, Davis Thompson
1729 Min Woo Lee (Aus), Emiliano Grillo (Arg)
1745 Denny McCarthy, Adam Scott (Aus)
1756 Chris Kirk, Jackson Suber
1807 Sepp Straka (aut), Brian Harman
1818 Nico Echavarria (col), Sam Bennett
1829 Nicolai Hojgaard (Den), SH Kim (Kor)
1840 Frankie Capan III, Taylor Pendrith (tin)
1851 Russell Henley, Sergio Garcia (Spa)
1902 Stephan Jaeger (German), Sam Burns
1913 Billy Horschel, Zac Blair
1924 Corey Conners (Can), Tim Widing (Swe)
1940 Akshay Bhatia, Xander Schauffele
1951 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Tom Kim (Kor)
2002 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Matthieu Pavon (Fra)
2013 Tony Finau, Rory McIlroy (NI)
2024 Patrick Cantlay, Thomas Detry (Bel)
2035 Bryson DeChambeau, Ludvig Åberg (Swe)