The Open 2026: fourth and final round at Royal Birkdale – live

?Updates from the final day’s play at Royal Birkdale
?Official leaderboard | Mail Scott with your thoughts

Russell Henley keeps on keepin’ on! He sends his approach at 11 from 156 yards to 14 feet, and the putt drops for his fifth birdie of the day. The rest of his card is unblemished, so he just needs another three birdies in the last seven holes to join Club 62. And there are scoring opportunities all around Royal Birkdale.

On the subject of Bryson, who reportedly threatened to walk upon being penalised for his fescue shoe shuffle, here’s the story of one player who actually walked it like he talked it. Courtesy of an old Joy of Six on the Open.

The 16th Open Championship was the second to be held on the famous Old Course at St Andrews and the first to descend into total farce. From the outset, there was trouble brewing. The organisers had forgotten – golfers who have been unlucky in the St Andrews ballot will love this – to book the course for the tournament, so competitors had to grab tee times when they could, going out for their rounds while members of the general public hooked and shanked to their hearts’ delight around them. Delightful bedlam.

Sure enough, this would eventually ruin the Championship. It is said that the best two players of the early 1870s were Young Tom Morris and David Strath. Morris had pipped Strath to the Open in 1870 and 1872, but died of a broken heart on Christmas Day 1875, a few months after his wife and newborn baby had died during a difficult labour. With his main rival tragically out of the picture, it was assumed an Open victory for Strath would come along sooner or later.