Ice-cool Paul Dunne bids to bridge 85-year gap

To have an amateur leading The Open Championship going into today’s final round is the stuff of fairytales.

That he is an Irishman makes it a piece of pure fantasy.

Yet that is the situation for 22-year-old Paul Dunne at St Andrews today, the golfer from Greystones just 18 Old Course holes from placing his name alongside the great Bobby Jones as an amateur winner of the game’s oldest major.

Take a bow Paul Dunne. The (A) stands for AMAZING! pic.twitter.com/QxIkRJ3oUl

— Patrick Kielty (@PatricKielty) July 19, 2015

After an amazing day’s action yesterday, Dunne walked off the 18th green tied for the lead at 12 under par with playing partner Louis Oosthuizen, the South African who last won an Open at St Andrews in 2010, and Australia’s Jason Day.

So it came to pass that the 2013 East of Ireland champion would sign for a seemingly nerveless six-under-par round of 66 at the Home of Golf and sit atop a leaderboard one shot clear of Masters and US Open champion Jordan Spieth, and two ahead of his childhood hero Pádraig Harrington.

Little wonder, then, that Dunne, who will again partner Oosthuizen in today’s final group at 2:30pm, admitted the experience felt surreal. Having shot back-to-back 69s he had become the first amateur since Jones in 1927 at St Andrews to lead an Open after 54 holes and in a marvellous quirk of fate he had beaten compatriot Joe Carr’s 67 on the same course in 1960 for the lowest third round at The Open by an amateur. He is also the only player in the field with three rounds in the 60s.

Wonder how many "long" lunches there will be tomorrow in Ireland. Paul Dunne out at 2.30 and Paddy H out at 2.10

— Shane Lowry (@ShaneLowryGolf) July 19, 2015

Who would have thought it? Not even Dunne, perhaps, who faced the world’s media as if he had been doing so all his life, and said: “It’s surreal I’m leading The Open, but I can easily believe that I shot the three scores that I shot.

“If we were playing an amateur event here, I wouldn’t be too surprised by the scores I shot. It’s just lucky that it happens to be in the biggest event in the world.

“Hopefully I can do it again tomorrow, but whether I do or not, you know, I’ll survive either way.” So will Irish golf fans but in bringing the 144th Open to life yesterday, Dunne, and Harrington too, have offered up the tantalising prospect of a 10th major success for Ireland in nine years.

Didn't know who Paul Dunne was waking up this morning... Now you get the impression you probably won't ever forget the man! #PowerfulStuff

— Paul Murphy (@PaulMurphykk) July 19, 2015

Harrington was pleased to have banked the round he did ahead of the last-day rough and tumble.

“I always wanted to shoot 65 on the Sunday of an Open,” he joked before adding: “Today was very, very important. This is not a golf course that the leaders tend to come back on, so you really do have to be somewhat there or thereabouts going into (the last day). We’ll have something to play for tomorrow.” If yesterday’s delayed third round served up a day to savour, goodness only knows what today’s conclusion will bring.

After a Saturday that lost 11 hours to high winds which made the Old Course unplayable and forced organisers to push back the final round to today, Sunday brought some early rain and virtual calm, save for a brief period around 1pm as Harrington got his third round under way.

There was clearly good scoring to be had as Australia’s Marc Leishman posted an eight-under 64 to take him to nine under before the overnight leader began.

That was Dustin Johnson, the American who had let US Open victory slip from his grasp at Chambers Bay with a three-putt at the last. He looked primed to make amends yesterday on the track presented to him but Johnson was just about the only contender not to cash in.

While others birdied he parred and when he bogeyed the seventh he began a painful slide down the leaderboard, finishing with three bogeys in a row for a three-over 75 that sent him back to seven under.

People have come from further behind than that to win majors but there are a lot of names above Johnson more than capable of making a run.

It is a bunched leaderboard, with Harrington alone in fifth place at 10 under and nine players a shot further back, including major winners Adam Scott, Zach Johnson, Justin Rose and Retief Goosen, just three shots off the pace.

All of which makes Dunne’s achievements even more impressive.

“It is phenomenal,” Harrington said of his compatriot. “His first-round score was a tremendous achievement, then to back it up and shoot another 69 in the second round was really gutsy, and now to go out there and be leading the tournament, you can’t take that away from him ever. He’s led The Open Championship a long way into the event as an amateur. That is as rare as it comes. There’s not too many people who have been leading into the third round as an amateur. Hopefully he continues to play great.

“If I don’t win, I hope he does.” And given his performance thus far, handing Dunne the Claret Jug this evening no longer seems beyond the realms of possibility. Oosthuizen said Dunne could win while Spieth, chasing history himself as he bids for a third major in succession to emulate Ben Hogan’s feat in 1953 and give himself a shot at an historic calendar Grand Slam, said he expected an amateur to win a major within the next decade.

What about tomorrow, Dunne was asked? “I don’t see why not. I mean, I’m well capable of shooting the scores that I need to win if everyone else doesn’t play their best. Whether it happens or not, I can’t really control. I can just go out and try to play my game and see where it leaves me at the end of the day. Hopefully I play great again and post a good number.”