Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy swing to underdogs in The Match

SOUTHPORT, England – At high noon here Sunday, Jordan Spieth should have a full grasp of the gameplan he hopes will produce his third major title. Although he’ll still be 2-1/2 hours away from his opening tee shot in the final round at Royal Birkdale, he’ll have benefitted from watching the earlier coverage of The Open Championship on TV. He’ll see how the course is playing, where the pins are, how the greens are rolling, how the conditions are impacting scores. Will it be a tough, hang-on type of day like Friday? Or will he need an aggressive approach, the kind he used Saturday when Royal Birkdale handed out red numbers like it was last call at the local pub? Yet there are two things he already knows he must do: (bullet) Play like he’s tied for the lead. Spieth is 11 under par and goes into Sunday with a three-shot cushion over Matt Kuchar. The next closest pursuers – U.S. Open champ Brooks Koepka and Spieth’s fellow Dallas resident Austin Connelly — are six shots back. It would be easy for Spieth to simply lay back and wait for anybody to challenge him. To play safe. But taking a defensive posture would be a detriment. After all, trying to avoid making mistakes is a recipe for making more of them. “I think I will assume that we are tied for the lead,â€� Spieth said. (bullet) Hit as many greens as possible. One of the key strategies all week for Spieth has been staying out of Royal Birkdale’s pot bunkers. He’s found a few, but he’s made just four bogeys this week, all in the second round in rainy, windy conditions. He shot bogey-free 5-under 65s in the first and third rounds, and there’s every reason to think he can avoid trouble again Sunday, provided his driver cooperates to set up the crisp irons he’s displayed here. “It’s all about greens in regulation,â€� said Spieth, who hit 15 of them on Thursday and 14 on Saturday. “If the conditions are tough and you have to lay it further back and play further away from holes, so be it. But having a putter in my hand for birdie is the most important thing for tomorrow.â€� Spieth’s ability to execute his gameplan at Royal Birkdale is why he’s on the verge of adding the Open to his major resume and moving three-quarters of the way to the career Grand Slam. Entering Saturday with a two-shot lead over Kuchar, he knew early on that scoring conditions were incredibly favorable – even though he saw only one hole of Branden Grace’s major-record 62. Previously anticipating that pars would be a really good score, Spieth adjusted his thinking, approaching par as just “OKâ€� on Saturday. “Royal Birkdale, notoriously difficult, had just become one of the easier golf courses that we play for one round for the year,â€� Spieth said. “You just kind of got to change that in your mind.â€� By the time he arrived on the first tee Saturday, he had an additional gameplan. This one included Kuchar. “Our gameplan when we stood on the tee was, let’s push each other to separate and get this pairing tomorrow,â€� Spieth said. “That’s kind of what we wanted to do.â€� While Spieth shot 65, Kuchar shot a 4-under 66 that included a double-bogey at the par-4 16th in which he found a bunker and also three-putted. Kuchar is hoping to become the eighth consecutive first-time winner in a major, but that double may come back to haunt him. On Sunday, Kuchar won’t be worrying about separating from the pack. His focus now is pretty easy: catch Spieth. But even though Kuchar has plenty of success in match play-type environments – he won the World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play in 2013 — he plans to avoid any kind of head-to-head showdown with his playing partner. “I’ll be playing with him but not focused on him,â€� Kuchar said. “My goal is to go out and play Royal Birkdale. “I’ll know exactly where we stand but I don’t know how much that ever helps you. You just have to go out and hit the best shot for that situation. I’ve been on some good form. The formula has produced a lot of good golf, and I hope it continues to produce some good golf tomorrow.â€� He’ll probably need some help from Spieth, but the 23-year-old Texan – he turns 24 next week – seems to have a pretty good formula for holding 54 holes. Of his last nine 54-hole leads on the PGA TOUR, he’s converted eight of them into victories. The lone miss was the 2016 Masters, when he put two balls in the water at the 12th in the final round and shot a 73, opening the door for Englishman Danny Willett. It was a harsh lesson, but one Spieth thinks ultimately will prove valuable. “I understand that leads can be squandered quickly, and I also understand how you can keep on rolling on one,â€� Spieth said. “It was a humbling experience that I thought at the time could serve me well going forward.â€� No matter the outcome on Sunday, Spieth doesn’t think the 2016 Masters will have a specific impact at Royal Birkdale. “If I don’t win tomorrow, it has nothing to do with that. It has to do with it was someone else’s day, and I didn’t play as well as I should have,â€� Spieth said. “And if I win tomorrow, it has nothing to do with that, either.â€� What it will come down to is simply this: executing his gameplan. Spieth’s been nearly flawless for the first three rounds. Difficult to imagine that Sunday will be any different.

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