TROON, Scotland — Justin Rose loves his position.
The 43-year-old Englishman is on the chase of a second career major championship.
And he’s doing it having gone through qualifying to get into this 152nd British Open.
He enters Sunday’s final round at Royal Troon at 3-under, one shot behind leader Billy Horschel.
Rose won the 2013 U.S. Open and wants to enhance his legacy in the game with a Claret Jug.
“It’s going to be massive, just from an experience point of view,’’ he said. “Those are days that I dream about. Those are days I’ve been working hard for. Those are days I’ve still been believing that I can have. The key tomorrow is to do my best to make the most of it.
“It’s still my dream. In a few years, it’ll be someone else’s dream. But yeah, still my dream right now. Great opportunity to go live it out tomorrow.’’
Rose predicted that “someone in that 3-under pack is going to play some great golf tomorrow.’’
He’s joined at 3-under by five other players.
“Obviously there’s a few other players right in there with a chance, too, but I think tomorrow is going to be head down and sort of run for the finish line.’’ he said.
One of the most unlikely contenders of all is Thriston Lawrence, a 27-year-old from South Africa. He’s one of the six players at 3-under.
“We teed it up on Thursday trying to win,’’ he said. “Whatever happens in between up until Sunday is out of my control, but the game plan doesn’t change and the mentality doesn’t change. Hopefully I’m in with a couple of shots going tomorrow, but I’m going to just try to do the same thing, be aggressive and try to win a golf tournament.’’
Sam Burns was one of the players who got the good end of the weather draw Saturday, and he took advantage of it, shooting 6-under to get to 3-under for the week, one shot out of the lead.
Burns recovered from a terrible start Thursday.
“Being 7-over through 11 wasn’t kind of what I had in store, or in mind to start the week,’’ he said. “I was 5-over through eight at the U.S. Open and played well there, finished ninth. I knew I wasn’t out of it. I knew it was going to be difficult and I made it a lot tougher on myself. I was proud of how I hung in there and kept fighting.’’
Si Woo Kim carded the first hole-in-one of the week when he aced the par-3 17th hole on Saturday.
“It was amazing,’’ Kim said. “I had plenty of holes-in-one in my life — maybe over 10 times — but I think this is the most memorable hole-in-one, because it’s a major and the Open.
“My caddie told me, ‘You’d better hit hard with a 3-iron.’ So, I did, and as soon as I [made] contact good, so I see the ball over the fringe.
“It just took off the ground and just back to the back, and people [were] yelling at me, like I didn’t realize the ball [went] in.’’
Greg Norman, a two-time winner of the Claret Jug, has been welcomed to the British Open on a guest badge from the R&A this week.
Two years ago, when the R&A celebrated the 150th Open at St. Andrews, Norman — somewhat controversially — wasn’t given an invitation to the champion’s dinner.
Norman, of course, helped launch LIV as its CEO and commissioner and the R&A reasoned that Norman’s presence would be a distraction to the celebration.
Three months ago, Norman attended the Masters at Augusta National as a ticketed patron.
The R&A extended Norman the same official privileges all former Open champions can access each year.
“It’s good to be back,” Norman told Golf Digest. “The Open has a lot of history for me. To me, it was the best championship of all. In my professional career, I prided myself on coming back and playing the Open Championship.’’
“In 1989, I birdied the first six holes of the final round, shot 64, then birdied the first two holes of the [four-hole aggregate playoff] and still didn’t win,’’ Norman said. “I’m still trying to figure this place out.”
Mark Calcavecchia won that playoff over Norman and another Australian, Wayne Grady.
Norman said he loves “seeing the way things have settled down’’ between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, saying, “Everybody’s seen that within the ecosystem, LIV Golf has been accepted and the players deserve to be in these big championships.”
Norman was referring to the special exemption Augusta National extended to LIV player Joaquin Niemann for this year’s Masters and then, a month later, seven LIV players were included in exemptions from the PGA of America for the PGA Championship at Valhalla.
LIV player Bryson DeChambeau won the U.S. Open last month at Pinehurst.