Follow along for leaderboard updates, scores, highlights and more from the third round of the 2025 British Open Championship.

Scheffler posted a 64 on Friday in the second round of the British Open, which had him just a shot off the course record in Northern Ireland. He left a birdie putt painfully short at the final hole, too. That moved the top-ranked golfer in the world into the solo lead at the midway point of the final major championship of the season.

That moment arrived Thursday while Scottie Scheffler played his second shot on the 17th hole at the 2025 British Open at Royal Portrush. Scheffler, sitting to the right of the fairway and 111 yards out, hit a beautiful iron shot that landed three feet from the pin.

Scottie Scheffler took control of the 2025 Open Championship with a seven-under 64 on Friday. Scheffler owns a one-shot lead over Matt Fitzpatrick and a two-shot edge over Brian Harman and Haotong Li.

The somewhat contradictory answer was that golf does fulfill Scheffler, along with his family, but that if the game ever affected his role as a husband and father he'd quit on the spot. Family matters the most to him, so he ends up asking himself the same question at tournament after tournament:

Is Scottie Scheffler still the clear No. 1 entering The Open? Is Rory McIlroy ready to win in Northern Ireland?

Backspin: His year was slowed by a rib injury that kept him out for two months. Padraig Harrington (2007-08), Tiger Woods (2005-06) and Tom Watson (1982-83) are the only back-to-back Open champions the last 50 years.