NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. – Those gigantic electronic leaderboards that dot the landscape on the Champions Course at Keene Trace Golf Club this week can’t be missed. And every time Kelly Kraft looked at one Saturday after making yet another birdie in his course-record round of 61, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Surely, he was in the lead now, Kraft figured. But no, Jim Herman, the overnight leader, was more than keeping pace, eventually tossing out a 62 that left him one stroke ahead of Kraft – and set the stage for what is sure to be a shootout on Sunday. “This thing is far from over,â€� Kraft said on a day when it seemed like everyone was going low in the third round.  “I mean, I felt like I was making birdies and eagles on the back nine, and I look up and I’m still trailing Jim Herman. “So, it seems like a lot of other people are doing it too, so we’re just going to have to keep our foot down tomorrow and get after it.â€� Herman is 24 under through 54 holes – one stroke better than Troy Merritt shot over four rounds a year ago when he won the first Barbasol Championship played at Keene Trace. Herman’s score is the lowest 54-hole tally of the season. Unlike Kraft, Bill Haas didn’t need to look at any leaderboards. The six-time PGA TOUR champ was playing in the final group with Herman, who made a pair of eagles and six birdies without dropping a single shot to par. “I saw it firsthand, 10 under right next to me, and could have been better,â€� said Haas, who didn’t exactly scruff it around, shooting a 65 of his own to tie for third at 20 under with Austin Cook, who had fired a 63 earlier in the day. “He just drove it beautifully and seemed to have a look on every hole. And when he had a nice look at eagle, he made those.â€� Even Herman, who hit all but two fairways and all but two greens in regulation, was a bit taken aback by the fireworks. His own, as well as everyone else’s. The 62 is his best round since he opened the 2017 Valspar Championship with the same score and went on to tie for third. “The scores I had been shooting lately, no, I didn’t expect it,â€� said Herman, who, counting this week, has only made the cut in four of the 20 events he’s played this season. “So, just very pleased.  Obviously, just going to get some rest and try to replicate one of these other ‑‑ one of these scores I have had so far tomorrow.  But you’re going to have to go low.  You can’t protect anything.  So maybe that’s a good thing, you don’t have to protect anything.â€� Herman, who won the 2016 Shell Houston Open, acknowledges that he might not even own the lead when he tees off with Kraft at 12:40 p.m. on Sunday. “So, you just know you’re going to have to make some birdies and stay ahead of everybody else,â€� said Herman, who ranks first in Strokes Gained: Putting and Strokes Gained: Total this week. Kraft, who said he felt like he was making putts on every hole in the frenetic third round, agrees. With wedges into a lot of greens and irons into par 5s, being aggressive again on Sunday will be key. “The fairways got a little more firm today, so we were hitting a little bit farther,â€� Kraft said. “The greens are softer in the beginning of the round.  They had a little bounce to them towards the end of the day, and they’re rolling good.  The par 5s are all reachable. “Any time you have that combo on the PGA TOUR, guys are just going to light it up. It’s just that simple.â€� Haas, who won the FedExCup in 2014, has only made one bogey through 54 holes this week, with that coming on his 12th hole in the first round. He closed out Saturday’s 65 with a clutch 23-footer for a par after putting his drive at the 18th hole into the lake. “(It was) a par that felt like a birdie the way Jim was going and the way Kelly in front of us was going,â€� Haas said. “Austin Cook I saw shot a low number. So, I just knew — any bogey was going to feel like a double.â€� A week ago, Haas started the final round of the John Deere Classic trailing by one and ended up tied for 10th. On Sunday, he gets another chance to win for the first time since the 2015 Humana Challenge presented by the Clinton Foundation. “All you can ask for,â€� Haas said. “… Again, if he shoots 10 under again, I hope he wins by eight. That’s what he deserves. “But I hope I can do the same thing tomorrow, and at least put some pressure on him. And we’ll see what happens.â€�

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Sepp Straka and his twin brother Sam virtually came out of the womb competing against each other. Ask him, and Sam will be quick to point out that he’s the elder of the two – by all of two minutes. “He’s proud of that, too,â€� Sepp said, chuckling. And so, it was on Saturday, after Sepp tied his career low on the PGA TOUR with a 63 that included nine birdies and propelled him into a tie for fifth entering the final round of the Barbasol Championship, that his fraternal twin had to put him in his place. Sepp had barely finished signing his scorecard and the requisite interviews when Sam called to tell him that he’d nipped him by a shot – shooting a 10-under 62 at Kinderlou Forest back home in Valdosta, Georgia that day. “He told me, you played great today, but I beat you by one,â€� Sepp said with a laugh. “… I was like, you’re going to ruin a good day like that for me.â€� Sepp and Sam pushed each other in every sport, growing in Vienna, Austria and later in Valdosta. First, it was soccer, where Sam played striker and Sepp was the goalie. When they were 11, though, after a week-long junior golf camp, their focus changed. “He just kind of decided that we’re going to play more golf from that point on,â€� Sepp recalled. “And then I figured that was the way to go.â€� That the brothers would find their way to golf wasn’t really a big surprise. Their mother Mary had gone to Austria with her then-boyfriend, a golf course designer. The romance didn’t work out, but she stayed and was working in a golf shop when she met Peter Straka, the man she would go on to marry. “Sold him a golf glove in the pro shop and it went from there,â€� Sepp said matter-of-factly. When the boys were 14, they moved with their mom to Valdosta to be closer to Mary’s family. Peter, who is an architect, splits time between Georgia and his native Austria. Sepp, who holds dual citizenship and played on the Austrian national junior golf team, tries to get back at least once a year. While Sepp loves Vienna and misses the food – schnitzel’s his go-to meal – he spent summers when he was a kid in southern Georgia, just outside Moultrie. So, going from Vienna, a cosmopolitan city of 1.8 million, to Valdosta, where the population is just under 60,000, wasn’t as much culture shock as it could have been. Plus, he has no accent – his mother spoke English to the boys and German to her husband. The brothers both played collegiately at Georgia, with Sepp red-shirting one season. They roomed together and when Sam left, he originally went into real estate. But he’s since turned pro and is now preparing for qualifying school for the Korn Ferry Tour, where Sepp cut his competitive teeth. “We talk about golf a good bit,â€� Sepp said. “But he doesn’t need a whole lot of advice from me. He kind of knows what my thoughts are on things. If anything, he gets me, he gives me advice. We talk about about all my rounds, all that. “It’s good now that we can talk about his game, too. So yeah, it’s been nice.â€� Sepp has some work to do of his own. The 26-year-old came to Kentucky ranked 143rd in the FedExCup. Another low round on Sunday in the birdie-fest at the Champion Course at Keene Trace could go a long way toward moving him into the all-important and FedExCup Playoffs-bound top 125 with two weeks remaining in the regular season. “Can’t really think about that,â€� Sepp said. “It’s too much going on to really even figure out where you would be if you did what.  So, the key is really just to keep the pedal down and keep making birdies.â€� Sam would surely tell his little brother the same.

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PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – Kyle Stanley said Saturday that criticism from one of his playing partners for failing to yell “foreâ€� on an errant shot is a “non-issue.â€� Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre, one of Stanley’s playing partners for the first two rounds at The Open Championship, confronted Stanley on Friday after Stanley did not issue the warning after his tee shot at the 17th hole. MacIntryre said the ball hit his caddie’s mom, although no medical attention was required. Related: Leaderboard | Lowry sets 54-hole record, leads The Open by four | Ominous weather moves up final-round tee times  Stanley discussed the situation following his third round Saturday and was perplexed about MacIntyre’s reaction. He said plenty of people yelled “foreâ€� after the tee shot was launched. “I’m not really sure why he decided to make such an issue about it,â€� said Stanley, who shot a 2-over 73 to finish at 2 over through 54 holes. “I know it hit his caddie’s mom’s hands off the bounce, and that’s unfortunate. “But as far I’m concerned, a number of people yelled ‘fore.’ He made the argument that since I hit the ball, that it maybe should have come out of my mouth first. I guess I can see that. “But it’s unfortunate it ended up the way it did. It certainly wasn’t my intention to put anyone in harm’s way. I had my wife in the gallery. My coaches. So I’m surprised it’s kind of come to this point.â€� The 31-year-old Stanley, a two-time PGA TOUR winner, said he usually yells “foreâ€� when he hits a shot off-line. “This was a unique situation,â€� he added. “You have marshals on the tee signaling where the ball is going. You have guys down there in the landing area. Everyone knew the ball was going right. “Like I said, it’s a bad deal. One hopped into his caddie’s mom. But everyone knew the ball was going over there. … Five or six people on the tee yelled ‘fore’ — my caddie did, my two playing partners, a couple of the marshals. I thought that was enough.â€� The 22-year-old MacIntyre spoke to Stanley afterwards. “It wasn’t too pleasant,â€� MacIntyre said. “But you’ve got to tell them.â€� Stanley said the conversation was not heated. “We talked about it briefly,â€� he said. “I was surprised. I was caught off-guard that it even came up, really. I just explained to him my side of it. “I saw what he said last night (to the media). The way things were kind of painted from his perspective … When you tell your story, you’ve got to make sure you have all the details. From what I read last night, he didn’t do that. He’s a young player. I’ve been out here for a while. So I don’t feel the need to be schooled on the rules of golf or what to do when you hit a shot off-line. “So that’s kind of my perspective on it. I don’t know, maybe a good learning experience for all.â€�

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PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – After sending Shane Lowry off the 18th green with a standing ovation, the fans jammed against a white fence to watch him fulfill the customary duties of a 54-hole leader. His countrymen stood 20 deep, craning for a view of their hero. Others climbed atop a small hill to catch a glimpse as he did his post-round interviews. An Irish flag was hung from the temporary barrier that stood between them and the man who’d just set the course record at the renovated Royal Portrush that is hosting this week’s Open Championship. The crowd cheered and chanted, heartily singing, “Ole! Ole! Ole!â€� and “If you love Shane Lowry, clap your hands.â€� They were celebrating as if Lowry already had the Claret Jug in his hands. He thrilled them with a back-nine 30, including birdies on Nos. 15-17, but The Open is still far from being decided. Related: Leaderboard | Ominous weather moves up final-round tee times | Koepka looms, but has to make putts Lowry will start Sunday with a four-shot lead over England’s Tommy Fleetwood and six-shot advantage over the next player on the leaderboard, J.B. Holmes. Lowry’s 19-under 197 is the lowest 54-hole score in The Open’s history. He leads the field in greens hit, missing just nine in three rounds. His play has been impressive, but he knows first-hand what can happen in the final round. Lowry has led a major on one other occasion, losing a four-shot lead in the final round of the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont. He is playing on home soil this time. The reception Lowry received around the grounds of Royal Portrush showed the unifying power of sport. There has been a lot of talk this week about Ireland’s sectarian divide and this Open’s greater significance, but none of that mattered Saturday. Lowry and his Northern Irish caddie represent the last local hope for the fans, and they did their best to carry him across the line. A day earlier, those same fans tried to cheer Rory McIlroy to the correct side of the cut line. They had to watch as Darren Clarke tripled the last hole to miss the cut. Portrush member Graeme McDowell is still around but out of contention. The crowd’s full force will be behind Lowry. “It’s going to be nuts,â€� his caddie, Bo Martin, said. Such energy and enthusiasm can either be a help or a hindrance. “Walking from the green to the next tee, the people are literally a yard away from you roaring in your face as loud as they can,â€� Lowry said. “If you have to get up and hit a drive down a tight fairway, it’s fairly difficult. I thought I dealt with it very well today and hopefully I do the same tomorrow.â€� He’ll have enough on his hands. Sunday’s forecast calls for high winds and rain. The forecast is ominous enough for tee times to be moved earlier. From underneath his umbrella, Lowry will have a view of this era’s dominant force in the majors. Brooks Koepka will play alongside Holmes in the second-to-last group. Koepka and Rose, the reigning FedExCup champion, are tied for fourth, seven shots off the lead. “There’s a good leaderboard behind me,â€� Lowry said. “We’ll see what happens.â€� Lowry shot 76 in that final round at Oakmont, finishing three shots behind Dustin Johnson. Lowry says he gave up too quickly when things went south. He bogeyed four of the first 10 holes, but a birdie at 12 put him at 4-under-par, the eventual winning score. Three consecutive bogeys after that resigned him to second place. Lowry knew before he left the 18th green Saturday that he’d face questions about the biggest disappointment of his career. He’s a different man than he was 3 years ago, though. Golf is less important because he knows his wife, Wendy, and 2-year-old daughter, Iris, will be waiting for him behind the 18th green, regardless of the result. “I learned a lot about myself at Oakmont,â€� Lowry said. “I’m going to learn a lot about myself tomorrow. Tomorrow is a huge day in my career. But it probably doesn’t mean as much to me as it did then, which is going to make it a little bit easier. “I think I learned a few things that day about playing in the final round of a major with a lead, that you need to just hang in until the very last minute. You never know what can happen. And I’m going to do the same tomorrow.â€� A win earlier this year in Abu Dhabi – his first since he won his lone PGA TOUR title, at the 2015 World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational – also will help him Sunday. He started the day with a three-shot advantage, but trailed by as many as four shots during the final round. His one-shot victory showed him a mettle that he didn’t know he possessed. “The one thing I got from Oakmont is I laid down and I didn’t show any fight or bottle there. I did that today,â€� he said after the victory. Lowry, the son of a famous Gaelic footballer, has won in front of the home fans before. He was still an amateur when he won the 2009 Irish Open. Now he’ll try to take the same carefree attitude he had back then into the final round of the game’s oldest championship. “Obviously there’s big consequences tomorrow, but you need to play like there’s no consequence,â€� he said. “Like, what’s the worst thing that can happen?â€�

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He’s got a big lead. He’s the local favorite. But there are some big names lurking. With bad weather predicted, could it be a wild Sunday at The Open? We answer all the big questions heading into the final round.

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PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – From Brooks Koepka’s perspective, nobody in the field through three rounds of The Open Championship has been better tee-to-green. “I’ve hit it as good as I could possibly imagine,â€� he said. But … “I’ve putted the worst in the entire field. … It’s been really bad. Very frustrating. Disappointed.â€� And yet, there he is, still looming near the top of the leaderboard. Koepka’s 4-under 67 on Saturday at Royal Portrush leaves him at 9 under for the tournament and in a tie for fourth with Justin Rose. The bad news is that he’ll start Sunday’s final round seven shots off the lead held by Irishman Shane Lowry. For the player who’s gone 1-T2-1-2 in his last four major starts, it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility for Koepka to make his presence felt at Royal Portrush. Yes, he’s well back of Lowry, who has a four-shot lead over Tommy Fleetwood. The tournament is in Lowry’s hands, not Koepka’s, going into the final round. RELATED: Tee times | Tough weather conditions in store | McDowell: Rory ‘won himself a lot of fans’ | Schauffele’s driver non-conforming But if Lowry stumbles – which he did three years ago after holding a four-shot lead through three rounds of the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont – then Koepka has just two players to hurdle: Fleetwood, who’s 12 under, and J.B. Holmes at 10 under. “It’s just not the week I’ve been looking for, not the week that I’ve expected,â€� Koepka said. “But at the same time, there’s one more round, so I need to figure it out.â€� Bad weather will help. Strong winds and potential rain are in the forecast, and that’s potentially good news for the chase pack. In perfect conditions Saturday, Lowry shot an 8-under 63, tying for the second-lowest score in major championship history. Another perfect day would make things easier for him. “You need some wind, you need some rain,â€� Koepka said. “You need anything that can kind of go your way. And that’s got to be an advantage – especially the way I’m striking the ball. I’ve struck it so good. If it’s going to be windy, you need to be able to strike it good, control your flight and figure out where you want the ball to end up. If it’s going to blow 30 (mph), it can get out of control very quickly.â€� Rose, in the same boat as Koepka, knows it’s just a matter of picking off the guys ahead of him and taking advantage if Lowry has a bad day. “Whenever some guy’s stretch the lead, I’ve always said, where’s second place? …â€� Rose said. “You never know what the leader is going to do. You’ve always got to look at where the chasing pack is and stay relevant to that.â€� That chasing pack is led by fellow Englishman Fleetwood thanks to his bogey-free 66 on Saturday. Fleetwood’s putter has been more effective than Koepka’s this week. He’ll also have the benefit of keeping Lowry in his sights, as the two are paired in the final group. Of course, that means he’ll also have to deal with all the support that Lowry will receive Sunday. It was a crazy scene on Saturday as Lowry rode the emotional Irish backing in the final group with Holmes. No reason to think it will be different in the final round. “I’m very happy to have that challenge,â€� Fleetwood said. “If you had said at the start of today, at the start of the week, at the start of the year, you’re going into the last round – whether I’m four back, five back, it doesn’t matter — I’m in the last group Sunday at The Open and playing with Shane, and the majority of the crowd might not be with you, I would’ve said fine, ‘Yeah, that’s fine.’ “I’m looking forward to it, to be honest with you.â€� Holmes had the front-row view on Saturday and called it “awesomeâ€� to see, a “cool experience.â€� Added Holmes: “I don’t know how many times in history you get the opportunity to witness that or be around that, to have somebody from the home country put a round up like that in an Open. It’s pretty special. Something I’ll never forget.” But in shooting a 69 and losing six shots to Lowry, Holmes now must hope he can at least switch the scores Sunday. No lead, he figures – or at least hopes — is insurmountable in a major. “It’s tough no matter whether you have a one-shot lead or a five-shot lead,â€� Holmes said. “It’s tough to finish off a major. It’s a tough test. So we’ll see.â€�

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Shane Lowry broke out of a four-way tie late on the front nine Saturday en route to a tournament-best 63. He has a four-shot lead going into the final round of the Open Championship.

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