By Andrew Both<\/p>\n
CARNOUSTIE, Scotland (Reuters) – Defending champion Jordan Spieth<\/a> never looked back after making a “dream start” eagle at the first to vault into a tie for the third-round lead with Xander Schauffele<\/a> and Kevin Kisner<\/a> at the British Open on Saturday.<\/p>\n In Carnoustie conditions that were perfect for low scoring until a brisk breeze sprang up just as Spieth was finishing, the 24-year-old Texan drove the first green and sank a 12-footer before adding four birdies for a six-under-par 65.<\/p>\n He earned the 54-hole lead at a major for the sixth time in his young career, giving himself a chance of becoming the first since Tiger Woods<\/a> in 2005-06 to go back-to-back at the Open.<\/p>\n Schauffele birdied the last for a 67, while Kisner shot 68 as the two Americans joined Spieth at nine-under 204.<\/p>\n They have a two-shot edge over American Kevin Chappell<\/a>, and a three-stroke cushion over Italian Francesco Molinari<\/a>.<\/p>\n On a day when Woods electrified the gallery with a 66 that pulled the 14-major winner within four strokes of the lead, Spieth, with three majors already, showed again that he is the man to beat of the current generation.<\/p>\n On a day when Woods electrified the gallery with a 66 that pulled the 14-major winner within four strokes of the lead, Spieth, with three majors already, showed again that he is the man to beat of the current generation.<\/p>\n Unhappy with his swing during the first two days, the 24-year-old found a slight adjustment did the trick, and the first hole provided a massive jolt of confidence.<\/p>\n “With the wind we had today it was a no-brainer for me,” he said.<\/p>\n “I feel like I’ve been improving each day (but) I know as well as anyone that anything can happen at an Open on Sunday.<\/p>\n “I got a couple of good breaks but I wouldn’t say I drew on anything except the adjustments I’ve made during the week on my game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Andrew Both CARNOUSTIE, Scotland (Reuters) – Defending champion Jordan Spieth never looked back after making a “dream start” eagle at the first to vault into a tie for the third-round lead with Xander Schauffele and Kevin Kisner at the British Open on Saturday. In Carnoustie conditions that were perfect for low scoring until a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-european-golf","8":"category-golf-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}