The Open: The best quotes after round three

What the players said: From Schauffele’s swipe at The R&A and Fowler’s love of movies to Koepka’s frustrations and Finau’s new putting grip…

J.B Holmes still didn’t feel great after shooting a two-under, 69
“When you’re playing with a guy making everything, it feels like you shot a million.”

Shane Lowry felt a million dollars after his record-breaking round
“That’s the most incredible day I’ve ever had on the golf course. I honestly can’t explain what it was like. I said to Bo walking off the 17th tee, we might never have a day like this on the golf course again. So let’s enjoy this next half hour, and that’s what I did. The crowd was incredible. I just can’t believe what it was like.”

Brooks Koepka was frustrated with his putting yet again… but has a pretty high opinion of the rest of his game
“Nobody has hit it better than me this week. I’ve hit it as good as I could possibly imagine. I putted the worst in the entire field, if you look at strokes gained. I don’t know if they have that. It’s been really bad. Very frustrating. Disappointed. I need to figure out the putter.”

Lee Westwood could have argued for free relief on the 10th, but wasn’t interested in taking advantage of the rules
“It’s against the spirit of the game. I’m not interested in gaining an advantage in a situation like that. I actually said to the rules official, ‘there’s no relief for embedded balls in The Open, is there’? She said, ‘actually we’ve changed the rules’. So I was just going to go and drop it anyway, but she said, ‘hang on’, and they brought another rules official and he explained the rule and I said, ‘No, I wouldn’t have been able to hit it really’. You just let your conscience be your guide in situations like that.”

Francesco Molinari threw his support behind Tommy Fleetwood
“It would make a good story for you guys to have the two of us, one next to each other, on the Claret Jug. Yeah, he’s a friend and I’ll cheer him on and hopefully he can get it done. There’s still a long way. But he’s there with a chance. If it’s not this week, I think it’s coming pretty soon.”

Graeme McDowell revealed how Shane Lowry’s likes to prepare for a round
“Shane, as I know him, he’ll probably drink a few coffees. He’s a big fan of a latte or three.”

Rickie’s prepartion for the final round definitely involves movies
“Tonight we’ll all have dinner and hang out, whether it’s movies or watching some golf. It’s a good escape. Hopefully some of the boys will be going late, as well, or at least not early. We’ll hang out in the morning. Typically throw a movie on, whatever it may be, depending on how late I’m going tomorrow.”

Tony Finau talked up his new putting grip 
“It’s kind of my version of the pencil, if you will, it’s like a chopstick. I only use three fingers on my right hand, just to kind of take it out of it. I use more of my left hand to putt with. It was a putting drill that I tried, and about six weeks ago at the Colonial event on the PGA Tour I switched. I finished second there, I had a chance to win and I played really nicely. It’s a grip that I’ve stuck with now for six or seven weeks.”

Kyle Stanley wasn’t happy with Robert MacIntyre’s version of events yesterday after he was called out for hitting his caddie’s mum, and not shouting fore. 
“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 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.”

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Xander Schauffele hit back at The R&A after it was leaked that his driver was non conforming
“To my best belief, I was playing a conforming driver. Our job as players is to show up to tournaments, put on a show for The R&A and for the Tour and to handle our business. It’s not to make sure our stuff is conforming.

“To make it fair. they should test everybody. Other drivers failed. I’ll just say it, I’m pretty sure a TaylorMade driver failed and the Callaway driver failed. This matter should be private. But R&A didn’t do their job in keeping it private.

“It is an unsettling topic. I’ve been called a cheater by my fellow opponents. It’s all joking, but when someone yells “cheater” in front of 200 people, to me it’s not going to go down very well. that’s not something you joke about. So, The R&A they pissed me off because they attempted to ruin my image by not keeping this matter private. This is me coming out and treating them the exact way they treated me.

“There’s certain moving parts on Tour here and everyone on the grounds knew for some odd reason. So, that’s enough to throw me off my game. It was just handled unprofessionally. And it did tick me off, for sure.”