The weather went from awful to low-scoring-friendly Saturday at The Open Championship at Royal St. George Golf Club and plenty of golfers took advantage of their later start times.

The scoring average of the first six groups of the day (77.182) dropped 4.299 strokes to a 72.883 average for the last six groups of the day (Thank you @BWAvery for the great stat).

Darren Clarke and Dustin Johnson were the biggest beneficiaries of their afternoon starts. Clarke was able to shoot under-par for the third straight day, finishing -1 for the day and -5 overall for the tournament. He holds a one-shot lead over Johnson, who has finished 70, 68, 68, respectively, and is three shots of Thomas Bjorn and Rickie Fowler (-2).  Lucas Glover and Miguel Angel Jimenez are T5, -1.

No one in the Top 5 teed off before 12:35 p.m. BST.  The earliest start time for the group of players T7 at even par (Martin Kaymer, Davis Love III,  George Coetzee, Anders Jansen, Anthony Kim, Phil Mickelson) was 1:30 p.m. BST.

Safe to say, weather is going to play a huge factor (again) for the final round on Sunday. The current weather report shows a high of 17c with showers starting mid-morning and continuing through the afternoon. Light showers won't hurt the players quite as much as the 24-34kph wind gusts that will be swirling.

Playing conditions for Sunday won't be nearly as damaging for players starting at different times as Saturday - they should be consistently horrible for everyone - which is good news for golf fans. We'll be in for a treat Sunday.

Bashing my head against the wall… or, a review of my Open Championship picks going into the final round:

1. Bubba Watson - T33, +5; Out of contention, in need of a miracle
2. Phil Mickelson - T7, E; In contention, on the hunt
3.  Rory McIlroy - T25, +4; Out of contention, in need of a miracle
4. Adam Scott - T17, +2; In contention, could get to 4th
5. Sergio Garcia - T25, +4; In contention, could get to 5th
6. Zach Johnson - T13, +1; In contention, could place higher
7. Lee Westwood - CUT
8. Ernie Els - CUT
9. Matt Kuchar - CUT
10. Nick Watney - CUT

Note to self, stop making picks after 5.

Who I like Sunday (and no that doesn't mean I'm backing out of my picks): Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler. I'll take any of the 6 American golfers in the Top 12, actually. USA! USA! USA!

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