With Scottie Scheffler holding a four-shot lead at the start of the final round of the British Open, brushing up on how the R&A conducts a playoff in the event of a tie after 72 holes might not seem necessary.

The R&A announced The Open will carry the same prize pool as 2024's record-setting purse with the winner taking home a $3.1 million check like Xander Schauffele did last year. That is a handsome payday but not one all that uncommon at this time in professional golf.

So, this was weird: Rory McIlroy, playing his second shot from the rough on the 11th at Royal Portrush in Round 3 of the British Open, somehow managed to unearth another ball in mid-swing. The second ball was apparently embedded in the ground a few inches ahead of McIlroy's ball, and popped into the air as McIlroy's shot flew greenward.

Scheffler enters the final day of play at the Open Championship with a comfortable lead, looking to keep his spot at the top of the leaderboard on Sunday.

Finau fired a 1-over-par 72 in the third round to go with his rounds of 70-68 and that effort left him watching the contenders pull away. Most of the movers and shakers fired rounds of four to five under par as Scottie Scheffler rocketed to a huge lead heading into Sunday.

Widespread showers in the morning become scattered in the afternoon on Friday, but forecasters expect a much lighter wind of 5-10 mph coming from the southwest with a high temperature around 65 degrees. Much of the same Saturday. Cloudy with off-and-on rain, high temperatures in the mid 60s and winds from the southeast at 5-10 mph.

The Northern Ireland native picked up a ball from the thick rough, held it out in front of him and burst out laughing. While hitting a shot, he unearthed another ball.

SHOT OF THE DAY: John Parry made the first hole-in-one at this British Open, an 8-iron on the par-3 13th hole. SAVE OF THE DAY: Scheffler was buried in deep rough behind the 11th green when he chopped it out to 10 feet and made par.