Pairings and tee times for the third round of The 154th Open, held at Royal Birkdale in Southport, Merseyside.

Bryson DeChambeau is set to tee off at 3.30pm on Saturday afternoon alongside Sam Burns, but it remains to be seen if the American will choose to play his third round at The Open.

After climbing the leaderboard to go to seven under par following a spectacular second-round 68, DeChambeau was penalised two shots by the rules officials after appearing to improve his lie when he found the rough with his tee shot on the fifth hole.

Overnight leader Lucas Herbert will tee off in the final group alongside American Jackson Suber at 3.50pm, with Cameron Young and Ryan Gerard set to tee off before them at 3.40pm.

Scottie Scheffler, meanwhile, struggled to make birdies on Friday, with the world No 1 ending his second round at four under par, and will tee off alongside 2018 Open Champion Francesco Molinari. Rory McIlroy shot a much-improved second round 67 to move to one under par and will tee off at 12.20pm, alongside Jacob Bridgeman.

Saturday’s R3 pairings and UK start times

All times BST; USA unless stated; (x) denotes amateur

0910 Jack McDonald (Sco), Russell Henley

0920 Min Woo Lee (Aus), Ryo Hisatune (Jpn)

0930 Jose Luis Ballester Barrio (Esp), Kazuki Higa (Jpn)

0940 Marcus Plunkett, Naoyuki Kataoka (Jpn)

0950 Peter Uihlein, Brooks Koepka

1000 Aldrich Potgieter (Rsa), Keegan Bradley

1010 Alex Noren (Swe), Alex Smalley

1020 Rickie Fowler, Max Homa

1030 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Xander Schauffele

1045 Kristoffer Reitan (Nor), Marco Penge (Eng)

1055 Casey Jarvis (Rsa), Kurt Kitayama

1105 Laurie Canter (Eng), Sahith Theegala

1115 Michael Brennan, Eugenio Chacarra (Esp)

1125 Eric Cole, MJ Daffue (Rsa)

1135 Kazuma Kobori (Nzl), Nick Taylor (Can)

1145 Justin Thomas, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)

1155 Ben Griffin, Hennie du Plessis (Rsa)

1210 Andy Sullivan (Eng), Patrick Cantlay

1220 Jacob Bridgeman, Rory McIlroy (NIrl)

1230 Jesper Svensson (Swe), Shaun Norris (Rsa)

1240 John Parry (Eng), Michael Thorbjornsen

1250 Jordan Smith (Eng), Sungjae Im (Kor)

1300 Matthew Southgate (Eng), Nico Echavarria (Col)

1310 Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (Den), Collin Morikawa

1320 Adam Scot (Aus), Chris Gotterup

1335 Patrick Reed, Johnny Keefer

1345 Corey Conners (Can), Sepp Straka (Aut)

1355 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Victor Perez (Fra)

1405 Daniel Brown (Eng), Cameron John (Aus)

1415 Ludvig Åberg (Swe), Shane Lowry (Ire)

1425 JJ Spaun, Pierceson Coody

1435 Jon Rahm (Esp), Tommy Fleetwood (Eng)

1445 Scottie Scheffler, Francesco Molinari (Ita)

1500 Alex Fitzpatrick (Eng), Robert MacIntyre (Sco)

1510 Thomas Detry (Bel), Bud Cauley

1520 Matt Wallace (Eng), Si Woo Kim (Kor)

1530 Bryson DeChambeau, Sam Burns

1540 Ryan Gerard, Cameron Young

1550 Jackson Suber, Lucas Herbert (Aus)

When is The Open live on Sky Sports?

Sky Sports is once again the exclusive home of The Open in the UK and Ireland, with wall-to-wall action from the final men’s major of the year throughout the weekend on Sky Sports Golf.

‘Saturday at The Open’ will kick off the third-round coverage from 9am on Sky Sports Golf, with early play on Sky Sports+ and the Sky Sports App ahead of full coverage on Sky Sports Golf from 11am.

Featured Groups will also be available on Sky Sports+ or the Sky Sports App, with coverage then starting for Sunday’s final round from 8am on Sunday on Sky Sports Golf.

Get the best prices and book a round at one of 1,700 courses across the UK & Ireland

The top stories and transfer rumours from Saturday’s newspapers…

PREMIER LEAGUE

Arsenal are preparing an offer for Aston Villa defender Ezri Konsa, who has yet to agree a new deal with Villa – Daily Mail

Arsenal are continuing discussions over Morgan Rogers with his representatives and Aston Villa – Daily Mail

Aston Villa continue to explore the market for wingers, with the likes of West Ham’s Crysencio Summerville and Ibrahim Mbaye at PSG among names on their radar – Daily Mail

Crystal Palace value Chelsea target Maxence Lacroix at up to £60m – The Sun

Maxence Lacroix wants to leave Crystal Palace amid interest from Chelsea – The Times

Ipswich Town have had a £2.5million bid rejected for FC Volendam goalkeeper Kayne van Oevelen – Daily Mail

Hull are set to sign Olympiacos’ Konstantis Tzolakis as Ivor Pandur’s replacement in goal – The Sun

ENGLAND

Thomas Tuchel’s appointment as England head coach in 2024 did not gain the unanimous backing of FA board members. Some strongly believed the job should go to an English candidate, rather than someone who had not previously managed an international team – The Times

Liverpool winger Rio Ngumoha is in the frame to be part of Thomas Tuchel’s squad next season as the England head coach builds a team to challenge for Euro 2028 – The Telegraph

Thomas Tuchel has privately rejected accusations that he encouraged his England team to try to hang on against Argentina in their World Cup semi-final defeat – The Telegraph

One of the leading physiologists in sport believes England’s players went into their game against Argentina burdened by severe fatigue – The Times

WORLD CUP

Gianni Infantino has the formal endorsement of more than 200 countries for re-election as Fifa’s president despite the climate of unrest that has swirled since the scandal surrounding Folarin Balogun’s reprieve from suspension – The Guardian

The World Cup final is not under any threat despite the air quality warnings in the area – ESPN

Sir Gareth Southgate will attend Sunday’s World Cup final, a longstanding trip planned by the former England manager that would have stood even if England had won their semi-final – The Telegraph

SCOTTISH FOOTBALL

Celtic have missed out on bringing back Kelechi Iheanacho after refusing to match the striker’s eye-watering wage demands – Daily Record

Celtic are ready to step up their interest in Egypt’s World Cup winger Haissem Hassan – The Scottish Sun

CRICKET

Justin Langer is believed to have moved to the top of the ECB’s shortlist of potential coaches of the men’s Test team, after Andy Flower ruled himself out of the running for the position on Friday – The Guardian

Sunday’s World Cup final pits holders Argentina against Spain. The South American champions against the European champions. How do they compare? This is the story of the numbers.

Since two of their games went to extra time, Argentina have played an hour of football more than Spain at this tournament – so we have taken that into account by including the ‘per 90 minutes’ version of each statistic.

With 19 goals, Argentina side have scored the most at the tournament, thanks mainly to some clinical finishing. They have now scored at least two goals in each of their past 13 World Cup games, since losing 2-1 to Saudi Arabia in their opening fixture four years ago.

Despite taking more shots, Spain have scored six goals fewer – as they have been average finishers so far, simply scoring as many goals as expected given the number and quality of their chances (13 scored, against an xG rating of 13.3).

Argentina have actually only scored one more goal from inside the box but have been far more dangerous outside it, scoring five times while Spain are yet to score from distance.