American Brian Harman is on course for the biggest win of his career after surging to the top of the British Open leaderboard, reaching 10 under par after his second round on Friday.
Jason Day and Min Woo Lee are the top Australians heading into the third round at Hoylake, tied in fourth seven shots behind Harman.
The Australian duo will not tee off for the third round of action until the early hours of Sunday morning (AEST), with Day scheduled for a 12.10am start and Lee at 12.20am.
There are two other Australians already on the course though, with Adam Scott making a strong start with three birdies to sit at two over par after 12 holes.
Cameron Smith was the next Australian to tee off on Saturday night, making par on the first hole to stay at two-over.
It could have been far worse for Smith though, with his tee shot ending up in the rough to the right of the first fairway, although the Australian recovered well.
Smith made par again on the second hole before making birdie on the third, although the reigning champion then missed a short putt to end up with a bogey on the fourth hole.
It was a similar story on the fifth hole as Smith failed to capitalise on an opportunity to birdie and get back to one over, missing another short putt.
Smith did somewhat make up for the mistake on the sixth though as he drained a long birdie putt to move to one over par and tied for 34th on the leaderboard.
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DAY 2 WRAP: Aussie ‘big game hunter’ lights up Open in wild rise; Smith’s clutch stunner as Day surges
Min Woo Lee, who is tied for fourth overall on the leaderboard at three under par, is set to tee off at 12.20am on Sunday (local time).
Elsewhere, Scottie Scheffler’s streak of 18 consecutive top-12 finishes is under serious threat after the World No.1 hit a third round 72 to sit at four over par overall.
As for Harman, the world number 26 has two wins on the US PGA Tour, with the second of those coming six years ago.
But his form at Hoylake has not come out of the blue — he has five top-10 finishes this season and was tied for sixth at last year’s British Open.
The closest the Ricky Ponting lookalike has come to winning a major so far was at the 2017 US Open, where he led after three rounds before finishing joint second behind Brooks Koepka.
“I felt that after I won the tournament (Wells Fargo) and had the really good chance at the US Open in 2017 that I would probably pop a few more off, and it just hasn’t happened. I’ve been right there,” said Harman.
“I don’t know why it hasn’t happened, but I’m not going to quit. I’m going to stick with it and just keep after it, and hopefully it’ll pop one day.”
A win would give Harman $3m (A$4.45m) from a record $16.5m purse ($24.5m).
Lee & Day impress to move to inside 10 | 01:40
HOW TO WATCH & BROADCAST TIMES
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7pm – 5am Round 3 (Fox Sports 505/Kayo)
Sunday
5am-7am Live From The Open (Fox Sports 505/Kayo)
Final Round 6pm – 4am (Fox Sports 505/Kayo)
Monday
4am-6am Live From The Open (Fox Sports 505/Kayo)
ROUND 3 AUSTRALIAN TEE TIMES (all times AEDT)
6.05pm: Adam Scott and Scottie Scheffler
7.30pm: Cameron Smith and Matt Fitzpatrick
12.10am (Sunday): Jason Day and Shubhankar Sharma
12.20am (Sunday): Min Woo Lee and Sepp Straka
ROUND 2 LEADERBOARD
132 – Brian Harman (USA) 67-65
137 – Tommy Fleetwood 66-71
138 – Sepp Straka (AUT) 71-67
139 – Jason Day (AUS) 72-67, Min Woo Lee (AUS) 71-68, Shubhankar Sharma (IND) 68-71
140 – Emiliano Grillo (ARG) 66-74, Adrian Otaegui (ESP) 67-73, Jordan Spieth (USA) 69-71, Cameron Young (USA) 72-68
141 – Stewart Cink (USA) 68-73, Max Homa (USA) 68-73, Wyndham Clark (USA) 68-73, Nicolai Hoejgaard (DEN) 71-70, Antoine Rozner (FRA) 67-74, Guido Migliozzi (ITA) 69-72, Richard Bland 70-71, Laurie Canter 71-70, Matthew Southgate 71-70, Matthew Jordan 69-72, Henrik Stenson (SWE) 73-68, Thriston Lawrence (RSA) 71-70, Michael Stewart 68-73, Rory McIlroy 71-70
142 – Alexander Bjork (SWE) 69-73, Kim Joo-hyung (KOR) 74-68, Viktor Hovland (NOR) 70-72, Marcel Siem (GER) 71-71, Hideki Matsuyama (JPN) 70-72
143 – Joost Luiten (NED) 71-72, An Byeong-Hun (KOR) 73-70, Thomas Detry (BEL) 74-69, Thomas Pieters (BEL) 70-73, Alexander Noren (SWE) 68-75, Oliver Wilson 69-74, Adrian Meronk (POL) 72-71, Jordan Smith 71-72, Abraham Ancer (MEX) 72-71
144 – Tyrrell Hatton 71-73, Matthew Fitzpatrick 72-72, Alex Fitzpatrick 74-70, Brandon Robinson-Thompson 71-73, Louis Oosthuizen (RSA) 74-70, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (RSA) 73-71, Corey Conners (CAN) 73-71, Cameron Smith (AUS) 72-72, Romain Langasque (FRA) 70-74, Jon Rahm (ESP) 74-70, Im Sung-Jae (KOR) 70-74, Rikuya Hoshino (JPN) 75-69, Hurly Long (GER) 72-72, Sami Valimaki (FIN) 76-68, Zach Johnson (USA) 75-69, Gary Woodland (USA) 73-71, Brendon Todd (USA) 74-70, Patrick Reed (USA) 70-74, Zack Fischer (USA) 71-73, Bryson DeChambeau (USA) 74-70, Xander Schauffele (USA) 70-74, JT Poston (USA) 71-73, Kurt Kitayama (USA) 72-72
145 – Rickie Fowler (USA) 72-73, Andrew Putnam (USA) 73-72, Patrick Cantlay (USA) 70-75, Scott Stallings (USA) 74-71, Brooks Koepka (USA) 70-75, Scottie Scheffler (USA) 70-75, Padraig Harrington 74-71, Victor Perez (FRA) 74-71, Adam Scott (AUS) 72-73, Christo Lamprecht (RSA) 66-79, Danny Willett 73-72, David Lingmerth (SWE) 70-75, Ryan Fox (NZL) 78-67, Richie Ramsay 73-72, Robert MacIntyre 74-71
CUT
146 – Pablo Larrazabal (ESP) 72-74, Seamus Power 71-75, Kazuki Yasumori (JPN) 73-73, Kang Kyung-Nam (KOR) 78-68, Keegan Bradley (USA) 70-76, Taylor Moore (USA) 76-70, Collin Morikawa (USA) 73-73, Ben Griffin (USA) 75-71
147 – Harris English (USA) 75-72, Tom Hoge (USA) 72-75, Sahith Theegala (USA) 79-68, Yannik Paul (GER) 77-70, Jose Luis Ballester (ESP) 73-74, Lucas Herbert (AUS) 71-76, Joaquin Niemann (CHI) 78-69
148 – Nick Taylor (CAN) 73-75, Kalle Samooja (FIN) 72-76, Kazuki Higa (JPN) 73-75, Keita Nakajima (JPN) 72-76, Kim Bi-o (KOR) 74-74, Lee Kyoung-hoon (KOR) 75-73, Francesco Molinari (ITA) 73-75, Billy Horschel (USA) 73-75, Tony Finau (USA) 73-75, Chris Kirk (USA) 78-70, Michael Kim (USA) 75-73, Trey Mullinax (USA) 75-73, Sam Burns (USA) 73-75, Davis Riley (USA) 78-70, Justin Rose 74-74, Matt Wallace 75-73
149 – Dan Bradbury 76-73, Charl Schwartzel (RSA) 77-72, Ockie Strydom (RSA) 72-77, Connor Syme 74-75, Ewen Ferguson 74-75, Russell Henley (USA) 73-76, Talor Gooch (USA) 74-75, Kim Si-woo (KOR) 69-80, Shane Lowry 72-77, Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira (ARG) 77-72, Ignacio Elvira (ESP) 72-77, Rasmus Hoejgaard (DEN) 78-71
150 – Thorbjoern Olesen (DEN) 73-77, Travis Smyth (AUS) 78-72, Seung-Su Han (USA) 76-74, Darren Clarke 73-77, Marco Penge 74-76
151 – Daniel Hillier (NZL) 78-73, Phil Mickelson (USA) 77-74, Haydn Barron (AUS) 74-77, Tiger Christensen (GER) 77-74
152 – Alex Maguire 72-80, Taiga Semikawa (JPN) 77-75, David Micheluzzi (AUS) 77-75, Callum Shinkwin 78-74, Ernie Els (RSA) 75-77, Branden Grace (RSA) 73-79
153 – Marc Warren 79-74, Connor Mckinney (AUS) 76-77, Takumi Kanaya (JPN) 73-80, Justin Thomas (USA) 82-71, Lee Hodges (USA) 76-77
154 – John Daly (USA) 77-77, Denny McCarthy (USA) 76-78, Adam Schenk (USA) 79-75, Alejandro Canizares (ESP) 75-79, Graeme Robertson 75-79, Oliver Farr 74-80
155 – Martin Rohwer (RSA) 73-82, Dustin Johnson (USA) 74-81
156 – Jorge Campillo (ESP) 82-74, Harrison Crowe (AUS) 76-80, Hiroshi Iwata (JPN) 77-79, Kensei Hirata (JPN) 75-81, Kyle Barker (RSA) 76-80
158 – Gunner Wiebe (USA) 79-79 160 – Taichi Kho (HKG) 83-77
163 – Adria Arnaus (ESP) 82-81 164 – Jazz Janewattananond (THA) 81-83