A month removed from coming one agonizing stroke short of a playoff at the U.S. Open in Shinnecock, Sam Burns has his best opportunity yet at one of his sport’s four crown jewel events.Here are the top numbers and notes to know from the third round of the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale Golf Club:1. A day after holing out from a bunker on the 18th hole to shoot 62, Sam Burns made more major championship history Saturday. His third-round 65 gave him a score of 127 over the tournament’s middle 36 holes, the best across any two consecutive rounds in men’s major championship history. The previous mark belonged to Brooks Koepka, who played the first two days of the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black in 128 strokes.Burns leaned on his exemplary short game in Friday’s second round. He picked up nearly three strokes on the field around the greens at Royal Birkdale, a metric accentuated by the hole-out at the final hole. His 21 putts tied the fewest in any Open Championship round over the past quarter-century.Saturday, it was his iron play that did the talking. Burns missed only one green in regulation — the only man who could make that claim in Round 3. He hit seven approach shots to inside 20 feet and four inside of 10. He gained more than 3.7 strokes on the competition with his approach play, the most of any player in the field.2. This is the second 54-hole lead or co-lead in a major championship for Burns, as he held a one-stroke advantage entering the final round at Oakmont in last summer’s U.S. Open. Burns ultimately carded a 78 that Sunday after a rules decision on standing water did not go in his favor.Burns finished runner-up last month to Wyndham Clark at Shinnecock, his third consecutive top-10 finish at his home country’s national championship. Burns, who made only one birdie Thursday, was tied for 106th after the opening round. No player has ever won a major when outside the top 100 after 18 holes. The largest first-round deficit overcome to win a men’s major is tied for 84th place by Steve Jones at the 1996 U.S. Open.3. Ryan Fox started his third round five hours before Burns got his underway. After another historic 62 at Royal Birkdale, they will be paired together in Sunday’s final round. Fox shot the eighth round of 62 in men’s major championship history, the fourth in an Open at Royal Birkdale, and the third just this week.Fox made the turn in 29 strokes, the second time in his career he has recorded a nine-hole score better than 30 (2019 at Royal Portrush). Fox is the second man to do that twice at The Open, joining Ian Baker-Finch, who did it in both 1990 and 1991. The second time Baker-Finch did it, he went on to win the Claret Jug.The 39-year-old Kiwi’s approach play and putting were both spectacular Saturday. Fox hit seven approach shots inside 10 feet, the most of any player in the field. His 15 greens hit in regulation are one shy of his career-high in a major round. Fox gained nearly five strokes on the field putting, the most of any player.Two men from New Zealand have won majors: Bob Charles at the 1963 Open Championship and Michael Campbell at the 2005 U.S. Open.4. Tied with Fox in second is Si Woo Kim, the affable Presidents Cup stalwart enjoying his best 54-hole position in a major.Sunday is a potential culmination of what has been the most consistent season of Kim’s career. No player on the PGA Tour has made more birdies than Kim has this season. His nine top-10 finishes are tied with Scottie Scheffler for most on the tour. He’s become one of the best iron players in the sport, and this year ranks in the top three in strokes gained approach, proximity from 150-175 yards and proximity from 175-200 yards.Kim won The Players Championship in stunning fashion nine years ago but has never had much success in the majors. In 37 previous major starts, Kim has just one top-10 result: a tie for eighth at the PGA Championship last May. With a win, Kim would become the first man from Asia to lift the Claret Jug.5. Lucas Herbert, the 36-hole leader, shot a 1-over-par 71 on Saturday to slip back into a tie for fourth. A day after playing the par fours in a field-best 6 under par, the Australian was 1-over on those holes Saturday.This is Herbert’s best career position entering the final round of a major, the previous best being tied for 10th at the 2022 PGA at Southern Hills.American Ryan Gerard, 26, is also in the best 54-hole position of his major championship career. A year ago at this time, Gerard was busy claiming his first tournament victory on the PGA Tour in the alternate field Barracuda Championship in California. Now 28th in the World Ranking, Gerard is trying to become just the third player in the last 50 years to win The Open in his debut.Bryson DeChambeau reacts to a rules official on the 18th hole during the third round of the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England. (Andrew Redington / Getty Images)6. Bryson DeChambeau will begin the final round four strokes off the lead after a 69 in Round 3. The two-time U.S. Open champion, who incurred a two-stroke penalty following the second round, had never been better than tied for 18th entering the final round of The Open before this week.With one day to go, DeChambeau’s week at Royal Birkdale has been an electric circus of golf-adjacent calamity. While entertaining, it’s also been unfortunate because the golf he is playing is truly excellent. No player has hit more approach shots inside 10 feet than Bryson has (13) this week. After chipping and bunker woes plagued his first three majors of the season, he’s among the leaders this week in strokes gained around the green.With a win Sunday, Bryson will have authored a true unicorn of a major championship season. Since the first Masters was held in 1934, there has never been a player who missed the cut in each of a season’s first three majors before winning the fourth.7. Another of golf’s most promising young talents, Ludvig Åberg of Sweden, will also begin Sunday four shots behind Burns. It’s the fourth time in the last three seasons that Åberg is within five of the leader entering the final round of a major. His best finish to date is a solo second at the Masters in 2024.Whether or not Åberg breaks through Sunday will likely depend on whether or not his putter continues to heat up. After losing nearly a stroke-and-a-half to the field on the greens in Round 1, Ludvig has gained nearly three strokes putting over the last two days. The good news on that front: Åberg has gained strokes on the greens in six of his last seven final rounds on the PGA Tour.8. Lifted on the shoulders of his hometown faithful, Tommy Fleetwood has an opportunity to author a storybook final round steps from where he grew up.At five shots back, a victory is improbable, but far from impossible: Four players have come from five shots or more back entering the final round to win a men’s major in the last 20 years alone. “Tommy-lad” lost more than a stroke to the field with his ball striking Saturday, something he will need to improve on significantly in order to at last win his first major. He has seven top-10 finishes in majors over the last 10 years — tied with Cameron Young (seven shots back) for the most of any player without a win during that span.No Englishman has won The Open since Nick Faldo in 1992 at Muirfield.Why is this golf course’s bunker shaped like a donut?Gabby Herzig and Lauren Morales-Jones9. Scottie Scheffler has struck the ball well enough to win his second consecutive Claret Jug: He’s second in the field in strokes gained tee to green, and only two players have had more birdie opportunities inside 20 feet (23 for Scheffler). The issue is what comes after those approach shots. Over his last 48 holes at Birkdale, Scheffler has not made a birdie putt longer than 6 feet, 2 inches.Scheffler’s round of even-par 70 snapped a streak of six consecutive Open rounds in the 60s — one shy of Ernie Els’ Open Championship record.10. Over the last century, there have been 19 previous instances where a player led by two strokes entering the final round of The Open. Seven of those 19 went on to win.Each of the last 25 Open champions has been in the top 10 entering the final round. Eleven straight winners have been within four strokes of the lead with 18 holes to go.The largest final round comeback to win The Open was 10 strokes by Paul Lawrie in 1999, the year of the famed Jean van de Velde 18th hole catastrophe. The Burns and Fox pairing is scheduled to tee off at 2:20 p.m. local time.