On the third day of the Open Championship everyone has been applauding and marvelling at what relentless Shane Lowry has been doing. He’s now -15 6 ahead of the third place players. Every player in the top 20 has scored par or better.

But looking at the statistics again, they make surprising reading. Although Lowry leads the approach shots category – this course demands strong iron play – with 93%, Tommy Fleetwood is also at 88% in this category, Lowry has a very low percentage for driving accuracy at only 41%.

In driving distance Alex Noren is leading with 335 yards and Lowry is way down with 295 yards. Lee Westwood is even shorter at 281 yards, Fleetwood at  316.In the putting category Noren performs well again at 1.44 Lowry is at 1.56 and Fleetwood 1.59.