Saturday was as good as it gets at The Open. We try to make sense of some of the winners and losers from a wild day.

The British Open rarely misses. Some days are steady and other rounds just explode, but it’s never a flop. Saturday was an explosion and the latest example of why it’s the most entertaining major to watch. We had just about every name you’d want on the first page of the leaderboard, including Tiger Woods. There was one stretch where Tiger took a lead in an actual major on the weekend that overlapped with Jordan Spieth throwing some huge haymakers to become the favorite.

It just kept coming, from superstars and lesser-known players, veterans and up-and-comers, Americans and an international mix. Carnoustie was not playing with its normal bite, but the scoring days are often the most fun and hardest to keep up with. After I got sucked into Tiger-mania, I tried to distill some of it down to the winners and losers from the fast-paced day.

WINNERS

Jordan Spieth

The defending champ is the winner of the day. After watching the early wave go out and post some mid-60s numbers, Spieth put the pedal down and posted the best score of the late tee times. The 6-under 65 was the full Spieth experience and started from the first tee, where he decided the strategy was “just send it.” The play worked to perfection and he got a friendly roll up onto the green, where he took advantage to start with an eagle.

Spieth is now the heavy 3/2 favorite to win the Claret Jug on Sunday. Given his shaky season, few would have guessed he’d be in this position. He’s been able to consistently adjust on the fly or get creative, but playing Open links style golf seems to draw it out of him even more. We often associate the Masters as his major, given his absurd track record of contention there in his first four years. But maybe the Open that will be the major where he collects the most titles. Watching him play an Open course is about as good as it gets in golf and now we get him in the final group again on Sunday.

Tiger Woods

I’ve already gone into detail a couple times on Tiger’s day. He changed up his strategy and it paid off in a huge way in the middle of his round. That we’re here, a year after he was sending weird tweets about his new pool table, is an incredible comeback. Once the mania of his 5-under 66 and momentary co-lead died down, it became clear that the task of winning would be a long one on Sunday. But it’s possible.

He’s got a chance. Whatever happens, he has a late Sunday tee time and a chance and that’s something probably even the most ardent Tiger fanboys didn’t expect this time a year ago.

The X-Man

How good is Xander Schauffele? The reigning rookie of the year saw all the madness around him and went out and posted his own 4-under 68 alongside Rory McIlroy. I followed Schauffele a few years ago at Web event, and he played like a stud, but this much success this fast is a surprise. He’s got multiple Tour wins under his belt, a Tour championship, contention at two U.S. Opens, and a runner-up at The Players.

And now the X-man is in the final group at The Open. Given his track record in his nascent career, don’t expect him to fade from that final group with Spieth. In addition to a shot at a major, X is also 15th in the current Ryder Cup standings. He should get a nice bump and continue to play his way towards another 20-something American joining the roster.

There’s a fascinating side competition between Xander, Kisner, and ZJ going on with the Ryder Cup roster race this week. None of them probably know or care about it, but this could be a critical week to separate with the auto-bids coming in just a couple weeks.

Kiz

I have to admit I didn’t think the Kevin Kisner experience was sustainable. It’s not that he’s not a good enough player, it’s just that his putting stats were so out-of-this-world. It felt like there had to be a regression of some sort. He said he didn’t putt as well on Saturday, but the rest of his game was good enough and he’s still tied for the lead. That’s after playing in some of the harder late conditions. Impressive stuff from Kisner, who I thought would get blown out to the North Sea.

Rosie

Before the madness of the afternoon, Rose went out and matched an Open scoring record at Carnoustie with his 7-under 64. The English have not done well at this championship in recent decades, including Rose. But the No. 3 player in the world was nails on the 18th green Friday night just to make the cut and he came back early Saturday to take advantage of two more days of life. He’s a good five shots back still, but he’s got a late Sunday tee time and another opportunity to do something in potentially erratic conditions.

The United States of America

The last five major winners are all Americans. The odds are it will go to six on Sunday, with the top four spots on the board occupied by the stars and stripes. The U.S. had the most players in the field, so it’s not surprising to see the leaderboard saturated with these names. Three are tied for the lead at 9-under and Kevin Chappell is solo fourth at 7-under. Eight of the top 12, the set most likely within range of winning over 18 holes, are American. It feels like we’re heading for a sixth straight U.S. major winner,

NBC

The network is a big winner. They get two weekend days of Tiger. Saturday he put a run together that whipped up the audience and drew people over to golf. Now he’s in in the hunt with a late tee time for the final round, a windfall no matter how well he plays.

And outside of Tiger, they have a loaded leaderboard with the defending champ playing in the final pairing. The Open has been on a run of late, delivering each weekend since about 2012. This leaderboard is all you could want. The networks, and everyone watching, are the big winners. Hold Sunday close to your chest, grasp it with all your strength before we go to Bellerive for the PGA for our last four rounds of major championship golf this year.

LOSERS

The Ricktator

Only seven players in the 79-man field posted worse scores than Rickie on Saturday. It was as gettable as it’s going to get, but he was booted from the leaderboard and the TV coverage on the front nine. It started well enough, with two birdies in his first four holes, but a triple bogey eight on the 6th hole just nuked his chances in one fell swoop.

Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images

As usual, there was a ton of Rickie buzz coming into this week. We heard the usual about how he played so well at the Scottish Open, was due, and the wall finally had to come down. But he won’t be a factor on Sunday and will once again be back at that “frat house” watching his roommates with late tee times.

Phil Mickelson

Earlier this week, my colleague Eamon Lynch wrote a blistering piece about how Phil was keeping himself relevant with nothing but sideshows, as opposed to play on the course. Figjam stalled out on Saturday and you almost forgot he was there as Tiger made his charge. He was just another guy. His 70 is underwhelming compared to the scores we saw all around him and he’ll spend another Sunday as a non-factor.

Tommy Fleetwood and Zach Johnson

These two lit it up in tougher, rainy conditions on Friday morning. They are the only two in the top 10 right now that didn’t #liveunderpar on Saturday. At 5-under, both are still in it, but they just let one of the easier days get away and failed to move upward as everyone else around them did. It’s hard to knock an even-par round but given the conditions and Fleetwood’s recent form and ballstriking, it felt disappointing. His inward nine was a chaotic rollercoaster.

Bryson’s gear

I am an unabashed Bryson supporter. But this threw me off in the wee hours this morning.

The Barry Burn

The burn, which has been built up into this menacing WMD on the broadcast all week, went soft on Saturday when it mattered. The burn let Tiger off the hook, failing to jump up and grab his ball as it danced along the ledge. It just didn’t have the impact you expect. None of the leaders really wrecked coming down the home stretch and even a couple birdied the 18th, like Rose and Schauffele. Zander Lombard holed-out for eagle. With the wind supposed to blow on Sunday, perhaps we’ll get some Van de Velde-ian carnage.

Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images