Golf-U.S. Open Day Four

ERIN, Wisconsin, June 18 (Reuters) - The final round of the 117th U.S. Open is being played on Sunday. Following are highlights from the second major championship of the year at Erin Hills.

LIVELY WINDS CLOUD FINAL-ROUND PLOT

Winds blowing up to 25 miles per hour (40 kph) greeted the early starters for the final round on the links-styled layout.

Birdies figured to be more scarce in the tight battle atop the leaderboard with Brian Harman carrying a one-shot lead into the last 18 holes with five players within three shots.

Of the first 26 golfers on the course, only three were under par for the day, led by Jordan Spieth, who was two under through seven holes. China's Li Haotong was having the most trouble, standing 10-over-par for the day after playing 10 holes.

THROW A DART TO PICK WINNER

Brian Harman is the 54-hole leader, but he is not the betting favourite to win a wide-open Open.

One betting site has Justin Thomas the slight favourite at 7/2, followed by Rickie Fowler and Brooks Koepka at 4/1, with Harman 5/1 and Tommy Fleetwood 7/1.

FLEETWOOD BUTCHERS THE LAST

Englishman Fleetwood shared the lead playing the par-five 18th, but made a complete mess of it and does well to salvage a bogey, falling back to 11 under par and into a tie for second with Americans Thomas and Koepka, with Fowler two behind leader Harman.

THOMAS TIES MAJOR RECORD, SETS U.S. OPEN RECORD

Thomas, a three-time winner this season on the PGA Tour, eagles the 18th to complete a 63 and tie the all-time low round at any major and set a U.S. Open record in relation to par with his nine-under round.

THOMAS FIFTH PLAYER TO SHOOT 63 AT OPEN

Thomas joins Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf, Johnny Miller and Vijay Singh as players to fire 63s at a U.S. Open. But Thomas is the only one to do it on a par-72 course.

Thomas also is the 29th player to shoot 63 in a major. Greg Norman and Vijay Singh did it twice, for 31 rounds of 63 in total.

THOMAS TALKS ABOUT ROUND

"That means I'm a part of history," he says. "It means I have a lot better chance to win the tournament than I did when the day started. I felt like I've been playing pretty well all week, and didn't have quite the numbers to show for it. Obviously, today I definitely had something to show for it."

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(Compiled by Larry Fine and Andrew Both, editing by Gene Cherry)