Brutal conditions ruin leading aspirations

The day Tiger Woods shot his highest-ever score will go down with other brutal Saturdays at the Open Championship. In 1986 at Turnberry, Greg Norman shot a 74, 11 strokes worse than his effort the previous day, but still retained his lead on a day when no one broke 70. The Australian won his first major the following day.

Sandy Lyle's 71 on the third morning at Muirfield in 1987 is reckoned to be one of the greatest bad weather rounds. As soon as Sandy finished, the weather relented and the leaders played in the sort of calm weather that helped the two Justins, Rose and Leonard, move up the leaderboard in the third round this year.

When they finished, Rose and Leonard, who both shot 68s, were lying tied for 35th place at two under. They ended the day tied for third. Sergio Garcia's 71 might be comparable with that of Lyle's. Although he did not have the rain for all 18 holes, he played virtually the entire round in the strong wind.

At the height of the storm, when the leaders were on the front nine, Garcia played brilliantly coming home. Some 42 players had started the day under par, but only 13 remained there. The stroke average for the day was 74.61 against a par of 71.

Scott McCarron, who had a 72, also finished while conditions were bad. "You could see this big black cloud moving in on the first tee," said the American. "I had four different jackets in the bag. My caddie thought we would need a trolley for my extra clothing. I was completely drenched by the third hole.

"It really started blowing sideways and to shoot one over on a day like that, I am obviously very happy. This is the British Open, this is the way the weather is supposed to be, so we were having fun out there." McCarron was playing with Jeff Maggert, who took a driver at the 213-yard fourth hole. "At that point I thought, 'Oh, game on'," McCarron said.

Colin Montgomerie plummeted to an 84, 20 shots worse than his 64 on Friday. It was the biggest differential in two rounds since R G French shot a 71 and a 91 in the 1938 Open at Troon. Duffy Waldorf went out in 45, needing three balls to get one in play at the sixth. "I wasn't sure my life was going to go on," he said.

It was a considerable achievement for Waldorf to come home in 32 with five birdies for a 77. Ernie Els also righted the ship to good effect, making four birdies on the way home as the wind eased and the rain stopped to lead by two from Soren Hansen.

"I've experienced worst weather, like at the Dunhill Cup, but never in an Open or a major," Els said. "If the guys who played in the morning had known how bad it would be for us I'm sure they would have played harder. I looked at the leaderboard all the way round. Myself and Shigeki [Maruyama] kept dropping shots but they wouldn't take our names down so I knew nobody was having a lot of fun.

"It wasn't a day for Tiger watching," Els added. Woods's 81 was the first time since his amateur days that he had not broken 80.