Dave Tindall Open blog

Dave Tindall is our man at The Open. Follow his blog from the third day at Royal Lytham.

Dave Tindall is our man at The Open. Follow his blog from the third day at Royal Lytham

2125: The final pairing - Adam Scott and Graeme McDowell - are off a bit earlier tomorrow. They get going at 1430. Talking of getting going, that's it from me for another day.

2050: Just polished off my evening meal (pasta bake thing) so I'm not done yet. Here's a great line from India's Anirban Lahiri after his hole-in-one today. "You don't know how to express yourself, and then you see your dad jumping up out there blowing you kisses." Far better than a high five.

2005: Adam Scott seems fairly relaxed and positive about his four-shot lead. "If I play a good solid round tomorrow it will be very hard for the others to beat me," he says. "I'm really excited." He's asked if he'll be able to get to sleep tonight. He laughs and says with a smile: "I don't have a problem sleeping. Ask anyone who knows me. I can put in some hours!"

1933: Adam Scott coming into media centre now. Back soon.

1930: Have just come out of Graeme McDowell's press conference. He's a real talker, is Graeme and it just flows off the tongue in that strange Northern Irish/American accent. He says that the tight pin placements have kept scores down. Otherwise "someone might have made this course look a bit stupid, unfortunately." He's also asked if he's ever visualised holding the Claret Jug. He embraces the question, saying: "If you feed the brain with good images and good thoughts it's pretty good at delivering." I thought that was a pretty interesting line. G-Mac also says he's dreamt about coming down 18 in the final group on Open Sunday.

1900: Tiger is known as the game's greatest frontrunner but the Aussie journalists remind us via Twitter than Adam Scott is pretty exceptional too. He's won 15 from 18 worldwide when leading after 54 holes.

1850: Weather forecast for Sunday says gusts could get up to 25mph by midday and could increase to 30mph in the afternoon!

1840: Final Dufner-based sigh of the day as his birdie putt at 18 just misses. Finishes at -1 after a 73 and that has him in tied 14th. Am hearing that his double bogey seven at the seventh was due to incurring a two-shot penalty for his ball moving.

1830: McDowell cuts Scott's lead to four shots with a birdie on 17. G-Mac is now solo second and this duo are now set to be Sunday's final pairing.

1827: Tiger drops a shot at 15 and it puts Scott five clear again. If the Aussie were to suddenly fall apart, this would be absolutely wide open.

1825: Crowd today 37,800. To put that into context, imagine Spurs' average crowd being bused up to Lytham and being let loose.

1815: Snedeker now +5 for the day after his sixth bogey of the round at 14, courtesy of a completely duffed chip.

1810: Just finished my final Sky Sports News radio piece of the day. Must hearing for anyone of course. Tune in to hear me now. Go on.

1755: Always fun to get a retweet from a player. I've just put up a picture of Thomas Bjorn in a trademark pose ("Thomas Bjorn doing a Thomas Bjorn impression" I've called it). For some reason, snappy, retro-dressing Swede Joel Sjoholm has picked it up and retweeted it, saying: "King of Denmark with a Smile!"

1740: Got a nice photo of Miguel Angel Jimenez puffing on his cigar just now.

1735: The TV was on whilst Zach Johnson was being interviewed so he was taking note of Adam Scott's superb round. The Aussie is suddenly five shots clear thanks to his own birdies coupled with Snedeker's bogeys.

1725: Just been in the mixed zone where Zach Johnson, Bill Haas and Thomas Bjorn were being interviewed after rounds of 66, 68 and 72. Zach is always a very upbeat guy and talks in-depth about his round despite having just given about three TV/radio interviews beforehand. He even ends with a thumbs up and a "See y'all". Haas reveals that he's gone back to a short putter as the long one didn't really make any difference. He said he can putt good or bad with either. Bjorn's interview was in Danish with a young man with a beard and a North Face jacket and I didn't understand any of it although Thomas seemed to be smiling a bit.

1640: Is my Dad in here? Someone just clapped a replay of a hole-in-one.

1635: Adam Scott has gone forwards by standing still. He's still -9 after six straight pars but now leads by one after back-to-back bogeys from Snedeker drop him to -8.

1625: Dagger to the heart as Dufner follows up a bogey with a double bogey seven at the 7th and slumps to -1.

1615: Finally, after 39 bogey-free holes, Brandt Snedeker makes a bogey. It drops him into a tie for the lead with Scott at -9.

1605: Was anyone betting on top past Open Champion? Currently a 4-way tie between Calc, Els, Lawrie and Woods at -4.

1600: Leader Brandt Snedeker, still one clear of Adam Scott, after the pair started with three straight pars is wearing a black armband today. It's in memory of those who were tragically killed during the screening of a Batman film in Denver yesterday.

1545: Mahan shot a 70 in the end, rounding his day off with a birdie at 18. Currently tied 30th. A very outside chance of an each-way payout if he shot a 66 or something and then the wind went crazy.

1533: Solid par-par-par start by Jason Dufner and he remains at -4 which is currently tied fourth.

1530: "What's up Rory", ask the press after he follows his day two 75 with a 73 to slip to +5. "Just consistency, lack of consistency with my swing."

1515: Tiger starts with a bogey. That wasn't in the script. Playing partner, Thorbjorn Olesen, makes a superb up and down par from sand.

1455: Masters champ Bubba Watson now -5 for the day and -5 overall after a birdie at 13. Bubba now -5 after 13. Mark O'Meara did Masters/Open double in 1998, Tiger did it 7 years later in 2005. Bubba in 2012? #sevenyearcycle

1445: No move from Hunter Mahan (+2 overall) today so all my betting eggs are in the basket of Jason Dufner, who tees off in five minutes.

1435: Why are ESPN using traditional Irish jig type music for their intros? Chaps, this is Lytham... which is not in Ireland.

1430: Hole-in-one for India's Anirban Lahiri at nine! Colleague Matt Cooper spoke to an Indian journalist earlier who told him that Anirban uses meditation to help his golf and that he actually missed the Challenge Tour event in India to go on a retreat.

1425: Calcavecchia gets to -3 with a big birdie putt at 3. After Greg Norman in 2008 and Tom Watson in 2009, Calc is set to be this year's 'Old Open champ thrives' story.

1410: Just checking on Brandt Snedeker's three US Tour wins. I know he's best coming from off the pace and records show he was five shots behind after round three when he won his first event, the Wyndham Championship, while he was six shots (The Heritage) and seven shots (Farmers Insurance) after day three in the other two. Remains to be seen how he will handle being the hunted rather than the hunter.

1400: Here's what KJ Choi said after his 71 left him at +4. "You know, The Open is every year very surprise in the spectator and all and the people and then more in the humble and cheer up the player so more respecting everybody. So I love it and I play very enjoy. I follow everybody and the spectators, and it's many, many years watching me and then altogether both round." Am a massive fan of KJ's stream of consciousness interviews. His English beats my Korean of course but sometimes I think, only just.

1352: Lee Westwood, after his 71 left him at +4, offered some good pointers for what we might expect later. On today's pin placements: "They were a lot trickier today, so you had to have your wits about you." And as for the conditions: "There's a fraction more breeze, I guess. But it's still very playable and very scorable out there."

1345: Talking of birdies, Rory McIlroy just made his first for 26 holes thanks to a 3 at the 16th. He had six on day one but since then they've dried up. Rory currently at +5 and tied 71st.

1345: Birdie leaders so far this week: 13 Matteson, 12 V Singh, Fowler, Scott, C Howell. Problem is, Matteson has had 14 bogeys and a double so he's wasted them all. Currently at +3.

1330: Think I keep repeating myself when interviewed by Sky Sports News radio. "Erm, no-one really making a charge yet Jason." It's true though, the highest placed person out on the course at the moment is Bubba Watson at -1 and that still puts him nine shots off the lead.

1300: Just back from five holes with 50/1 tip Hunter Mahan. He played them in even par eventually although it could have been two-under or two-over. Here's his hole-by-hole: 1st: Tee-shot onto green but 35 feet short, right. Drains birdie putt (ball doing a jig around the hole before dropping). Me doing a jig in the gallery. 2nd: Drive into light rough down right, excellent approach to 12 feet. Strange lack of applause from crowd, missed putt. Shame. 3rd: Drive down the middle, fine approach to 14 feet, just missed birdie. Could have been -3 for these first 3 but only -1. 4th: Iron into fairway but tugged approach left. Slash from greenside hay into bunker. No! Splash out, holes 9 footer for bogey. Phew. 5th: Pulled tee-shot into left bunker. Checks swing on tee. Great bunker shot and holes six footer to save par. So still +1 overall. Hunter's wife, Kandi, was out there following him. Heard a terrible line when she was introduced to a spectator. "Kandi, like the sweet. And you are very sweet." Dear me.

1148: Off outside to watch 50/1 tip Hunter Mahan for a few holes. He's currently at +1.

1145: In this day and age it surprises me why scoring in the media centre is done via people climbing up ladders and sliding in little plastic numbers. Sort of quaint but a little strange.

1120: "I'm just off outside to watch Warren Bennett," says colleague Matt Cooper. Not words you hear that often. Matt has backed him at a big price to finish in the top 20 so is keen to monitor his progress. We saw him in the pub last night so Matt was pleased he got a pretty early night.

1105: Maybe I've inspired Rafael Cabrera-Bello. He just retweeted my line about him having the same(ish) Saturday tee-time as winner David Duval did in 2001.

1100: TV showing eight orange-clad Rickie Fowler fans queueing for an ice-cream. As someone points out on Twitter, they're a day too early. Orange is Rickie's Sunday colour. Their hero is going well today. Despite that double at the eighth, he knocked in a short birdie putt at 10 to get back to +1. He's two-under for the day and that's the joint best round out there. Keegan Bradley is also -2 for the day and +1 overall after four straight birdies from the seventh.

1040: Huge crowds here on Sunny Open Saturday. Just been outside to watch Padraig Harrington and Rory McIlroy and very hard to see anything. Saw Padraig's tee-shot land, saw Rory hole out for par but the other shots I couldn't really see. The best views are afforded by little kids on their dad's shoulders or one cheeky bloke who had climbed onto the side of the scoreboard. Crowds were six deep around the green but that became one deep after Rory and Padraig had headed off to the second. Warm out there. Hat, sunglasses and suncream definitely needed.

1018: Just checked the scoreboard and saw Rickie Fowler -3 for the day, back to level par and tied 28th. Then, on the TV next to me comes the sight of Rickie fluffing his chip at eight and staring at double bogey. Drat.

1015: Overdid the full English. Went in starving, came out bloated. Like racing a 50 foot putt 50 feet past.

0950: Sky Bet have priced up "who will be R3 leader?" market. They make Adam Scott 13/8 favourite, ahead of 2/1 Snedeker, 7/2 Woods, 20/1 McDowell, 22/1 Dufner, Kuchar, 33/1 Olesen. I'll digest that whilst heading off to the canteen for breakfast.

0940: 40/1 tip Rickie Fowler birdies the fifth and is now -2 for the day and +1 overall (T40th). Makes his double at 18 yesterday even more frustrating! Hopefully he can keep this early charge going.

0935: Just checking my 2001 Lytham book. David Duval was seven back at halfway in 2001 and teed off at 11.25 on Saturday. Was joint leader by the close of play. Hope for the chasing pack then. There is no 11.25 tee-time today so the two groups nearest to Duval's 2001 Saturday start are Fujimoto/Watney at 11.20 and Cabrera-Bello/JM Singh at 11.30. #cantheydoaduval

0930 Woods making the headlines for the wrong reasons in some newspapers today. He reportedly uttered an obscenity after a wayward drive on the 11th yesterday, the one that starts with "Mutha".

0900: Am hoping for some miracle weekend charge from Rickie Fowler. Well, he's birdied the second and is now +2. He's not had trouble making birdies so far. He just need to keep those big numbers off his card. He had a double and a treble yesterday.

0850: So what's our 36-hole Open leader Brandt Snedeker saying on Twitter? Erm, not a lot. Click on his page and it says "@BrandtSnedeker hasn't tweeted yet." A shame given that he's got 4,837 followers.

0845: The penultimate group of the day features young Dane Thorbjorn Olesen and Tiger Woods. Naturally, Olesen can't wait. He tweeted last night after his 66: "Nice round today hit them close and hole some really good putts in the end :)). Should be a lot fun to play with mr. @TigerWoods !"

0840: The last pairing of Brandt Snedeker and Adam Scott go out at 3.20pm today so quite a wait before we see the leaders.

0830: Opening pars for the early morning marquee group of Watson and Westwood

0820: Lee Westwood only just scraped through to the weekend. But he saw the bright side with this tweet last night. "Well if it wasn't result enough to make the cut! I get a game with Tom Watson in the morning too!"

0810: Good morning from a very sunny Royal Lytham. Yes, sunny. Hard to believe given the summer we've had but looks like we're in for a glorious third day. The forecast from 0700 to 1900 says simply "Dry with sunny spells". As for the wind, again it's modest. 5mph to 10mph is the prediction for most of the day with just a chance of isolated gusts up to 15mph this afternoon.