Watson stays in contention

Harrington's third round of 76 left the defending champion nine over par and 12 shots off the clubhouse target set by Australian Mathew Goggin, too much to overcome even for a man who wiped out a six-shot deficit going into the final round at Carnoustie in 2007.

At the start of the week a victory for 59-year-old Watson looked equally unlikely but the five-time champion remained firmly in contention as a length par putt on the 14th kept him three under, tied for the lead with Goggin, who had completed a round of 69.

Watson opened with five straight pars, saving par on the third and fifth after finding sand.

Turnberry's deep bunkers finally cost Watson a bogey on the sixth but he promptly made a straightforward birdie on the next, showing no signs of feeling the pressure or even the after-effects of hip replacement surgery in October last year.

For once he was upstaged by playing partner Steve Marino, however, who had dropped five shots in four holes before smashing a fairway wood to within three feet of the flag on the 538-yard par-five seventh to set up an eagle three.

A three-putt bogey at the ninth dropped Watson back to four under par, and when another followed at the 12th it looked as though his challenge might finally be fading.

England's Lee Westwood would have been sharing the lead but for a careless bogey at the 18th, the Ryder Cup star miscuing his approach into thick rough and then duffing his pitch.

That gave Westwood a round of 70 and still a great chance of claiming a long overdue first major title, his best finish of third coming in last year's US Open at Torrey Pines.