By Neil Silver, PA Sport

Justin Rose began the third round of the Open in 50th position and after shooting his second 68 of the week to be on two under par he just hoped he had done enough to be in there fighting on Sunday.

But little did England's number one know what the afternoon at Muirfield had in store, and at the end of a remarkable day Rose found himself 47 places higher in joint third.

The cold wind howled, the rain poured, and the scores rocketed as shot after shot was dropped by the men in the leading pack hoping to pull clear of the field.

To put things into perspective, Tiger Woods, the pre-tournament favourite and man they all fear, shot an incredible 10-over-par 81 to go from four under par overnight to six over, 11 strokes behind leader Ernie Els.

It all left Rose sitting pretty going into the final round, three shots behind South African Els.

When Rose came off the course at around 2pm he was four strokes behind the five overnight joint-leaders.

He must have gone back to his lodgings hoping the likes of Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington - both on six under - and Tiger Woods and Colin Montgomerie - two shots further back - did not go out and shoot the kind of scores which would have left him a mountain to climb to have a chance of claiming the Claret Jug.

Rose left feeling he had played his way back into contention, bouncing back from the disappointment of yesterday's 75.

But they had been blown out of all proportion by the time the third round had been completed nearly six hours later, after Muirfield had bared all its teeth and played like a true links course.

"I played nicely today," said Rose, the youngest player in the field. "Yesterday it was just the putter which let me down, I had 37 putts which is pretty disgusting really.

"I felt like I needed to go out there and get myself back in the tournament and I save par at the first and got the momentum going from the word go, which was nice.

"If you are five strokes back then you still have a realistic shout, although Paul Lawrie won it from 10 back in 1999 so you are never out of it.

"I felt the wind getting up as I reached 15, so I knew it was important to finish well."

Rose played with former Open champion Justin Leonard - who also finished at two under - this morning, which provided a huge contrast from the first two days, when he was paired with Woods.

"It seemed much quieter compared to yesterday," he said. "I would love to have been four under and played with Tiger again because I did really enjoy my two days with him.

"The more you do it, the better it is for you. It makes you even more battle-hardened playing with him and it is important to play with him and get that experience under your belt - it will certainly be much easier the next time I play with him.

"Tiger was very patient. He hit a lot of good putts which were shaving the hole and not quite going in for him, but he remained patient. You can always learn, and patience is one of the hardest things to learn, so that is what struck me from playing with him."

Rose has moved to 41st in the world rankings and now wants to step up a gear so he can start to make an impression on the world stage.

He said: "I see myself starting the next phase of my career, which is becoming more of a contender on the world stage. I am lucky enough to be in the top 50 in the world now whereby I am eligible to play in the majors and the world championship events, and I want to start to challenge for those titles.

"I am very comfortable with where I am now and the next step is to push myself and try to compete at a higher level."

His chance might come a little sooner than expected - perhaps tomorrow afternoon.