Sunday

7.30pm: New Open champion Ben Curtis gets a few polite claps from the press when he comes in for his official interview. It's certainly nothing like the hearty round of applause that Ernie Els received last year. There's a real feeling that he doesn't have a sense of what he's done. In fact he equates the level of excitement to that of finishing second to David Gossett in the 1999 US Amateur. All in all he seems a very grounded guy but I think one that will be forgotten quickly. He tells us that he stayed in a B&B in Wingham this week and spent Monday in London looking at historical sights but doesn't give the press any sort of juicy quote or angle. You certainly won't find him having a drinking contest with Gazza in Ramsgate tonight. He's getting married soon so should appreciate the £700,000 first prize cheque. These things cost a fortune as I found out myself earlier this month. So it's the end of another Open week. Obviously it's a very different feeling to last year when I was celebrating an 18/1 payout from Ernie Els. But thanks to Betfair I've made a few quid on this Open so I can't complain. And, almost by accident, I did manage to see the winning putt. Anyway, I'm going to leave the rather muted atmosphere in the press tent and attempt to catch the last Connex train home. Wish me luck!

6.10pm: This is surreal. Half an hour ago I was giving Curtis sympathetic applause as he marched up the 18th green. It looked for all the world that he'd let his chance go and the clenched first when he holed his par putt was more to do with him securing a bigger pay-day then actually winning. I was more tickled by seeing Gazza wandering around to be honest and barely looked up when Curtis marched past to sign for his card. And yet, after Bjorn's late collapse, I realise that I got to see the winning putt.

6.05pm: Extrarodinary! We have a 500/1 Open champion! Love fails to hole his second and Bjorn can't find a birdie. Ben Curtis, a complete unknown, will have his name engraved on the famous claret jug.

5.58pm: Singh fails to hole his bunker shot. One down, two to go for Curtis.

5.55pm: Suddenly, Curtis is in a great position. Tiger needs to hole his approach to the 18th to get into a play-off but can't pull off the miracle. Singh, needing birdie, finds the greenside bunker at the last. Davis Love, needing a par to give himself the chance to birdie the last and tie, misses. And Thomas Bjorn can't get up and down from just off the green and slips back to level par. Unless Singh holes his bunker shot, Love holes his second shot for eagle or Bjorn birdies the last (there has been just one there all day), the unheard of Curtis is the Open champion. Staggering!

5.45pm: I've just seen Gazza! Yes, almost unnoticed by the crowd, our national icon is wondering around trying to get a decent view of the 18th green. He's got a red baseball cap on and looks very thin and I think that's why a lot of people don't notice him. A couple of people stop him for an autograph but it's surprising that he's able to mingle around so easily. I think Sheryl is with him. While I'm out there, the tournament is blown wide open again as Bjorn follows a bogey on 15 with a double on 16 after bunker trouble. Just before Gazza appears, I see Curtis hole a brave putt for par. At that point I don't think I've just witnessed the winning putt but Bjorn's mishaps throw the whole thing into chaos again.

5.15pm: Sergio slips away to +3. What a contrast to 12 months ago when I ran outside like an excited child to watch Ernie Els bring home the bacon. But nevertheless, betting disappointments aside, this is still turning into a fascinating finale. Bjorn is rock steady at -3 with Curtis just a shot back. Woods and Singh have both birdied 14 and are just two shots behind. Davis Love has crept up and is three off the pace.

4.55pm: The Racing Post's Jeremy Chapman does a jig for joy as Bjorn bravely saves par at the 12th. Jeremy backed the Dane at 22/1 in-running. Angus Loughran is beaming too as Freddie Jacobson keeps the each-way dream alive by making a birdie at 17 to move to +1. I, meanwhile, have nothing to smile about with Garcia stuck on +2.

4.50pm: Curtis is starting to feel the pressure and bogeys the 12th and the 14th to slip back to –3 and in a tie for the lead with Bjorn. Singh is still hanging in there on –1 but Tiger can't get going and is still even money. Sergio is +2 after 13 so the 50/1 dream looks all over.

4.45pm: The Mark Roe disqualification remains a hot topic and the players are being asked about it when they finish their rounds today. Two players who have been heavily punished by rules infringements are Ian Woosnam and Padraig Harrington. Woosie suffered a costly two-shot penalty for carrying too many clubs in the final round of the 2001 Open and Harrington was disqualified when five clear with a round to play in the B&H at the Belfry after signing a wrong card. As you'd expect Woosie has plenty of sympathy for him although he does admit that rules are rules. Harrington also concedes that under the rules of the R&A a disqualification is not too harsh and says no-one is to blame. Greg Norman, meanwhile, says: “It is a rule of golf and they violated the rules of golf.”

4.30pm: He may still be trailing Curtis by a shot, but I think Bjorn looks by far the most likely winner now. The Dane has had just three bogeys all week (okay he had a double and a quadruple in his first round) so I can't see him unravelling. He is playing the most consistent golf of anyone out there.

4.20pm: Ernie Els is officially no longer Open champion. He finishes on +6 and +4 has already been posted in the clubhouse.

4.20pm: Curtis is now two clear of Bjorn, three ahead of Singh and has a four-shot lead on Woods. Hills make him just 11/10 to win. Bjorn is 5/2, Tiger 4/1 and Singh 9/2.

4.15pm: The journalists here are now scrambling around trying to find some information on Ben Curtis. The best line is that he lives in Kent. Not here of course but in Kent, Ohio in the United States. So were there any clues that he might do well this week. Interviewed on Friday he said: "I have been playing well the last few weeks and getting the putter going and that's been the key." But he also admitted that this was only his second tournament on a links course. Basically, nobody in their right minds would have backed him at the start of the week. The bookies must be loving this. Except Skybet perhaps. They were a standout 80/1 about him at the start of the day.

4.05pm: Curtis is now just 10/3 with Hills to win the Open. Bjorn is 2/1 favourite ahead of 9/4 Woods. Singh is 7/2 and it's then back to 16/1 Phil Price.

4.00pm: Another change as Curtis birdies the 10th to move a shot clear on four under. Remember we said earlier that of all the leaders he had played the closing nine best over the last three days. The person who got 1,000 matched on Betfair must be doing cartwheels!

3.55pm: The 18th green is a sand wedge away from the press tent so I pop outside for ten minutes to see Retief Goosen and Paul McGinley finishing up. Goosen fails to make his par but his two-under 69 gives him the joint clubhouse lead with fellow South African Hennie Otto, the first round leader. At the top of the leaderboard, Curtis birdies nine and is now clear on three-under after a Singh bogey at the eighth. Tiger also misses a short putt and his bogey puts him back to –1. Bjorn then birdies seven and is tied for the lead again.

3.35pm: Angus Loughran produces a clenched fist as Freddie Jacobson birdies 11 to move back to +3. He's permanently on the phone, backing and laying I would imagine. There's now a three-way tie at the top with Curtis, Singh and Bjorn all -2. Woods is one back while Faldo, Phil Price and Sergio are all +1. Faldo's birdie just now produced another cheer in the press tent.

3.15pm: Tiger birdies four and rolls in a great birdie putt at the fifth to move to one-under.

3.10pm: Sergio fails to make birdies at the fourth and fifth so hasn't made the start we were looking for. And as Bjorn birdies number four to move to two-under and take the outright lead, the young Spaniard is now four shots back. Davis Love misses a short par putt at the fourth and has now slipped back to +3 after three bogeys in four holes. The Davis now taking the eye is Brian. The Englishman is now back to two over par. More frustration for Garcia as his birdie putt at the sixth lips out.

3.00pm: So how do they bet now? Hills go 7/4 Tiger, 3/1 Bjorn, 7/2 Singh, 8/1 Garcia, 9/1 Love, 10/1 Curtis, 14/1 Perry, 16/1 Faldo.

2.55pm: Bjorn rolls in a birdie at the third to tie for the lead again. He waves noncholantly to the crowd and looks to be oozing confidence.

2.45pm: Radio 5 Live are carrying coverage of the Grand Prix so I'm not really sure how the leaders are faring in the early stages. The press tent puts me in the picture again and the giant scoreboard at the front shows that Ben Curtis has taken the lead at one-under. Thomas Bjorn as bogeyed the first and is in a tie for second with Vijay Singh. Suddenly there's a roar as Nick Faldo's eagle putt drops at seven. Faldo is now just one off the lead! Not such good news for Sergio Garcia. He's bogeyed the first and is now three back.

2.40pm: Well, I've almost certainly spent the last couple of hours watching Ernie Els gradually lose his grip on the claret jug. The signs aren't good when I arrive at the second and see playing partner Mark Foster teeing off first. It means the Englishman has played the first two holes in a lower scorer than Ernie. The scorer's board confirms it, showing Els +6, meaning he's dropped a shot. There's a huge South African entourage following the champion, including his wife and Dad. A birdie at the fourth lifts spirits briefly but then Ernie fails to add another at five and drops one at the sixth. “You can't miss that putt,” says Els senior as Ernie's par putt dribbles past. It seems at this point that everyone realises it just isn't to be. “You can't win every week,” says Dad, adding that he would like to see Thomas Bjorn win. Ernie birdies the par five seventh but gives it back eight. I watch him par nine but his body language says the game is up.

12.40pm: Just in case Els does make a move, I'm going to follow him for a few holes. The final pair are still an hour and 40 minutes away from starting and judging by the flapping of the press tent roof, they may be a little anxious that the wind is starting to pick up.

12.30pm: “Watson's having a little fun, huh,” says an American journalist behind me. And he's right. The veteran five-time Open champion has birdied four of his first 10 holes to leap from+8 to +4. Ernie Els goes out in five minutes. In all likelihood his reign as Open champion will end today although he has the ability to pull out something special.

12.10pm: Imagine this scenario. There are nine holes to play and the top seven players at the start of the day are all tied. Who wins? It's obvious to say Tiger but a look at how these top seven have played the more difficult closing nine paints an interesting picture. Love is an accumulative +2 for his three homeward nines while Bjorn, Singh, Perry and Garcia are all +3. Tiger is the worst of the lot on +6. But the surprise package is Ben Curtis. The little-known American has played them in an astonishing two-under.

11.45am: It's the quiet before the storm as far as this final day is concerned so I'm pondering taking the 140 on Betfair on Pierre Fulke. The Swede has improved his score by five strokes each day - 77 in round one, 72 in round two and a tournament best 67 yesterday. He loves these hard, bouncy conditions and although I'm not saying he'll win it, I reckon I may be able to trade him back at a lower price later. After all, he is only four off the lead.

11.40am: The four-under 67s posted by Nick Faldo and Pierre Fulke yesterday were the best rounds of the week. But those figures are being threatened today. Rich Beem is –4 through 16 while Bob Estes and Adam Mednick are four-under after 14.

11.20am: Scoring is definitely good this morning with 16 of the early starters under par for the day. Seven players are three under for their rounds - Rich Beem, Stewart Cink, Bob Estes, Rory Sabbatini, Adam Mednick, Padraig Harrington and KJ Choi. Choi is the furthest up the leaderboard but at +5 he's not threatening the leaders. And, like many of the above, he's made his score on the relatively easier first seven holes.

11.15am: Over £5.6m has been traded on Betfair so far. I'm pondering whether to lay back some of the 100/1 I've got on Garcia but, as ever, greed dictates that I stick with it. Looking at the betting history of the leading candidates is fascinating and some amazing prices have been traded so far. Some lucky punter(s) have had £390 matched on Tiger Woods at 21 (the equivalent of 20/1). £4 has been matched on Bjorn at 150, £4 on Singh at 250, £8 on Love at 46, £1 on Perry at 220 and £4 on Garcia at 110. I've only picked out the best prices traded here and to be fair to the layers they've not exactly taken much money at those peaks. But it highlights the fact that if you're a small stakes punter who can identify value, someone out there will oblige you.

11pm: In the press tent they're currently showing re-runs of the 1981 Sandwich Open, won by American Bill Rogers. Bernhard Langer features heavily in the coverage and seems to resemble the Lord Flash Heart character played by Rik Mayall in Blackadder. Rogers had won three times in America that season before coming to the Open – perhaps an omen for the chances of Kenny Perry who has performed a similar feat this year.

10.30am: My stats-based claim that Tiger Woods wasn't playing well enough to win the Open, which looked ridiculous when he stormed into a two-shot lead, now needs revising. A check of the stats this morning suggests he is putting it altogether for a final-day surge. Woods was only 73rd out of 75 for fairways hit during the first two days while his greens in regulation stats were average too. However, yesterday he hit 10 fairways, more than his first two rounds combined and a tally bettered by only four players. He also hit 11 greens in the right number (his best effort of the week) and after taking 29 putts for the third successive day he was ranked as the tournament's joint best putter after three rounds. In other words, all parts of his game are in good order now and if I'd backed him these stats would make me more just a little more confident.

10am: It's another glorious day here although there was a big thunderstorm in Canterbuy last night. So here's what the official weather forecast says on the printout I've just picked up. "A weak cold front moved through the area last night bringing a few showers and thunderstorms to Royal St George's. A few leftover clouds across Kent this morning should move out to sea by mid morning leaving us with plenty of sunshine today along with cooler temperatures. No rain expected today for the final round." There's also a detailed breakdown of the wind speed throughout the day and the forecast predicts that it is set to blow hardest at 3pm, shortly after the leaders have gone out. At the moment there's the lightest of breezes although the early scoring isn't that great. Stewart Cink has made the best start and stands at –3 for the day after the first seven holes.

9.50am: The dream scenario today is a win for our 50/1 tip Sergio Garcia. The day has started well with the Connex train from Canterbury actually arriving on time for the only time this week. And good news from home too. The suitcase which British Airways lost during my return from honeymoon earlier this week has turned up! So can Garcia round it off?