Twelve months on from the shock victory by Ben Curtis at Sandwich, another little-known American leads the Open championship with 18 holes to go.

After a best-of-the-day 68 in the third round at Royal Troon today 38-year-old Todd Hamilton is eight under par and a stroke ahead of Ernie Els, the 2002 winner who has a chance tomorrow to end Tiger Woods' five-year reign as world number one.

Not if Woods can help it, though. He fought his way up from 17th into a tie for seventh with a 68 and is only four shots behind.

Colin Montgomerie has five to make up after bogeying the 18th for the second day running - he was round in a battling, but ultimately disappointing 72 - and also involved in the race for the claret jug are the two players who fought it out for the United States Open last month, Retief Goosen and Phil Mickelson.

They are locked together in third place at six under along with France's Thomas Levet, with England's Barry Lane one further back.

Both Levet and Lane, however, walked off knowing it could have been them and not Hamilton on centre stage.

Levet, who stretched Els to five holes of a play-off at Muirfield two years ago and was not even in this week's event until he shot a closing 63 to win the Scottish Open last Sunday, charged into a two-stroke lead over the front nine.

But then came a double bogey six at the 11th - he missed the green and three-putted - and a a bogey six on the long 16th, where he took two to get out of a greenside bunker.

Lane, the 44-year-old who had his first win for 10 years at the British Masters in May and is still only 128th in the world, burst into the spotlight with three birdies in four holes from the 12th.

He shared top spot with Hamilton as a result, but the former Ryder Cup player then double-bogeyed the short 17th, chipping right over the green, and dropped another at the last.

Hamilton is playing his fourth Open whereas Curtis was playing his first and he is 56th in the world whereas Curtis was 396th.

But he is a stranger on this side of the Atlantic - and hardly a household name in his home country either. Until this year all his success had come in Asia.

Last November he did not even have a US Tour card and had talked earlier of quitting the sport, but he then came through the qualifying school at the eighth attempt and in March he birdied the final two holes to win the Honda Classic in March.

Paired with Els, Hamilton picked up birdies at the fourth, sixth and eighth going out in 33 and second after Levet's double bogey he hit his tee shot to three feet on the 14th and handled the closing stretch as well as anybody.

Montgomerie provided his fans with another rollercoaster ride.

He had bogeyed the third after driving into a pot bunker, birdied the long fourth, bogeyed the fifth and birdied the seventh - a 30-footer there.

He was in severe danger of dropping another stroke at the 12th after finding a horrid patch of rough. But he got up and down from well short of the green and came up with an even better escape act on the 178-yard 14th.

After finding a wicked lie in the edge of a bunker he was worried about hitting himself as he swung at the ball. It came out and he saved par, but only falling onto the seat of his pants as he took avoiding action.

He said: "I said to my caddie going in that we had better say a prayer. I was having some heroics out there."

Woods had earlier delivered the message that only a fool ever writes him off.

He went to the turn in a four under par 32 not bettered all week and then dug in over the far tougher inward half to post the clubhouse target for the rest of the field.

Without a major win for over two years and without a stroke play victory since last October the American star will need to finish in the top 17 to stay number one if Els triumphs.

But he is wanting the title itself. It would be his second Open and his ninth major - halfway towards Jack Nicklaus' record.

It was in the same third round on the same course in 1997 that Woods achieved his lowest-ever round in a major. But that 64 still left him eight adrift and he was never going to win from there.

Masters champion Mickelson had two lucky breaks, both off bad drives. The first was at the 15th and only by hitting a fan on the legs did it stay in bounds by inches.

Then at the 457-yard last he hooked again and hit the spectator barrier and finished where he could get it on the green. He almost birdied, but a 68 represented another excellent day's work following his second round 66.

Halfway leader Skip Kendall was the other to shoot 66 on Friday, but he was in the crowd off the first tee and could do no better than 75.

Woods resumed six behind and with everybody waiting to see which way it would go - out of the hunt or into contention.

A 10-foot birdie putt on the first was followed by a pitch to four feet at the second and when that dropped everybody had their answer it seemed.

Another 10-footer found the target at the seventh, but after saving pars from off the green at the eighth, 10th and 11th as a squall came through he did come unstuck on the 431-yard next.

Off a pushed drive he could not make the green and after chipping 14 feet past the par putt ran just by the edge.

"The third shot was terrible - I got what I deserved," he said later.

Lee Westwood, out to prove he was not too far back at one over, fired a 68 for two under and will try again tomorrow to prove he was not too far back.

Darren Clarke, joint second at the course in 1997, was definitely still in with a shout when he stood one under at halfway.

But he shanked a chip on the third and was unable to make the move he was looking for. With three to play he stood one over.

Saturday brought another colourful outfit, this time pink cap and pink socks with black plus fours.

He scored 71 to remain one over, by the way.

Collated third-round totals (GB & Ire unless stated):

205 Todd Hamilton (USA) 71 67 67

206 Ernie Els (Rsa) 69 69 68

207 Phil Mickelson (USA) 73 66 68, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 69 70 68, Thomas Levet (Fra) 66 70 71

208 Barry Lane 69 68 71

209 Tiger Woods (USA) 70 71 68, Scott Verplank (USA) 69 70 70

210 Mike Weir (Can) 71 68 71, Colin Montgomerie 69 69 72, Skip Kendall (USA) 69 66 75

211 Lee Westwood 72 71 68, Nick Price (Zim) 71 71 69, K.J. Choi (Kor) 68 69 74

212 Shaun Micheel (USA) 70 72 70, Davis Love III (USA) 72 69 71, Kim Felton (Aus) 73 67 72, Kenny Perry (USA) 69 70 73, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 67 71 74

213 Mark O'Meara (USA) 71 74 68, Paul Casey 66 77 70, Justin Leonard (USA) 70 72 71

214 Bob Estes (USA) 73 72 69, Mark Calcavecchia (USA) 72 73 69, Keiichiro Fukabori (Jpn) 73 71 70, Tetsuji Hiratsuka (Jpn) 70 74 70, Bo Van Pelt (USA) 72 71 71, Stewart Cink (USA) 72 71 71, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 69 74 71, Takashi Kamiyama (Jpn) 70 73 71, Andrew Oldcorn 73 70 71, Hunter Mahan (USA) 74 69 71, Ian Poulter 71 72 71, Paul Bradshaw 75 67 72, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 69 73 72, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 71 70 73, Gary Evans 68 73 73, Darren Clarke 69 72 73, Rodney Pampling (Aus) 72 68 74, Vijay Singh (Fij) 68 70 76

215 Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 73 72 70, Steve Flesch (USA) 75 70 70, Tjaart Van Der Walt (Rsa) 70 73 72, Kenneth Ferrie 68 74 73, Brad Faxon (USA) 74 68 73, Adam Scott (Aus) 73 68 74

216 Sean Whiffin 73 72 71, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 74 71 71, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 71 72 73, David Toms (USA) 71 71 74

217 Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 71 74 72, Paul Broadhurst 71 74 72, Charles Howell III (USA) 75 70 72, Bob Tway (USA) 76 68 73, Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 70 74 73, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 72 72 73, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 71 72 74, Steve Lowery (USA) 69 73 75, Gary Emerson 70 71 76

218 Jerry Kelly 75 70 73, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 70 74 74

219 James Kingston (Rsa) 73 72 74, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 68 77 74, Mark Foster 71 72 76, Rich Beem (USA) 69 73 77

220 Paul McGinley 69 76 75, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 73 70 77, (x) Stuart Wilson 68 75 77, Chris DiMarco (USA) 71 71 78, Marten Olander (Swe) 68 74 78

221 Paul Wesselingh 73 72 76, Alistair Forsyth 68 74 79

224 Sandy Lyle 70 73 81