Our golf betting guru Dave Tindall is on hand for the whole of the 134th Open Championship. He'll bring you the very latest news and gossip from St Andrews.

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Friday July 15

9.55pm: And that's it for another day. Tiger Woods was only three clear when he went on to win by eight shots five years ago. This time he's one better off. Does anyone else stand a chance? We'll go a long way to finding out on Saturday.

9.35pm: It seems that only the weather can blow Tiger Woods off course but Colin Montgomerie, who will partner Tiger in round three, doesn't want the wind to get up. Monty said after his round: "I've never really done much use in a wind, to be honest, in any competition. So I prefer the course to play the way it's doing right now, actually. It was lovely out there today. It was a pleasure to play." It looks as if Monty will get his wish. The latest weather forecast says: Saturday - partly cloudy in the morning and pleasant. Increasing clouds by afternoon. High 22C, Winds 10-15mph. It's not as good on Sunday but nothing too dramatic. Light showers are predicted while the winds will be 12-18mph.

9.15pm: Euan Walters has the chance to knock out all the +1s if he can birdie the last. We go out to watch him play the final hole which he messes up. It means the cut will be at +1 and so the likes of Tom Watson, Paul McGinley and Scott Drummond get to play the final two rounds.

8.05pm: At around 7.30pm each day, Dave and I do a brief betting interview for PGA Pro.TV. This involves rambling on about the latest prices while trying to avoid being hit by cups and cans from the beered up crowd behind us. Mid-interview we hear a massive roar. No, someone hasn't landed one flush on the back of Dave's head, it's for Monty, who has birdied the 18th to move into joint second place, four behind Tiger. As we walk back to the press tent we pick up the other player tied for second, Scott Verplank. His approach to the 16th rolls back off the front of the green and he makes bogey. Butch Harmon is watching from behind the ropes, as this group contains one of the players he coaches, Australian Adam Scott. Ungratefully, Scott nearly hits Harmon with his wayward second shot and also drops a shot. Verplank also bogeys the 17th so Saturday's final group will almost certainly be Woods and Monty.

6.40pm: Tiger makes his par so finishes on 11-under, five clear of the previous clubhouse leaders.

6.30pm: After missing a short putt for birdie on 17, Tiger loses control of his tee-shot at the last and it flies miles left. Luckily for Woods, miles left on the 18th is still okay as the hole runs parallel with the first fairway. He chips back across to the green but it rolls back down into the valley so he's struggling for par.

6.20pm: The Open always throws up some strange names and Tiger's nearest challenger, three back, is now unknown German Tino Schuster. The 27-year-old has played on the Challenge Tour since 2001 and his last official result is a tied 31st in the Galeria Kaufhof Pokal Challenge.

6.10pm: It's not often you get to witness a piece of genuine sporting history so I had to go out and see Jack Nicklaus bid farewell. And what a picture-perfect ending. The old rogue rolling in one last birdie putt at the Home of Golf and walking off the green arm in arm with Tom Watson. Fantastic. There's a big gathering of players to witness the scene and from my restricted view behind the putting green I can see Vijay Singh, Nick Faldo, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Brad Faxon, Tom Pernice Jr, Graeme McDowell and Maarten Lafeber all cheering Jack home. I'm sure there's many more. Watson is shedding as many tears as Nicklaus and I'm sure there'll be many more as the day goes on.

5.35pm: Tiger's nearest rival Robert Allenby bogeys the 14th so Woods is now five clear.

5.30pm: Tiger to -11 with a two-putt birdie on the 14th. Woods is driving the ball beautifully this week, hitting it a mile but also keeping it in play.

5.25pm: Last year's Open winner Todd Hamilton won't be around at the weekend to defend his title. His four over par total is probably four too many.

5.15pm: The tears are starting to well up and Jack will almost certainly need to birdie the final three holes to extend his Major career by another 36 holes. He has a decent birdie chance at 16. Tom Watson tries to spur him on by holing a monster birdie putt of his own but, unlike in the good old days, Jack can't respond. He'll now need a birdie-eagle finish to make the weekend.

4.45pm: Jack Nicklaus wastes a great chance to get one back at 14 as his short birdie putt rolls past. He'll have to play the final four holes in three under to survive the cut.

4.24pm: Tiger rolls another birdie into the centre of the cup at the 10th and is now double figures under par. His -10 puts him four clear of the field.

4.20pm: Jack Nicklaus is now three over with holes running out. I don't think he's going to make it. All sorts of tributes will be penned about the most successful golfer the game has ever seen but I quite like Nick Faldo's idea. Faldo, after shooting a fine 69 today to finish one-under, said: "Words are really not enough for Jack. They should make him out of gold and stick a little Jack on every tee box!"

4.10pm: Tiger goes to the turn in an effortless 33 and now leads by three shots. For good measure he also drives the 380-yard 10th hole!

4.05pm: The weather is still golf friendly so the likes of Els and Mickelson, who sit in the clubhouse on -3, must fear that the afternoon starters will continue to pull away from them.

4.00pm: The projected cut is currently even par so Jack Nicklaus at +2 still has plenty of work to do. The old boy's making a great fist of it though and is one under on today's round after 11 holes.

3.55pm: Tiger is clear by two but it's all happeninig behind him. There's a big move from Colin Montgomerie, who is four under for the day and five under for the championship after an eagle at five. What a story this would be if Monty finally landed a first Major.

2.35pm: Thomas Levet's second at the par five fifth snakes up the green, smacks the pin and stops just inches away. He taps in for eagle and is now just one off the lead.

2.20pm: Tiger goes clear again, a birdie at the third taking him to seven-under.

2.15pm: Fair play to Graeme McDowell. His double bogey at the fourth was his only blemish of the day and two pars on the back nine see him finish on three-under. I obviously jinxed him earlier.

2.10pm: And now we have an Englishman sharing the lead at six-under, Yorkshire's Simon Dyson. There's a good chance that Dyson is a Sportinglife.com reader as dad, John, is a bookmaker while uncle Terry played in Tottenham's double-winning team.

2.00pm: The complaints about Graham Otway's Tarzan ringtone are growing after two back-to-back bursts of Ron Ely in full voice. He's promised to change it and dismisses rumours that the replacement ring will be Crazy Frog Axel F.

1.55pm: Vijay clearly has the hump after missing so many putts and declines the invite to come in to the press tent for interview. He also cancelled his pre-tournament press conference so no wonder he gets a rough ride from journalists.

1.50pm: A bowl of soup and a roll at £3.50 does the trick. Actually, I half-inch a second roll which is surely morally mine at those prices. On the TV in the press canteen we see Tiger par the opening hole.

1.30pm: Vijay's birdie putt at 18 slides by so he finishes on six-under, tied with Tiger and Trevor Immelman. Tiger, stood just a few feet away on the first tee, must surely have noticed and now he'll be out to build a lead this afternoon. He tees off in just 60 seconds. Dave and I are off to get some food although, with a steak sandwich costing a ludicrous £6.50 in the press canteen, we might head off into town.

1.00pm: Jack Nicklaus has teed off in, let's be honest, his final round in the Open. He'll be desperate to make the weekend but my advice is to take the opportunity of watching him today as it's the last chance you'll get to see perhaps the greatest competitor the sport has even seen.

12.45pm: SLife colleague Dave John has just returned from a brief gander outside, almost being run over by a buggy carrying Tiger Woods as he returned to the press tent. Woods starts his round today at 1.31pm. Dave has now headed to the Trevor Immelman press conference while I carry out other work commitments.

12.35pm: It's now a three-way tie at the top as Trevor Immelman birdies the last to take the clubhouse lead on 138, six-under. An annoucement is made that the young South African will coming into the press tent for interview shortly. Two other players making a big move today are Aussie Stuart Appleby and American Brad Faxon. Both are five-under for their rounds and five-under for the tournament.

12.20pm: I'm glad there's no-one too near me as I've just let out my biggest expletive of the week after seeing Phil Mickelson miss a short one on the 17th. Doesn't he know I have money on him?! Still, a birdie at the last and he'll be in the clubhouse on three-under and on the fringes of contention.

12.15pm: Game on. Woods is joined at the top of the leaderboard by Vijay Singh, who birdies the par five 14th. The cream always seems to rise to the top at St Andrews and that's definitely the case again with the world numbers one and two looking down on the field.

12.10pm: Ernie Els comes in for interview after his 67 today. He's definitely back in the tournament now at three-under but says he may have to get to 15-under if he wants to win. "I might be close with that number," says Ernie, who adds that he may also need some "weather assistance" to stop the afternoon players getting a big lead on him. Wife Liezl is also sat amongst the listening press. She always walks behind the ropes when Ernie plays in a Major and has a notebook in which she charts his shots by way of a little diagram. Els says his irons were better today and he definitely putted a lot better but to get to -15 he'll have to fire two rounds of 66. A tall order.

11.55am: McDowell is wearing Rupert Bear checked pants today, outdoing Ian Poulter's rather subdued (for him) dark black and blue tartan pair. Earlier I heard a reporter interviewing Chubby Chandler for a fashion article he was writing. Chandler claimed he told Darren Clarke to wear something more colourful for the Masters but "Darren being Darren went over the top". Clarke certainly committed a fashion faux pas yesterday with his striped white slacks and lime green shirt but reeled it in a bit today.

11.45am: Well two hours in the company of Graeme McDowell didn't exactly get my pulse racing as the Northern Irishman played like a damp squib. It started steadily enough with three pars but all went wrong at the fourth. McDowell's drive found the top of a grassy mound and with a gnarly lie he could only hack out into more trouble. Another hack, followed by a chip and two putts resulted in a double bogey. He then failed to birdie the par five fifth and I left him with head in hands after overshooting the green with his approach to the seventh. It was pretty grotty golf all round with Mark Hensby, who started the day in second place, frittering shots away all over the place to go from five under to one over. Shades of Rodney Pampling at Carnoustie in 1999 when Hensby's fellow Aussie led after round one but missed the cut! It's a real trek out to the seventh and with the sun beating down I've had to make two ice-cream stops. At the sixth, John Paramor, the Chief Referee of the European Tour, was sat in his cart dabbing on a bit of sun lotion. I was hoping he'd be called to make a ruling back at the first and I could hitch a lift back but no such luck. I also bought a radio before setting out so, despite the disappointing display by McDowell, there's been good news coming into my ears concerning our other tips. Phil Mickelson, who I passed when walking in, has gotten on a real birdie rush to climb from +2 to -3 while Darren Clarke also got to three under although he's since dropped a couple.

9.00am: 125/1 tip Graeme McDowell did us proud with a three-under 69 on Thursday so I'm going out to follow him for the first few holes of his second round.

8.50am: Okay, the latest official weather synopsis reads: "Expect to see variably cloudy skies with a few brief light showers this morning as low pressure to our NE moves away and our winds gradually shift to the NW. However, generally partly sunny skies will prevail today along with temperatures in the upper teens and NW winds 10-15mph." Looking ahead, Saturday should be partly sunny and pleasant with temperatures rising from today's high of 18C to 20C. Saturday's winds will be a moderate 8-12mph.

8.30am: It's quite sunny outside at the moment although there's grey clouds dotted around. There's a little bit of a breeze also so conditions are fairly similar to this time yesterday. I'll be back with a full weather forecast shortly.

8.20am: Colleague Dave John has his head buried in papers trying to come up with some three-ball bets while I ramble away with this diary. Els and Immelman have both dropped a shot but there's better news for one of our tips, Darren Clarke. Dazzler has made two early birdies to get back into red figures at one-under.

8.10am: The wife and I went on holiday to Japan a couple of months ago. It's a fantastic place but it did reinforce the belief that they're a nation of extremely hard workers. It's being confirmed by the Japanese journalists here. Dave and I put in a 15 hour+ shift yesterday but when we left at 10pm the Japanese journalists were still here and they've beaten us in this morning.

8.00am: Trevor Immelman was just getting out of his car when we pulled into St Andrews and looking up at the scoreboard in front of me I see that he's already played the first hole. A par has kept him at four-under and in a tie for second. Talking of South Africans, Ernie Els has made a fast start with birdies at the opening two holes to haul himself back to level par. Els was a 40/1 shot after his 74 on Thursday but those odds have now halved.

7.45am: The early news this morning is that US Ryder Cup star David Toms has a DQ next to his name. PA reporter Phil Casey rang Toms at the Old Course Hotel this morning to find out why. Toms felt that his ball may have been moving when he tapped in for double bogey at the 17th yesterday and, with it playing on his mind, decided that the honourable thing to do was to disqualify himself. Full credit to the man but a bit of a disaster if you've had a bet on him – as indeed had Casey! Toms was apparently on the other line booking his flight home when Casey rang and politely asked if he could hold the line for a few moments. What a nice bloke.