Woods - forced to drop from the bushes.

Mark Ferguson

The ceremonial atmosphere that surrounded St Andrews on Friday was replaced by a day of attrition on the hallowed links.

Low early scoring, including 66s from Retief Goosen (to move to -9) and Soren Hansen, suggested that the Old Course was once again defenceless to the world's best golfers.

But the emergence of some testing wind in the afternoon made it a day of survival.

At the end of 54 holes, it is no surprise to see that Tiger Woods has retained his grip on the tournament but things were far from easy for the world number one.

Throughout his professional career, Woods has always been suspect in windy conditions and Saturday was certainly no exception.

An uncharacteristic three-putt at the second was followed by visits to the gorse on the sixth and the ninth as he went out in a disappointing 36.

Tiger's long game continued to be inconsistent on the back nine but his immense powers of resilience and fantastic short game ensured that he finished the day two shots clear of the field.

At first glance at the leaderboard, which is as good as any in recent memory, one may feel that Tiger has thrown the tournament wide open again.

Tiger showed the chinks that have undermined his play over the past three years but while he opened the door to the rest of the field, nobody walked through it.

Olazabal offered the most convincing challenge but his round could have been better.

His 68 included a wonderful eagle on 12 and a crucial birdie on the last to reach double figures.

However, his normally impeccable short game cost him the chance to put further pressure on the leader.

Montgomerie gained a shot back on Woods but considering how much better the Scot played, he will be disappointed he did not take more advantage of the opportunities he had.

Instead of having a genuine run at his birdie putts, he left too may shy, which in the final analysis may cost him dear.

As was the case the first two days, Garcia and Singh are left to think what might have been.

After inexplicable bogeys at one and three, Vijay recovered brilliantly to birdie five, six and seven.

However, he chucked a shot away at the eighth and promptly did the same at 13 after birdieing the 12th.

He did go ahead and pick up a shot at 14 but a very poor approach to the treacherous 17th led to another bogey.

The world No2 went on to birdie the last en route to a 71 but his careless mistakes over the three rounds surely have left him too far back at minus seven.

Garcia began in similar style by three putting the first from less than 15 feet.

He did roar back with a 30-footer at the next, a chip and putt birdie at five and and then sunk a 50-foot bomb at the ninth to elevate himself to eight under.

That was as close as the Spanish pretender got to Woods as his Achilles heel, the putter, once again let him down on the back nine.

Three putts on 11 and 16 offset birdies at 14 and 18, which meant he ended the day four shots adrift.

Strong early challenges from the Australian triumvirate of Appleby, Allenby and Lonard were short-lived.

All three were at seven under at one stage but Appleby dropped back to four under while the other two had a horror show on the back nine en route to shooting 79 and 77 respectively.

A great deal was expected of the Els and Mickelson pairing after both had shot 67s on Friday.

However, both were extremely disappointing and shot rounds of 75 and 72.

Both seemingly lacked a bit of fight in what was the easiest of the conditions and another Major opportunity has once again disappeared.

Luke Donald slumped to a 77, suggesting that he was emotionally drained after playing with Jack Nicklaus on his farewell parade, for the first two days.

"I felt low on energy today, lost concentration and I finished horribly."

Darren Clarke fared much better in shooting 67 but like so many others, it should have been a lot better.

"I am obviously too far back. It was another day of making too many mistakes," said Clarke.

As regards othe players, Sandy Lyle rolled back the years with a 67 and Michael Campbell ended up five shots adrift of Tiger, in his bid to add The Open to his recent US Open triumph.

There is an intriguing battle for the top amateur's Silver Medal.

Lloyd Saltman, the young Scottish sensation, shot a superb 68 to open up a two shot lead over Edoardo Molinari, the great Italian hope for the future.

However, as regards the battle for the Claret Jug, one has to feel that Tiger Woods dodged a procession of bullets on day three.

The majestic play of Thursday and Friday was replaced by errant driving and indecisive iron play.

Nevertheless, he held firm and battled his way to a 71.

While others beat themselves on a difficult day, Woods grinded it out in a way that seemingly only he can - a five-foot putt for bogey on 16 was followed by a terrific par save at 17 before he closed with a pivotal birdie on the last.

That gave him a two-shot lead going into today and given that it is extremely unlikely that he will play as badly as he did on Saturday, it should be enough to hold the list of big name challengers at bay.