Open Championship: Evergreen Norman burns the brightest

Australian gives masterclass in control as others are blown away by brutal Birkdale

CARNAGE returned to the Open championship yesterday, not quite on the vast scale of Muirfield 2002 when grown men wept, but bad enough and certainly too much for many to bear.

Some of our Cinderella stories were blown away in the storms, two of the feelgood yarns of Friday night, David Duval and Jean Van de Velde, coming in on their hands and knees after an 83 and an 80 respectively. But the ultimate fantasy tale is alive and well. Greg Norman got one hell of an ovation as he walked up the 18th fairway a little after 7.30pm and he deserved it all, every last roar and scream.

After "one of the top three hardest rounds I've ever played", the old man leads the Open with 18 holes to play. Incredible but true. Having started with three bogeys in his first six holes, having double-bogeyed the cruel 10th into the teeth of the gale, the Australian was 2-under for his last eight holes, displaying a level of shot-making and imagination in the wind that made his partner, KJ Choi, go "Wow!" and a ruthless touch that should really be beyond a man who hasn't appeared in a major in three years. It was remarkable stuff.

His 72, achieved in weather that reduced the pace of play to a slog of five hours and more, was special but the great show-off came within an inch of holing a pitch for birdie on the last green for a 71. As it stands Norman is two clear of defending champion and arch grinder Padraig Harrington and the Korean battleship Choi.

Norman is chasing so much history here it's hard to know where to start. At 53, he is already the oldest man ever to lead the Open after 54 holes. If he completes the job today he will not only become the oldest winner of this championship (beating Old Tom Morris by seven years) but also the oldest winner of any major (beating Julius Boros, who won the 1968 PGA at a relatively coltish 48).

What are Norman's chances? Well, he's not getting carried away, that's for sure. Neither is Harrington or Choi or any of the rest of them. They were all just happy to survive yesterday. The forecast for the final round is for relatively benign conditions which will come as a relief for another day of this would have reduced the field to a bunch of basket cases. How tough was it?

Ian Poulter: "It was right on the edge of playable."

Sergio Garcia: "So many shots, so many putts were hit with the ball wobbling in the wind."

Anthony Kim: "My ball blew back seven or eight feet. We stood there (waiting for conditions to calm down] for 30 to 40 minutes."

At one point Phil Mickelson's cap blew off his head, danced across the width of a fairway and fell into a bunker. When even your headgear gets swept off course and ends up in the sand then you know you've got problems. Mickelson smiled. For about a quarter of a second.

At the business end of the championship, it was all about patience and prayers. A monumental grind ensued. Norman is 2-over, pursued by Choi, who had two double bogeys in his 75, and Harrington, who dropped four shots in five holes on either side of the turn, and yet staged a Normanesque recovery at the death for a 72. They're both on 4-over and there's a gang tucked in behind with big scores but with big hopes, too.

Simon Wakefield leads the chasing pack. Yes, Simon Wakefield. You want to know how silly golf can be? Then consider the 34-year-old from Newcastle-under-Lyme. His Open record reads thus: 2003 at Sandwich – cut; 2004 at Troon – cut; 2006 at Hoylake – 48th. Bad, eh? And his recent run? Tied for 33rd last week at Loch Lomond, cut in his three tournaments before.

Wakefield's back nine brought him birdies at 12, 14 and 17. He shot 70, a score the best players in the world would have killed for. Wakefield is on 5-over, two clear of the outstanding young Englishman Ross Fisher, the emerging Swede Alex Noren, the former champion Ben Curtis (he was top-10 in Carnoustie last year, so watch out) and the bolshie new kid on the block, Anthony Kim. Playing in his first Open with his baseball cap turned backwards, Kim is cocky enough, fearless enough and brilliant enough to give this a right good shake today.

They all departed Birkdale last night with a spring in their step, but others left with dead weights on their shoulders. From early morning haunted golfers came in off the 18th green and spilled their guts, each one looking like they'd seen a ghost out there.

Paul Casey: "I hit it out of bounds on the first and then lost a ball on 15."

Henrik Stenson: "I made some Houdini par saves out there."

Davis Love: "I hit some fans and scoreboards."

Thomas Sherreard, the amateur: "It was brutal. Brutal, brutal, brutal."

There were times when a suspension of play seemed a real possibility. David Rickman, the R&A's director of rules, seriously thought about calling it off for a while. "We had a couple of players on different greens (the 8th and 10th principally] who were in vulnerable positions (exposed to the worst of the wind]. It was a difficult day."

Also you had Freddie Jacobson watching in horror as his ball moved in a bunker. Jacobson climbed out of there and pleaded with his match referee.

"I didn't take my stance (it would have been a one-shot penalty had he done so]. My club was up here, look. This is where my club was."

Jacobson was not penalised, mercifully. And so on we went, sucked in by the attrition, glued to every mishap, every blast of wind that brought bogey, double bogey and worse.

As the storms blew ever stronger, the leading score rose and rose, from 1-under to 1-over to 2-over to 4-over and eventually back to 2-over. The 10th, a long enough par-4 on a normal day, played so hard into the wind that it was a job sometimes to stand up straight. So many players backed off so many putts that the pace of play was snail-like. And it was impossible to blame them. Each man was terrified the ball was going to move at address. Curtis said earlier in the day that you just have to get up there and "pull the trigger" but it wasn't so easy, not when your scorecard was bleeding as many were.

By the time the last pair reached the 10th they practically had to step over the bodies. Norman and Choi did not escape. Both had double bogey. "If we get much more of this then Monty (12-over] is going to win," said one wag at the height of the mayhem. It was said in jest but you took the point.

Nobody broke par yesterday. Level par 70 was akin to a 65 or 66 on a calm day. Add up the scores of the top 20 players overnight on Friday and the total comes in at a whopping 147-over. You'd need a strong calculator and an even stronger will to tot up what the rest of them took.

We are left now with a last group that is one-half predictable (Harrington) and one-half miraculous (Norman).

The Irishman and the Australian will go off together this afternoon, both in search of a story that will live through the ages. If Harrington wins, the two in a row will make him a modern great. If Norman wins, well, we don't know that will make him. But it will shake the foundations under our feet if he does. The crowd worshipped his every step yesterday. Today the pilgrims will come again.