Will Ireland’s Padraig Harrington get to drink from the Claret Jug for another year. Photograph: Gerry Penny/EPA

3pm: Number of minutes spent doing this online commentary: 60. Number of emails received in that hour: 0. It’s almost as if people are watching it on television. How quaint.

2.55pm: English amateur Chris Wood (+9) sends a lovely drive on to the dance-floor on the par three seventh and holes the birdie putt. On 18, his main rival for the amateur medal holes a monster for birdie to finish 14 over for the tournament. On the fourth, Simon Wakefield hits a spectator on the head with his drive. BBC presenter Clare Balding rushes over to see if he’s OK and gives the camera the thumbs-up. No, really.

Leaderboard

Norman +4 (3)Harrington +4 (3) Choi +5 (4) Wakefield +6 (4)Anthony +7 (6)Fisher +7 (5)

2.50pm: Wakefield and Choi both par the third, while Norman sends his par-putt on the second a couple of inches left of the hole. He’s not having the best of days so far, but it’s early yet.

2.45pm: Norman pitches his third shot on the second to within four-and-a-half feet of the pin. Harrington leaves a long uphill putt about four inches from the cup and holes out for another par.

2.45pm: They may be Harrington fans, but the gaggle of Irishmen who Greg Norman tried to take out with his drive have actually helped the Australian - the grass they’ve trampled has provided him with a nice lie. He doesn’t make the most of it, leaving his second shot short and wide of the green. Further up the fairway, Padraig Harrington shows him how it’s done with a low, punched six-iron.

2.40pm: Amateur Englishman Thomas Sherreard (+15) holes his approach shot for an eagle on the 17th.

2.40pm: Greg Norman sends his drive into a 26mph wind and his ball fizzes in amongst a group of tricolour-toting Padraig Harrington supporters.

2.37pm: KJ Choi and Wakefield both steady the ship with pars on the par four second.

2.35pm: A brilliant pitch from Harrington that looked as if it might roll into the hole leaves him a tap-in for par on the first. From the bunker, Norman leaves his effort a good 50 feet from the cup. A wonderful putt lips out, leaving him a gimme for bogey. His lead over Harrington is halved.

2.32pm: On the second green, England’s Ross Fisher (+7) notches up his second par of the day. Simon Wakefield (+6) leaves his approach about 10 feet from the pin.

2.30pm: The light rough gets its teeth into Harrington’s ball and the Irishman leaves his second shot well short of the green. He’s not happy. Norman’s second shot goes right and lands in a bunker. This is a fiendishly difficult first hole.

2.27pm: Choi and Wakefield both bogey the first, as did Ben Curtis before them. On the second, Curtis leaves his second shot inches from the hole.

2.25pm: Interesting fact: this is the eighth time Greg Norman has led going into the final round of a major. He’s converted just one of those leads into a win: the Open at Turnberry in 1986.

2.23pm: Defending champion Padraig Harrington, whose injured wrist almost ruled him out of this year’s tournament, takes an iron off the first tee. The crowd whoop and cheer as his ball lands in the middle of the fairway, then takes a kick into the light rough. Norman goes for an iron as well, splitting the fairway with his first shot of the day. He sent it left, but the strong wind brought it back into a perfect position.

2.22pm: Simon Wakefield leaves his second shot short of the first green, giving himself a pitch and putt for par. Choi leaves himself a short putt for par.

2.20pm: The final pairing, Greg Norman (+2) and Padraig Harrington (+4) step up to the first tee. If, on Wednesday night, you’d asked a bookie for odds on this pair being the last to tee off on the final day of this year’s Open, he’d have thought you were insane.

2.15pm: “I’m just trying to keep him calm and relaxed. I’ve just told him to be himself out there and to take all the time in the world,” says Chris Evert, wife of Greg Norman, to the BBC. “Win or lose, I just hope he has a good day out there today.”

2.10pm: Warm applause greets the arrival of the day’s penultimate group, KJ Choi (+4) and Simon Wakefield (+5), at the first tee. The Englishman has the honour, steps up and cracks a three-wood down the fairway of the par four hole, where it rolls into the rough and sits up nicely on a grassy mound. Choi isn’t so lucky; he sends his drive wide and into the long grass.

Read all about it

All today’s Observer news and comment on this year’s Open is here.

About this articleCloseThis article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Sunday July 20 2008. It was last updated at 14:57 on July 20 2008.

guardian.co.uk