Players enjoy Sandwich in the sun

Royal St George’s finally released its grip on the world’s best golfers in the third round of The Open Championship this morning.

After two days of being blown about on the Kent coast, only Davis Love was under par from the 156-strong field at the halfway stage.

No-one else had even matched par on probably the toughest course on the Open rota, which rising star Paul Casey felt made him ‘look stupid’ after a first-round 85, while former champion Nick Price described some of the holes as ‘brutal’.

But with the wind easing considerably and the early starters greeted by glorious sunshine, conditions were finally conducive to some low scoring.

Londoner Brian Davis was one of those taking full advantage, birdies at the first, fourth, sixth and seventh taking him out in 32, his eagle chip on the seventh also stopping inches short of the hole.

It was not the first time this year Davis, whose wife Julie is the daughter of former England goalkeeper Ray Clemence, had made a blistering start to his round.

On his US Open debut in Chicago last month, the 28-year-old was leading the tournament after storming through the first five holes in four under par, eventually finishing in 61st.

A superb approach to the 10th hole today left him with a tap-in for a fifth birdie, and at three over par he was on the leaderboard and four off the lead alongside Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh who were not due out for another three hours.

Earlier in the day, Australian Peter Fowler was glad of some company as he started the third round.

Fowler was set to play on his own after 75 players made the halfway cut, leaving him the odd man out with 37 groups of two to follow.

However, the 44-year-old from Sydney took up the option to have a non-scoring marker play alongside him, Royal St George’s assistant professional Michael Brooks fitting the bill.

Brooks, a former Walker Cup player and Scottish amateur champion, will play all 18 holes and mark Fowler’s card, but his own score will not be kept. That is something Fowler could be glad of with plenty of professionals having previously suffered the embarrassment of being outscored by the marker.

There looked no danger of that when Fowler picked up three shots in four holes from the fourth, but dropped shots on the eighth and 11th left him back on seven over par.