Tiger keeps his focus

Tiger Woods ignored the distractions of a camera-happy spectator to zoom up the leaderboard in the third round of the 132nd Open championship.

Woods was in the middle of his downswing on his tee shot on the third hole at Royal St George’s when he heard the click of a camera from the crowd.

Amazingly the world number one managed to stop his swing before hitting the ball, glaring hard at the offender while his caddie Steve Williams made it known there should be no cameras on the course.

Woods thumped the ground with his club before composing himself and firing at the green on the 210-yard par three, enjoying a lucky bounce back onto the green from a bank to the right of the putting surface.

The 27-year-old made it three pars in a row there before the fireworks began on the par-five fourth, a converted par four measuring 497 yards, well within range for all of the field.

Woods smashed a massive drive into the perfect position and fired an iron to 20 feet, holing the putt for an eagle three to jump into a share of second place on one over par.

He was joined on that score by Sheffield’s Mark Roe, who started his second round yesterday with six threes in a row and today holed his second shot on the 13th for an eagle two.

Overnight leader Davis Love was just embarking on his third round, the American the only player under par at the halfway stage after rounds of 69 and 72.

Earlier in the day, Nick Faldo had enjoyed a belated birthday treat by firing a superb 67, the lowest round of the week so far, as Royal St George’s finally released its grip on the world’s best golfers.

Faldo had made the cut with nothing to spare on his 46th birthday, pulling out what he described as a “career” shot on the 17th to set up the vital birdie.

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

Faldo took advantage with six birdies and two bogeys, the three-time Open champion coming home in 33 over the toughest stretch of the course to post a four-over total of 217.

Faldo’s score was later matched by Swedish Ryder Cup player Pierre Fulke, who recovered from a bogey on the first to card four birdies and an eagle to set the early clubhouse target at three over.