World's best climb Troon leaderboard

The cream was rising to the top at Troon this afternoon as the world’s best players packed the leaderboard at the British Open championship.

The world’s top seven ranked players were all in contention in the third round and quickly closing the gap on surprise leader Skip Kendall and second placed Thomas Levet.

Tiger Woods was the first to make a move, starting the day six shots off the lead but but quickly closing the gap with back-to-back birdies.

The world number one took an iron off the tee on the 370-yard first and left himself with almost 160 yards to the flag, but fired a superb approach to 10ft and holed for a three.

The same tactics also paid off on the second, this time Woods only needing to cover four feet of green for another birdie.

US Masters champion Phil Mickelson was quickly among the birdies as well, although the world number four took a more unorthodox route.

The left-hander sliced his drive over the crowd and into thick rough to the left of the 18th fairway, but played a brilliant recovery to 10ft for birdie.

Mickelson played an even better approach to the second for a tap-in birdie to climb to five under, and was soon joined by world number two Ernie Els, who holed from eight feet on the first.

Not to be outdone, US Open champion Retief Goosen birdied the third and fourth to make it a seven-way tie for third on five under, two behind Kendall who was playing the first as the heavens opened.

That was the last thing Colin Montgomerie needed, the Scot not a fan of playing in bad weather despite growing up on the Troon course of which he is still a member.

The 41-year-old, roared on by the home support, saved par from a greenside bunker on the second but bogeyed the third after finding sand off the tee and being forced to play out sideways.

That looked like being a very costly mistake with the rest of the field picking up shots, but Montgomerie responded well with a two-putt birdie on the par five fourth, narrowly missing for eagle.

Woods made it three birdies in four holes when he two-putted the par five fourth and was unlucky to see another birdie putt from five feet on the sixth catch the edge of the hole and spin out.

The eight-time major winner, who could lose his status as world number one for the first time since August 1999 if Els were to win on Sunday, was Woods quickly back among the birdies from 10ft on the seventh to move into a share of third.