Harrington three over

Defending Open champion Padraig Harrington is three over par going into today's third round, tied in 53rd place.

Paul McGinley is one shot better off.

Meanwhile, Colin Montgomerie wants to draw a line under the controversy surrounding Sandy Lyle’s disparaging comments about him.

The eight-time European number one’s name has been in the headlines all week but for the wrong reasons after his fellow Scot called him a cheat and “a drama queen”.

Montgomerie, who missed the cut at five over, admitted the row had affected his game at the Open in Turnberry but wanted to move on from the matter.

When asked if he had been distracted by Lyle’s comments the 46-year-old replied: “Very much so, yes.”

Lyle, 51, said that when Montgomerie incorrectly replaced his ball after a weather delay in Jakarta four years ago it was “a form of what you would call cheating”.

The 1985 Open champion subsequently called Montgomerie “a drama queen”.

A row blew up when Lyle was asked if his decision to walk out of last year’s Open at Royal Birkdale mid-round in atrocious weather complaining about problems with his hands had jeopardised his chances of becoming Ryder Cup captain.

That job was given to Montgomerie earlier this year but Lyle said he still held out hope of being involved behind the scenes.

Those chances are now non-existent, however, after the man leading Europe at Celtic Manor in 2010 had his say.

“I thought it was amusing – and this is the last thing I want to say on the matter – that he hopes it (the row over his comments) doesn’t jeopardise his vice-captaincy position,” said Montgomerie. “I thought that was very funny.”

Lyle also said he wanted to end the simmering row.

“I feel sorry for Colin in some ways. I don’t want to keep stirring the pot but I keep opening my mouth and I keep making back pages,” said the 1988 Masters winner.

“I think we have to call an end and it will all be dealt with behind the scenes.

“Through managers we will make some contact but [Montgomerie’s] mobile number might be hard to get right now and even if I ring I’m not sure he will answer it.

“I have to know what he is feeling like. I would think he will be well and truly fuelled after the headlines this morning. But I think we’ve seen enough and we need to get on and play golf.

“A lot of us know he is an emotional person and gets a bit hot under the collar and little comments like this in the papers don’t help.

“But he’ll get over it, he is a big enough boy. I think he has been in the game long enough. I’ll get on with my game, he’ll get on with his and it will all be forgotten in a couple of months’ time.”