Garcia takes clubhouse lead at The Open

Sergio Garcia today set the clubhouse target in the third round of the Open at Muirfield as he looked to break his major duck at the 60th attempt.

Garcia carded a three-under-par 68 to finish three over par as fellow Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez headed out on to the course with a one-shot lead at three under.

It looked only a matter of time before Garcia would win a major after he chased home Tiger Woods in memorable fashion as a precocious 19-year-old in the 1999 US PGA Championship at Medinah.

But the 33-year-old has yet to win one of the game's four biggest events and said during last year's US Masters that he had come to the conclusion he was not good enough to do so and needed to "play for second or third place".

Twelve months later Garcia shot an opening 66 to share the lead at Augusta and said of his previous comment: "It was one of those moments where you are a little frustrated. It probably came out wrong the way I said it."

He went on to finish eighth behind Adam Scott and 45th at the US Open, meaning he came into this week with 16 top-10 finishes in 59 major appearances.

"I've always said this is, as an individual tournament, this is definitely my favourite," the Ryder Cup star said after a round of six birdies and three bogeys. "And it would be nice (to win a major). But hopefully it won't be the only one.

"Finally it felt like I knew what I was doing out there, and it wasn't easy. It was definitely breezier than it was yesterday but I finally was able to hit some good shots and was able to trust my shots a little bit better. Thanks to that, I was able to score nicely.

"Obviously I needed to do something like that today to have a slight chance.

"The majority of the pins were a bit more accessible. You could see that they put a little bit of water on the course. I'm not going to say it was soft, because it wasn't, but it was definitely not as firm and if you drove the ball well you were able to hit some good shots."

At the age of 49 - and just seven months after breaking his leg skiing - Jimenez was looking to become the oldest winner in major championship history, but his lead only lasted a few minutes.

World number one Tiger Woods, chasing a 15th major title and first since the 2008 US Open, birdied the second from long range to join Jimenez on three under.

Garcia was joined as clubhouse leader by Brandt Snedeker, whose 69 continued a rollercoaster week which has seen the American card 13 birdies and an eagle, seven bogeys, four double bogeys and a triple bogey.

Scotland's Martin Laird was also on three over, but the home hope had only played three holes of his round after running up a nine on the third.

Laird took two penalty drops for unplayable lies in the heavy rough, the second coming after he had attempted to hack out near the green but failed to move the ball.

He was now six off the lead held outright by Woods, Jimenez having seen his par putt on the second lip out from three feet.