WATSON HOLDS OFF ENGLISH CHALLENGE

AS one TW, Tiger Woods, flew home dejectedly in his private jet, another TW, five-times Open champion Tom Watson, threatened to rewrite the history books with another fabulous Turnberry display to take a one-shot lead into today's final round. Britain's hopes are resting Ross Fisher and Lee Westwood, one and two shots behind the 59-year-old, and a new, unexpected challenger emerged in the shape of 350-1 shot Mat Goggin, a scruffily-bearded Tasmanian who has never won on the PGA Tour and only came into the 138th Championship as a reserve. Amazingly, Coral went 10-1 Goggin, runner-up in last year's Australian Open, after he had finished his round in 69 to post the clubhouse target at three-underpar 207, one ahead of Westwood, who hit two bad shots on the final 100 hole in an otherwise solid 70 that gives him a huge chance of being England's first Open champion since Nick Faldo in 1992. With Watson and overnight coleader Steve Marino among those still on the course, Westwood emerged as 4-1 favourite, with Jim Furyk, one behind him and two adrift of the lead, at 7-1, Goggin best at 10-1 and 14-1 old Tom, who showed few signs of weakening. Hills cut the odds against a play-off tonight from 12-5 to 7-4 as the Open continued to look wide open with a whole raft of golfers, many of them hardly household names, getting themselves in position to win the title. At one stage there were 28 players within five of the lead and it was looking as if anyone from two over par had a shot at it. The expected charge from Sergio Garcia was wrecked by putting woes, and both Furyk and Vijay Singh failed to take advantage of their vast experience on "moving Saturday". Expectant father Fisher stayed in the hunt, though, making a birdie at 16 that put him level with Westwood with the 59- yard 17th to come, and if either he or Westwood wins, it will be a horror story for the bookies. Ladbrokes, Hills and Betfred all reporting the Worksop man their biggest loser in the pre- Open exchanges. Hills spokesman Rupert Adams said: "Watson is by far our worst in-running result as someone has ?200 running on him at 100-1 and there have been masses of scores and tenners because he is such a legend. "And if a Brit can't win, the public would like him to do so. "It would be one of the great sporting fairytales of all time and as he would would win us ?1m in the pre-tournament book, we wouldn't mind at all losing on the in-running betting." The layers were doubtless pleased to see Westwood make a mess of the last - he was lucky to drop only one stroke - just as he joined Goggin at the top of the leaderboard as he is their worst result. Punters piled in when Ladbrokes went 33-1 bar Tiger on Wednesday morning and were holding aloft a wedge of bets from ?500 downwards. Betfred reported a ?1,000 eachway wager at 33-1 and Hills saw "two four-figure bets and a rush of three-figure bets" on Lee. "He's the one we really don't want," agreed Hills' Adams and Ladbrokes' Roger Tull. Because of the uncertainty regarding Fisher's attendance for the full four days - he promised to down clubs and fly to his wife Jo's bedside immediately the news came through that the already-late arrival of his firstborn was about to happen - there was less ante-post interest in the Wentworth youngster who was fresh from finishing fifth in last month's US Open. Once again he completely outplayed the far-more-heralded Rory McIlroy, yet it is the Northern Irishman who continues to gather most of the headlines. Yesterday McIlroy opened disastrously with three bogeys but finished like a lion with birdies at 16, 17 and 18. Even so, he is nearer last than first, though not as far down the field as the outgoing champion Padraig Harrington, who shot 76 to slump nine over par. Still, at least he has made the weekend which is in itself a triumph after missing five straight cuts on both tours. After an early birdie to go four under par, Retief Goosen became clear favourite but had a nightmare on the par-five seventh, going unplayable with his first and third shots and running up a seven. More dropped shots were to follow in an action replay of the fadeouts which saw him lose handy leads in Munich and Loch Lomond in the past few weeks. Halfway co-leader Marino, on his first Open visit, soon found out what links Golf was all about as he dropped five shots in four holes from the second, only to bounce back with an eagle at the seventh. But he missed too many shortish putts to hold his place, one 300-1 shot giving way to a 350-1 shot at the front. There were shades of the Masters and US Open, won by 150- 1 shotAngel Cabrera and 225-1 rag Lucas Glover respectively. And o f o u r Open , t o o . Remember those two 999-1 Betfair back-to-back winners Ben Curtis and Todd Hamilton? Are we due for another one today? The best round of the day came from unheralded American Bryce Molder, his 67 making him the early pacesetter at level par and a 33-1 shot. Molder is a Nationwide Tour player who has earned a few main-tour starts recently and made hay while the sun shone. He finished runner-up at St Jude and fourth to Tiger at Congressional.