Australia’s world number six Jason Day shot up the British Open leaderboard on Saturday after firing a fine 65 in the third round at Royal Birkdale.
Day, the PGA champion in 2015, was one of a host of players to profit from the benign early conditions that contrasted sharply with the miserable weather late on Friday.
Day had five birdies and not a single bogey in his five-under-par round that saw him rocket up to even par for the championship.
He had only just made the cut on five-over after a dreadful round of 76 on Friday. He was five-over through his last three holes in his second round.
Day’s compatriot Scott Hend produced the best consecutive run of birdies this week as he had five in a row from the 13th en route to a 65, the joint-best score of the week.
Hend is level-par for the championship, as is South Africa’s Shaun Norris, who went out on his own in the first tee time of the day at 9:20am (0820 GMT) and also shot 65.
England’s Tommy Fleetwood, playing in front of a home crowd, had a four-under-par round of 66 to go to one-over for the week.
Among those making an early charge in their third round was world number one Dustin Johnson.
The American started the day at +3 but birdied four of the first eight holes to move to one under par overall.
Jordan Spieth leads the championship at six under par, two shots ahead of fellow American Matt Kuchar. They tee off in the final pairing at 3:55pm.
England’s Ian Poulter, runner-up here to Padraig Harrington in 2008, and current US Open champion Brooks Koepka are both three-under.
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