Let it blow and keep blowing. That was Brett Rumford's silent prayer on the almost shut-out Saturday that has pushed the Open into a Monday finish.
Rumford, still recovering from emergency surgery in March, was thankful he had already completed his second round on the brink of exhaustion.
The West Australian, who had more than 30 cms of intestine removed and spent 17 days in a South African hospital, displayed determination to add a third consecutive 71 to be three-under for the championship.
"I was really happy with that rest day. I did nothing yesterday and definitely felt more refreshed out there. I'm going to put the feet up this afternoon and just relax and take it easy for tomorrow,'' he said.
Rumford collected birdies at the fifth, 11th and 13th to surge to five-under before a double bogey at the par-five 14th halted his momentum.
"I was playing great and just got unlucky with a lie on 14. The hardest thing is hitting that fairway and I did, I was only two and a half feet away from the lip of a bunker. It was nice to be on the fairway, but I had no stance. I had to grip down on a four-iron which I pulled way left and it went into a pot bunker,'' he said
"I had to go out sideways and then hit a great eight-iron, the wind just didn't touch it, absolutely perfect, pin-high 15 feet left of the flag and it caught the swale and rolled down. I couldn't hole the one (putt) coming back and that took the winds out of the sails.
"I played ok coming in, just played smart and didn't do anything silly, so it was just a shame with that one hole.
"It was the first time we've played with hardly any wind, which is nice. A bit of rain through six and seven and the wind picked up a little bit and dropped away quickly again.''
Fellow West Australian Greg Chalmers set himself up to go low when he was three-under for the day after 10 holes. But he couldn't buy a putt for the rest of the back nine and had to settle for 69 to be six-under after three rounds.
"I had a lot of lovely chances coming in, a lot of 12-15 footers and they just didn't drop for me. I was pleased to shoot 69, but it could've been 66 easily. But 69 is still nothing to sneeze at, I played nicely,'' he said.
"I expect to see the leaders shoot away, so much will depend on what the leaders do. If they get to 15 (under), there will be a lot of guys between me and the leader. But if it stays around 10 or 11, you never know what the weather does tomorrow.''
Matt Jones couldn't capitalise on a solid start either. He picked up three birdies in the first five holes and played steadily until a wayward approach at the tough 17th cost him a shot, although he pulled it back with a birdie at the last for 69 to also sit at six-under heading into the final round.
"It was a good start and I missed a few birdie putts in the middle of the round,'' he said.
"Without question an average score today is going to be 69. There' no wind out there and they're going to be able to go at every pin. I'm happy (with 69) the way my golf game feels. I'm ecstatic.''
Bruce Matthews is a Herald Sun sport writer