Westwood claims edge over Watson in Open thriller

Lee Westwood was leading the British Open after ten holes of his final round on Sunday but Tom Watson was refusing to throw in the towel in his pursuit of a place in sporting history.

Westwood followed a two on the short sixth hole with a majestic eagle on the 538-yard 7th to claim the outright lead, one better than the 59-year-old American, who had three bogeys on his outward nine, and Australian Mathew Goggin.

Less than a year after undergoing hip replacement surgery, Watson had teed off in his final round with a one-shot advantage over Goggin and England's Ross Fisher.

He relinquished his lead on the first hole after depositing his approach from the middle of the fairway in a greenside bunker while, up ahead, Fisher had sunk a birdie putt.

A missed par putt from four feet cost Watson another shot at the third while Fisher's dream start continued when he chipped from short of the green for a three at the second.

But the Englishman's round unravelled disastrously when he found rough off the 5th tee. From the right, he needed two hacks to send his ball into an unplayable lie on the opposite side of the fairway, finally carding an eight that, following a four on the short fourth, sent him back to level par.

By the turn, he was two over after an outward nine of 40 shots. Westwood was looking much steadier but a wayward drive on the tenth cost him a five that cut his lead back to a single shot with eight holes to play.

Up ahead, Chris Wood, fifth on his Open debut last year, briefly shared the lead before back-to-back bogeys on 13 and 14 dented his challenge while Luke Donald, with a fine 67, set the clubhouse target at level par.

Retief Goosen, who was playing alongside another US Open winner, Jim Furyk, was two shots adrift of Westwood.

Fisher, who has vowed to abandon his bid for Open glory if his wife goes into labour, started his round reassured by news from home that wife Jo, who is expecting their first child and is now several days overdue, was showing no signs of starting her labour.

"She's in good shape and so is he," the 28-year-old's manager Conor Bridge said. "All good on the home front."

If Watson can recover to win, he will become the oldest winner of a major by an astonishing margin of 11 years on the course where, 32 years ago, he got the better of Jack Nicklaus in one of the most iconic contests in sporting history, the Duel in the Sun.

A sixth Open win would also match the record tally of Harry Vardon and eclipse five-times winners James Braid, J.H. Taylor and Peter Thomson.

Like Watson, Vardon won in three different decades but the 18-year gap between his first win, in 1896, and his last, in 1914, would be put in the shade by the 34 years separating this year's Open from Watson's first, winning appearance, at Carnoustie in 1975.

Watson has looked nerveless all week -- he claims his are "too well fried" to affect him -- but he was mindful of what happened to Greg Norman last year.

The Australian took a two-shot lead into the final round at Royal Birkdale but, after a closing 77, ended up six shots adrift of eventual winner Padraig Harrington in a tie for third place.

Harrington relinquised his crown with a closing 73 that left him 12 over for the tournament but confident his game was on the mend ahead of next month's defence of his US PGA title.

Among the early starters was Paul Lawrie, the 1999 champion, who registered a rare albatross after holing his four-iron second shot to the 538-yard seventh hole from 213 yards out. It was the first Open albatross since Gary Evans claimed a "double eagle" in the first round at Troon in 2004.