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Rose, Westwood fade away

20/ 7/2008

JUSTIN Rose (pictured) and Lee Westwood, two players who were the focus of attention in the build-up to The Open, found their championship over today - three hours before the leaders ventured out at Birkdale.

The two British stars began the final round on 18 over and 17 over par respectively, and finished 21 over and 20 over after matching rounds of 73.

At least on a day with showers and winds still gusting up to 33mph they were spared the the ignominy of finishing last courtesy of Lam Chih-bing, of Singapore, who staggered to a closing 81 to finish 31 over par.

Good scoring was still possible, South African Thomas Aiken firing a hat-trick of birdies from the seventh on his way to a round of 68 and 16 over total of 296.

And England's Paul Waring, born in nearby Birkenhead and a former DJ in the clubs and bars of Liverpool, had reached the turn in 32 to improve to 11 over par and inside the top 30.

The final pair were due out at 2:20pm, with Greg Norman - at 53 trying to pull off one of the most remarkable-ever victories in sport - two over par and two ahead of defending champion Padraig Harrington and South Korean KJ Choi.

England's Simon Wakefield, without a European Tour victory in 210 starts, was just a shot further back on five over with former champion Ben Curtis among a group of players five off the lead.

In addition to the three tees moved forward for the third round officials reduced the 10th by 27 yards to 381 yards.

The winds, which reached over 45mph yesterday, were expected to stay just below 40mph throughout the final day, but still bad enough, of course, to blow any title contender off course.