McGinley in contention after matching Woods

The three front-runners in the race for a first prize of more than £716,000 were among 20 players who had to finish off their third rounds at 7.30am following Saturday's thunderstorms.

Perry missed a birdie attempt from just under 10 feet on the last and so failed to equal Lee Westwood's superb Saturday 63, which lifted the Worksop golfer up from 39th to 10th.

Woods returned to the trees down the left of the 667-yard 16th. But he got the ball back on the fairway and then struck a 185-yard six-iron over the lake to 22 feet.

After two-putting for par there and on the next the Masters and Open champion went right off the tee at the 464-yard last and was in the trees again, but got the ball to within 25 feet of the flag and two-putted.

McGinley's first shot was a chip from over the back of the green. He got it down to five feet, made that and almost came up with a spectacular birdie at the 18th from 70 feet but came up just short.

"I'm obviously in a great position with a chance of winning," said the Dubliner. "But conditions have turned against me. The course is softer now and favours somebody like Tiger. I'd like to play the round of my life. It would mean a lot to win."