British Open 2012 Leaderboard: Scores and Recap for Saturday's Action

Saturday's Round 3 action at the 2012 British Open from Royal Lytham & St. Annes provided a few twists and turns atop the leaderboard and some excellent golf as the tournament's finale on Sunday began to take shape. 

The tournament's third day set up an intriguing final round, as Australian Adam Scott surged ahead to take a commanding four-stroke lead heading into the final day after firing a 68 and now stands at 11 under par for the tournament. 

Scott converted birdies on the seventh, eighth and 11th holes and only bogeyed once to take the lead.

Here are the biggest storylines, scores and recaps from Saturday's action.

Brandt Snedeker Cools Off

American Brandt Snedeker came into Saturday as the talk of the tournament. 

After shooting ten under par in the first two rounds, Snedeker established himself as the favorite to be the next British Open champion. In those first two rounds, Snedeker had played nearly perfect golf—shooting no bogeys in 36 holes. 

Unfortunately for Snedeker, he didn't keep his no-bogey streak alive today—he bogeyed four of five holes to finish out the first nine and hit six bogeys for the whole round. Snedeker finished the round with a 73 to go with his 66 and 64 from the previous two rounds. 

Snedeker isn't totally out of the running, he finished the round with a birdie that put him at No. 2 on the leaderboard, but he now sits four strokes behind Scott and will need to return to his earlier form to have a chance at catching the leader.

Graeme McDowell Enters Contention

McDowell entered the day as one of the many competitors that were tied for fifth on the leaderboard at four under par. However, he now enters Sunday as one of the few competitors with any chance to catch Adam Scott for the win.

McDowell hasn't put up any extremely impressive rounds as of yet, but he is one of the few golfers in the field that has been consistently under par. After shooting another 67 today, he is seven under for the tournament and right in the thick of things should Scott falter on Sunday.

Tiger Still Lurking

Besides Snedeker's early round performances, Tiger Woods' relevance has been the biggest storyline of the Open, and he will continue to be a story entering Sunday. 

Woods was unable to make the push for the lead that many expected him to make after shooting back to back rounds of 67 on the first two days—Woods finished with a 70 for an even par on the third day. Woods finished out the front nine with birdies on three out of four holes, but he failed to birdie any holes on the back nine and settled for a bogey on the 15th.

Sitting five shots behind the leader, Woods will need a legendary performance if he wants to claim a come-from-behind victory for his fifteenth major.

2012 British Open Top 10 Leaderboard After Three Rounds (courtesy of TheOpen.com)

Pos.	Player	Score	Thru
1	Adam Scott	-11	F
T2	Graeme McDowell	-7	F
T2	Brandt Snedeker	-7	F
4	Tiger Woods	-6	F
T5	Zach Johnson	-5	F
T5	Ernie Els	-5	F
7	Thorbjorn Olesen	-4	F
T8	Bill Haas	-3	F
T8	Thomas Aiken	-3	F
T10	Bubba Watson	-2	F

For full leaderboard, click here.