British Open 2012 Leaderboard: Tiger Woods Faces 5-Stroke Deficit on Sunday

The final round of the 2012 Open Championship is all that is left at Royal Lytham and St. Annes, and Tiger Woods faces a difficult task trying to catch Adam Scott. 

Scott took a commanding lead after the third day in Lancashire, and he is the clear favorite to win the competition at this point.

Here is the leaderboard, along with a breakdown of the four players who will contend for the title.

Day 3 Leaderboard

Postion	Player	Score
1	Adam Scott	-11
T2	Brandt Snedeker	-7
T2	Graeme McDowell	-7
4	Tiger Woods	-6
T5	Zach Johnson	-5
T5	Ernie Els	-5
7	Thorbjorn Olesen	-4
T8	Thomas Aiken	-3
T8	Bill Haas	-3
T10	Matt Kuchar	-2

Full leaderboard available at ESPN.com

Top Performers

Adam Scott 

Royal Lytham’s 205 bunkers demand discipline and caution from the tournament’s contestants, but Scott has defied conventional wisdom with every stroke.

He continued to take risks on Saturday, and he now has a four-stroke lead as a buffer from the field. 

The Aussie has let it rip from the tee and paid no mind to any notions of settling for par. His tournament-best marks of 15 birdies and a 319.8-yard average driving distance are evidence of his fearlessness. 

If Scott continues his surprisingly successful strategy on Sunday, no one will catch him.

Brandt Snedeker

Snedeker hit par or better on every one of the first 36 holes, but he came back down to Earth during the third round.

He recorded his first four bogeys of the tournament on the front nine and finished the day at three-over par.

Snedeker’s conservative strategy required a complete absence of mistakes, and he was able to do that before the weekend. 

After this slip-up, he may be finished. It is unlikely he will play the gunslinger role as well as Scott.

Graeme McDowell 

McDowell surged during the third round, hitting five birdies to drop his score at seven-under par.

He is finding his stroke at the right time, and his fine performance on Saturday may turn him into Scott’s top challenger.

McDowell’s biggest advantage over the Aussie is that he knows what it takes to play out a pressure-packed Sunday and to come out on top. The feeling he's had after winning the 2010 U.S. Open will certainly be a motivating factor throughout the final round.

Still, Scott’s lead is daunting, and McDowell will have to be nothing short of spectacular in order to catch him.

Tiger Woods

Scott’s advantage will require something special from the other players, and Woods certainly is a unique talent.

Every player on the course in Lancashire knows the type of round Woods is capable of producing. Unfortunately, his 70 during the third round was all too ordinary.

While his recent results at majors have certainly been disappointing, his three victories at PGA events this year are a clear sign of improvement. 

The player who dominated golf for a decade is still waiting to be unleashed once again, and Woods is the field’s best shot at producing a player who can track down Scott.