The next three birdies were from longer range – a holed chip approach and 25ft+ (twice). After a bit of an altercation with a BBC cameraman and all three players in the Els group, Ernie did not take advantage of the 17th. He did though play great recovery shots at 12 and 18 for birdie fours and hit a five iron to 16ft at the 14th.

Ernie was playing a group which as ‘bussing’ throughout the round – Ignacio Garrido (67) and Paul Casey (68 – a bogey up the last). It was Casey most affected by some erratic driving by a camera buggy, something which contributed to Paul not playing the last as he should have. Ernie was asked about Paul possibly being good enough to be World No 1 in the future –

‘Is he good enough – definitely. He is strong enough, he hits it beautiful, he’s very aggressive out there and he is a typical modern player. He is young enough and it looks like he is hungry enough.

As for the No 1 ranking –

‘The next, as I say, the next couple of years, if we keep playing the way we have been playing, its going to be close and it will be a real challenge for five, six, seven players.

I think its obviously Tiger, Vijay, myself, Phil (Mickleson), David love. You look at the younger guys, I think Adam Scott is coming through, Trevor Immelman, Paul Casey, obviously Mike Weir is up there.’

Finishing a little before Ernie and his –17 group was Paul Broadhurst and his playing partners. Paul contributed a 78 to his threesome and did not make a birdie all day.

‘I played rubbish. I didn’t play well last week (although Paul admitted his short game was excellent) and everything went left. It was OK on the range.

‘The course is a good course but my best finish is 30th in 13 attempts. It’s set up for someone to shoot really low but I have too many battle scars from round here.

‘I play Celtic Manor well – I made the cut in Italy and thought I had ‘conquered’ that. I ‘conquered’ the Forest and then I ‘conquered’ last week.

There were 67s from Colsaerts, Richard Green and David Gilford over lunch whilst welcome visitor Peter Lonard faded slightly on the second nine for a 69. If players were to fulfil Broadie’s prediction of some very low scoring, none of the feature pairings start for the live BBC coverage during the afternoon seemed in any rush to try to bridge the three shot gap between Els and the field.

Steve Webster had a two at the second but failed to find another birdie until the 11th – having not taken advantage of any of the early par fives. The story of his round was more than interesting when he parred the last two for a 71.

The only real early afternoon move came from Stephen Dodd who reached the 17th tee six under par courtesy of six birdies and some very straight driving and from the cut stuff, some excellent iron play. Dodds has a fear of flying and looks forward to weeks where he can drive to events. He doesn’t look at leaderboards and his five at the 18th was just trying to make one more birdie, coming off the shot and finding the front bunker – not the thought of sharing first place with Els.

Walking off the 18th was a smiling Steve Webster, courtesy not just of his score but because he has Padriag Harrington’s ex caddy Dave McNally on his bag for this week at least. Three hour sessions (for the whole of the week) with the man used to the Irish superstar’s work ethic had obviously paid off as Webster talked about his tee to green golf – then his putting.

‘I played really well. I could have been seven under after 7 but I wasn’t, I was level. I feel a lot more confident (because of the practice). On the putting green, I didn’t commit properly to the shots. It feels great on the putting green and its 200 times better than the Forest (the British Masters where Steve missed the cut).’

As the Feature groups turned for home, it was this season’s three time winner, globe trotting Miguel Angel Jiminez, who was best placed to try to match or equal Els. Out in 30 (-5) another birdie at the difficult 15th. His playing partners Colin Montgomerie and Retief Goosen were having mixed fortunes.

Goosen was one under at the turn, bogied the next two then birdied three of the next four. Monty meantime was out in 37 (+2), went back to –1 with a four at the 12th and proceeded to hole a soft four iron for a two at the 13th. He would drop a shot at 15 as would others when ready to take advantage of the two finishing par fives. As things turned out, all played the last three well, Jiminez finishing three five four for a 65 and Goosen adding two red numbers to his card for a 69 – Monty was on 70.

Angel Cabrera ruined a good card with a double bogey at the 15th, Ian Poulter dropped one shot there to go back to –3. It would be a 67 for the Argentinean and a 68 for Poulter.

No one was really in with a chance of getting to Els’s score. Some, like Darren Clarke and Brain Davis were trying to rescue very poor starts. David was out in 39 and had little chance, Clarke found four birdies in a row to get to –2, then finished strongly for a 68, courtesy of a gee-up from playing partner Vijay Singh on the 9th.

‘I kept hitting greens but my putting was atrocious to say the least. I don’t know what turned it round but Vijay said to me on the 9th ‘Come on’ – he has been very good to me and we spend a lot of time in each other’s company in the US.’

It was a much more respectable round for Justin Rose with his new driver and Vijay Singh, he of the long putter (one of which was deposited into Els’s locker in response to the leader having said that they should be banned) was steady – for a 66.

Matt McGuire, our other Warwickshire representative through his qualification through the Midland PGA Order of Merit, started with a bogey at the third. Itv would be late into the evening before Matt finished and he knuckled down with two immediate birdies as he looked for a sub par start.