LONDON, England – (BBC) – Tom Watson will take a one-shot lead going into the final day of the 138th Open at Turnberry as he chases a fairytale sixth title.

The 59-year-old carded two birdies in his final three holes for a third-round 71 to end a compelling day four under.

Ross Fisher leads the British challenge after a 70 put him together with Australian Mathew Goggin one behind.

England’s Lee Westwood and South African Retief Goosen are sitting two strokes off the lead.

American duo Jim Furyk and Stewart Cink are just behind on one under and are the only other players under par after another blustery day made low scoring difficult.

Only five players managed to card an under-par round and with the wind set to increase today, another unpredictable day is in prospect.

But Watson, who collected the last of his eight majors at the Open in 1984, has displayed a mastery of the conditions all week and today will draw on a wealth of links experience in his quest for a remarkable win.

Watson shared the lead with unheralded American Steve Marino going into the third day and although he slipped to two under with bogeys at the 9th, 12th and 15th, his closing birdies put him back on top of the leaderboard.

Fisher, who finished fifth at this year’s US Open, also had birdies at 16 and 17 to raise home hopes of a first British Open winner since Paul Lawrie in 1999.

But there is still a chance that the 28-year-old will not play in the final round as he has insisted all week that he will leave the tournament should his pregnant wife Jo go into labour.

“It’s going to be very, very difficult but hopefully I can keep my mind on the job and just perform as well as I can,” said Fisher, who will be paired with Westwood today.

“Hopefully I won’t have to make any rush decisions and hopefully Jo can hang on.

“I don’t feel any pressure at having a chance of ending the British drought. I’m not sure why a British guy hasn’t won the Open; we’ve got a tremendous amount of talent in the game.

“Playing with Lee will be great fun. I’m hoping we can have some banter and throw birdies at each other and try and get our names on top of the leaderboard.”

Goggin, currently 58th in the world, has missed the cut in his previous two Open appearances but an impressive 69 has placed him in the last group for today.

“After watching Greg Norman, Ian Baker-Finch and Peter Thomson, all the great champions winning the Open, this has become the dream,” said the 35-year-old Australian. “It’s nice to be living it out.”

Westwood had the chance to join Fisher and Goggin on three under after claiming two birdies on the back nine but he carded a bogey at the last after finding deep rough at the front of the green.

But despite that blip, the 36-year-old is hoping that his good form of late will see him through today’s final round.

“The more experiences you have the more equipped you become to handle most situations,” said the world number 17, who narrowly missed out at last year’s US Open.

“Having been in contention at the US Open, and playing that last round with Tiger Woods and learning a lot there, I can carry that on through to tomorrow (today).

“I’ll be trying to play a bit better, be very patient and try not to make too many mistakes out there.”