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All the action as it unfolded on an enthralling Sunday of the US Open at Bethpage Black.

1.09am - Thanks for joining us for what's been an absolutely enthralling day's golf. With the leaders looking shaky, and everyone from Tiger Woods to Rory McIlroy getting into things with the birdies, we could have an absolutely awesome finale to this championship!

Play gets going again at 2pm UK time - we'll see you there!

1.05am - As chance would have it, Tiger Woods is the last man to hit a shot on the course... and he rolls in his birdie on the seventh!!! What a finish by the world number one!

That was as gutsy a putt as you could ever see. Tiger is still seven back, but with Barnes looking decidedly dodgy - and in enormous trouble overnight on the second - Lucas Glover could be the major factor.

1.03am - Those who have carried on are missing putts everywhere, with Mike Weir bogeying the third and Graeme McDowell missing a solid birdie chance on the fourth.

Tiger is looking at his putt - he wants to drain this and go to sleep tonight feeling pumped up, on the back of a birdie, and at level par...

1am - Rory McIlroy opts to take on his birdie putt on the first, but he drags it agonisingly round the edge of the cup.

12.59am - With the light fast fading on a cloudy evening, the officials decide it's time to blow the hooter to mark the end of play.

Players have the option to finish up the hole they're on, and several of them will do so - including Tiger Woods, who hits a stunning second shot on seven.

12.55am - Barnes has hit a horrible drive on the second - he's miles into the rough on the left, and is totally blocked out from seeing the green.

12.52am - Ricky Barnes knocks in his bogey putt, Lucas Glover finishes his three-footer for par - and we have a tie for the lead.

Mickelson's birdie is never near the hole, however.

Then, with Barnes and Glover moving off to the second tee, Rory McIlroy nails a beautiful iron to six feet on the first!

12.50am - Woah... bad news for Ricky Barnes, whose second shot to the first came up well short.... as did his pitched third. His sixty-footer for par runs three feet past .

Up on the second, Phil Mickelson earns a 15ft birdie putt, while further up the course Tiger misses yet another opportunity on the sixth.

12.42am - Bad news for Ross Fisher: the frantic work he was doing in on the putting green between rounds doesn't seem to have helped, as he pulls his four-footer for par on the opening hole. Terrible miss, and he looks disconsolate.

Looking happier, though, is Oliver Wilson, who rolls in a 30ft birdie putt on the fourth to get back to one over par.

12.38am - The leaders are on the first tee: first up, Lucas Glover pushes his ball off to the right into the rough; and then Ricky Barnes pulls his in the other direction, and it seems to settle down a little in the first cut.

Definite signs of nerves, but that's understandable: these two each know that they're probably only one half-decent round from winning the US Open.

12.32am - Up on the first green Mickelson's birdie attempt isn't bad, but runs just past the left edge. It's a safe par, and he stays at two under.

And across on the 18th, Rory McIlroy has hit a fabulous approach... but his putt just refuses to turn enough and the Hollywood man is restricted to two under for his penultimate nine holes.

Depending on the light we're expecting about another 30-40 minutes play, by the way.

12.30am - "From Surrey, England: Ross Fisher" comes the cry on the first tee, and the Wentworth man steps up to the plate... and pushes his drive slightly into the rough. Not bad, and better than playing partner David Duval's hook into thick-ish rough.

12.28am - Mickelson stares down his 144-yard wedge shot to the first - and it's straight down the pin, but just half a dozen paces short. Still, it's a chance...

12.25am - Olly Wilson is two over par after a bit of a rough start to his final round that saw him bogey the birdie-opportunity second hole.

Best players on the course at the moment are Stenson, who is still two under, and Rory McIlroy, who is two under after eight holes to get to two over par. Rory started on 10, so if he plunders the birdie chances from 18th to fourth holes he could set a target.

12.20am - Tiger's not going to win this one, I don't think: he misses the birdie chance at the fourth after only getting his bunker shot to around 50ft, and though he holes the six-foot par putt he leaves himself it just doesn't look like he's playing well enough to make this happen.

One man who might win it, Phil Mickelson, has just played off the first however.... and nailed a perfect drive over the corner of the dogleg. Superb.

12.13am - Sean O'Hair is the first of the under par players to get started - AND HE BIRDIES THE FIRST! The multiple winner on the US Tour is two under par.

Here comes Tiger with his second to the fourth - it's 251 left to go... and he hates it! It's a proper stinker, hooking round low and finding a horrible spot on the downslope of the giant bunker just short of the green.

12.10am - Woods shouts at himself after carving his tee shot a little to the right on the par-5 fourth... but the ball drops onto the fairway and he's a chance of finding the green.

Francesco Molinari, meanwhile, hits shot of the week on the par-3 14th - which is playing at just 127 yards in the fourth round to a tiny slither of green at the front - and the ball is just inches away from the cup.

12.05am - Only a par for Woods on the par-3 third hole... but there's a short par-5 coming up next. The world number one needs an eagle on it... but if he were to do it, he'll cause a bit of sleep deprivation to some of the leaders tonight.

12am - Denmark's Soren Hansen has just birdied the first to get to level par - and that backs up what Lucas Glover was saying about this not being a two-horse race.

"There's too many great players, and the golf course is too good," he said in between rounds.

"Somebody is going to make a run. The greens are still soft and they are rolling perfect. So I fully expect a handful of guys to make a run."

11.53 - Oh we of little faith... the Great One - that's Tiger Woods Esq. - has bounced straight back from that messy opening bogey by pouring in a tricky 20-footer on the second hole.

He might be spraying it around from time to time, but he missed a pile of putts earlier on. If he's fixed that putting during the break, anything is still possible...

11.46pm - Lee Westwood saw his challenge fade earlier, but has just hit a lovely bunker shot on the third to save par.

Other than Stenson and Anthony Kim - who has had an early birdie - the scoring is pretty mediocre so far in the final round, with most players having dropped shots already.

11.41pm - Tiger misses that long par putt and is off to a terrible start to his final round. At two over par, it's surely too much even for him to come back into it.

11.36pm - Henrik Stenson hits a beautiful pitch shot on the fourth to register his second birdie of the day. That's Stenson back to one over par for the championship.

Woods, meanwhile, has been forced to pitch out of the trees and after playing his third still has 25ft for a par.

11.32pm - Tiger's playing partner Michael Sim - the standout star on the Nationwide Tour this year - is in the middle of the fairway, but Woods cuts his drive poorly into the trees on the right for the second time today.

11.26pm - Sergio has drawn a reasonable lie in the muddy, beer sodden grass, and after several minutes trying to clear drunken spectators off his line he takes a swipe... and smacks the ball to 15ft!

That gets him off up the hole, and leaves Tiger Woods to tee off on this first hole.

11.23pm - Amazingly, Sergio has found his ball in some horrific long grass - and he's forced to hack it towards the beer tent!

11.15pm - Sergio has just teed off... but he's pulled his ball into tangly stuff beyond the first cut to the left of the first fairway.

11.11pm - Rory McIlroy has birdied his second hole, the 11th, to get himself back to three over par.

11.04pm - Stenson has just spun his approach at the second back to 12ft, and will have that for a second birdie.

Sergio Garcia is off in about 15 minutes, incidentally...

11pm - Henrik Stenson has had an okay-ish US Open - and has been struggling a little since his Players Championship win - but he's had a cracking start to his final round here by pitching in for a birdie from 35 yards on the first to get back to two over par.

10.45pm - Okay, we've had time for a cup of coffee - and to put together a round up of the play and the best of the players' quotes (click links beneath the picture for these, and also the gallery of some of the best pictures from the championship).

Play is about to get under way, and though it remains to be seen how many holes we'll get in - particularly for the leaders - it's been thrilling stuff, and we frankly can't get enough of it at the moment.

10.15pm - Barnes, amazingly, is ranked outside the world's top 500 - he's number 519 - which would make him the lowest-ever ranked player to win a Major, beating Ben Curtis's record.

The rankings have only been in operation since 1986, incidentally, so any other surprise champs wouldn't have been quantified in the same way.

We've just heard that round four will begin at 10.40pm UK time .

10.00pm - Glover two putts safely for a round of 70, and considering that he looked like it was all going horribly wrong at one point that's a stunningly gutsy performance: 38 shots on the way out, just 32 on the way back in.

There's worse luck for Ricky Barnes, however: he misses that four-footer to drop back to eight under par. That's rounds of 70 for both players.

9.59pm - Fantastic chip from a tricky spot by Barnes. There was a bit of good fortune in that one, since the shot had an element of hit and hope. He's all-but guaranteed a par.

9.55pm - The final two-ball have played to the 18th, with Glover finding the front of the green and facing a tough two-putt, while Barnes is in deep rough close to the egde of the green.

9.53pm - Weir misses the putt, and that's a real shame : you feel that if he'd holed it, the resulting confidence boost might have carried him into the final round with a real chance of victory.

9.47pm - Mike Weir has had a tough couple of rounds after that brilliant opening round of 64, but he's managed to stick around - and with a stunning approach to four feet on the last has a chance to join the group at three under par.

9.42pm - David Duval rattles in his birdie on the final hole to get to three under, and it'll be he rather than Mickelson who plays alongside Ross Fisher in the final round.

9.39pm - Amazing putt from Barnes! He was miles from the hole on the 17th green, but has just trickled a 40ft putt into the hole for a staggeringly unlikely birdie - and he's back up to nine under par, and has re-established the two-shot lead that Glover had closed to one with that birdie on 16.

9.38pm - David Duval has just hit a stunner to the final green, giving himself eight feet for a birdie...

9.28pm - FINALLY ONE GOES IN FOR FISHER!!! If he'd had even a half-decent putting round he'd have shot 65, but the Wentworth player's round does at least finish on a high note as he rolls in that five footer for a birdie and a round of 69.

It leaves Fisher three under par, right at the top of the pack chasing Barnes and Glover - and it's fairly likely that Ross will be paired with Phil Mickelson in the penultimate group.

9.26pm - Since that incredible mid-round collapse Lucas Glover's iron play has been nothing short of brillilant. He's just knocked another one to within a few feet.

9.25pm - David Duval sees an utterly splendid putt trickle just past the hole on 17 - but he's looking good, staying solid, and is still in contention. Can he really win another Major, after years of being deader than a dodo that's just fallen down the stairs and then been run over by a steamroller?

9.19pm - We're almost getting bored of saying this - almost - but Ross Fisher has hit yet another stupendous iron shot and faces yet another makeable birdie putt...

For flibberty-jibbets sake, let's hope he can finally stick one in the blanfoogling cup!!!!

9.16pm - A slightly pulled tee shot at 15 leads to a bogey for Barnes, and with Lucas Glover playing a great chip on the same hole to save par the lead is back to two.

Meanwhile Sean O'Hair, playing behind Ross Fisher, birdies the 17th after a great tee shot - and he's up to two under as well. This could be a classic tussle for the lead - so long as the two runaway leaders don't continue running away with it, of course...

9.12pm - Lee Westwood taps in for par on the last, finishing two over par for the championship after a 74. Such a shame for Westy: he was four under par at one stage early on, but five bogeys and a double bogey today have totally derailed his challenge.

9.08pm - Tiger stands over his putt on the ninth, his last hole... and once again, the putt burns the right edge of the cup and stays up.

Ross Fisher, meanwhile, has given himself a chance at yet another birdie on the 17th... but he misses once more. Still, one more par will keep him right up there for the final round.

9.02pm - Phil Mickelson's chances of a birdie on the last go out of the window as he's left a 50ft putt across a hill to the distant hole... BUT HE ROLLS IT RIGHT IN AT THE EDGE OF THE CUP!!!!

Totally unbelievable, that gets Lefty to two under par, and he's really in with a chance of pulling off a tearjerking victory now. The stage is set... can he do it?

Tiger, over on the ninth, plays a solid shot to the green - but it's left him 35ft for his birdie.

9pm - Mike Weir has just played to the 15th green with a wedge - he was in trouble off the tee, so that's his third shot - and the ball has spun back off the front to leave a horrible 80ft putt.

8.55pm - Lucas Glover lags a great 60ft putt up next to the hole on 14 - then Ricky Barnes has a got at almost the same exact putt, and it lips out!

This pair looked like collapsing completely earlier on, but all credit to them: they've got things back on track and now both look comfortable with riding high in a Major.

We'd still back the pair of them to collapse before the end , though...

8.52pm - Tiger has another birdie chance on the eight, but once again it slides just by... and you wonder if it's almost too late for him now. If he doesn't birdie the ninth then there will be one hell of a hill to climb in the final round.

Still, if Tiger had holed half the putts that he normally would have done during this sort of round, he'd be three under par by now.

8.48pm - Mickelson stands up to his putt on 17... but he leaves it three inches short! Astounding miss - you felt as if the crowd would simply will the ball into the hole - but the 18th is another birdie chance for the left-hander.

8.46pm - We've not mentioned 2004 Open champ Todd Hamilton much today, but primarily because he's been doing very little of not: just a string of steady pars to keep himself right in the thick of it at three under par.

Ricky Barnes, meanwhile, has hit a terrific pitch on the par-5 13th and rolled in a five-foot putt to get back to nine under par.

8.41pm - Mickelson has had birdies on the first three par-3s today, and on the 17th he fires the ball in to 16ft - just that for the full set of twos!

Phil would get to one under par if he knocks that one in - Tiger, though, can no longer get that low after his birdie try on the seventh slides agonisingly past the right edge.

8.39pm - Ross Fisher missed that very doable birdie on 14, but has at least saved par on 15 thanks to a bunker shot to a couple of feet.

Incredibly, Fisher is yet to drop a shot from sand this week: six times he's been in bunkers, six times he's saved par...

8.37pm - You'd almost think Tiger Woods heard the roar for Phil's putt and used it to spur him on: either way, the world number one carves a brilliant approach to the 7th to leave himself a 10ft birdie chance...

8.35pm - Good drives for Barnes and Glover on 13 help them iron out the wobbles.

David Duval, up on the 14th, pumps in a lovely tee shot to leave himself 10ft uphill for a birdie...

And Phil Mickelson, after the disappointment of that bogey on 15, has just knocked in a crazy 50-footer for birdie on the 16th!

8.25pm - Olly Wilson taps in for a par on the 18th for a round of 71, leaving him one over par for the championship.

Back on the 12th, Ricky Barnes has charged his first putt well past the pin, and misses the one back - it's another bogey , and he's back to eight under par, level for the day.

Lee Westwood's trouble continues as well: pitching his third shot to the long par-4 15th after a bad drive, he comes up well short of the pin and faces a tough two-putt to save bogey.

8.17pm - Ross Fisher just missed a 10ft birdie putt on 13, but has rifled the ball to eight feet on the par-3 14th. He d esperately needs to start finding the bottom of the cup: tee to green he's been awesome, if he'd been putting better he could easily be up with the lead.

8.15pm - Bad news for Lee Westwood: after missing the green on the 14th he hit a poor pitch from a very tough spot, and has just missed a short putt for a bogey... That's Westy back to one over par, and could spell the end for his challenge.

8.11pm - Glover pops in that short birdie chance on 11 - the ball trickling slowly into the cup - and the lead is back to just three shots.

Phil Mickelson is struggling for a par on 15, incidentally: he drove the ball into the garbage, and had to hack out sideways.

8.09pm - Rory McIlroy dropped a couple of late shots, but a 72 is no disgrace. He's no chance of contending in round four at four over - short of setting a new final round record of 59 - but it's not a bad effort at all for a first US Open.

8.04pm - Just as the field have started thinking that there's hope as Barnes falters, Lucas Glover gets himself back into the groove: after making the only birdie of the third round on the 10th, he's just hit an incredible approach straight over the stick on 11.

The rain is starting to fall, incidentally; let's hope that it doesn't get too heavy...

8.02pm - Mickelson is back under par! He's rolled in that birdie brilliantly on the 14th to be one under for the tournament, and one under for the day.

Retief Goosen, meanwhile, birdies the 18th for a 68: he's now one under for the championship, and with leaders faltering is right in it.

7.59pm - Graeme McDowell has now finished his round with a string of pars, and it's a 69 - the best of the third round so far. He's level par for the tournament.

Tiger Woods, down to just one over par after that birdie, has just hit a crunching drive up the fifth... while back on the 11th Ricky Barnes has just carved his tee shot miles left into some horrific thick stuff.

7.55pm - Lefty, you little beauty! Phil Mickelson has hammered a stunning tee shot to six feet on the par-3 14th.

Barnes, meanwhile, gets away with his slip-up with a bogey five on 10. That's no disaster by any means: you have to expect bogeys at the US Open.

Lucas Glover, meanwhile, stops the rot at the same hole: after a fantastic appraoch straight over the stick he rolls in his 20ft birdie to get back to five under.

7.54pm - Hunter Mahan has been looking brilliant with two birdies on 13 and 14 after a slip on 12, but he's just had a horrible double bogey six on the 15th to drop back to two under par. Everyone is coming backwards at the moment - keeping Barnes's lead intact.

7.49pm - Both eagle putts from Woods and Mickelson run awfully close, but both don't quite find the mark...

Meanwhile, Ricky has found his ball - but he's having a bit of a hack and hope at it from the thick stuff...

Ross Fisher, meanwhile, has just three-putted 12 for his first bogey of the day. That's a shame, he's been almost flawless .

7.46pm - Ricky Barnes was lucky to find his tee shot - it dropped short into a bunker - but he's hacked it from there into some horrible, knee-deep stuff...

Better news, however, for Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods : both have just found par-5s in two shots at the 13th and 4th respectively, and have eagle putts to get themselves back in the game.

7.41pm - A poor tee shot for Barnes on the 10th is the first sign of weakness in his swing: he didn't seem to get in to that one properly, and has pushed the ball into such thick rough that he's had to hit a provisional in case his first can't be found.

7.36pm - Ricky Barnes misses the ninth green from the centre of the fairway, but has hit a gorgeous chip to six inches.

Sergio, meanwhile, over on the other nine seems to have found his swing a little: he's just hit a lovely iron to 12ft on the par-3.

7.33pm - Good news for Hunter Mahan, who has now birdied 14 as well, and is back to four under... while David Duval has just narrowly missed his makeable birdie putt on 10.

7.29pm - Oliver Wilson and Phil Mickelson both looked like being key challengers earlier today, but both are limping along a little at two over par.

Hunter Mahan has just birdied 13 after dropping a shot on the previous hole and is back at three under par.

Sergio is one over now after a birdie on 13 - but what's this? Tiger Woods has just rolled in that birdie! That's the world number one under par for his round at last, something that's hard to believe given some of the shots he's hit today. Woods remains two over for the tournament.

7.25pm - Graeme McDowell has just birdied the sixth to go under par for the day, and level for the tournament! G-Mac staying strong, it's great to see.

Tiger has just hit a nice tee shot on the par-3 third and will have a birdie putt from 15ft.

But Ricky Barnes shakes off his wobbles with a brilliant drive straight down the middle at the ninth. He's top of greens in regulation so far this week, and if he keeps on finding the dance floor then there's not a lot anyone can do to catch him.

That's the big question, though: can he keep finding the dance floor?

7.22pm - There's yet another dropped shot there at the eight for Lucas Glover after he misses the green - he's now just four under - but Ricky Barnes gets away with a lacklustre tee shot that almost spins short into the water. He two-putts from just short of the green for par.

7.13pm - As the leaders start leaking shots all over the shop, David Duval has added a cracking long birdie putt on the ninth to the birdie he had after a tee shot to a foot on the eighth .

Duval is now three under - it would be frankly unbelievable were he to win...

7.10pm - Lucas Glover is leaking shots all over the place now: he's just double-bogeyed the seventh hole and is back to five under, while Mike Weir has just had his third bogey in a row to drop back to four over.

See? Everyone comes back. And now Ricky Barnes has just missed a 10ft par putt to go back to ten under.

7.05pm - Bad news for Olly Wilson: the Englishman had been looking in perfect, ultra-steady form perfect for the US Open , but has just added a bogey on 12 to one he had at 10 and is now one over par for the tournament.

6.59pm - Rory McIlroy has just birdied the fourth, his second birdie in the space of four holes, to get back to level par for the day and two over for the championship. You know what? If he can pick up another two or three shots over the final few holes of his third round, then he might yet put a challenge together...

You can't help but feel that five or six under could be the number by tomorrow, and anyone who can get near that score has a chance.

6.53pm - Barnes rolls in that par putt - but that's still the first sign of weakness from our leader.

On the ninth, meanwhile, Ross Fisher has hit yet another fairway, yet another green, and run yet another lengthy putt just by the edge. Doesn't matter a bean, Ross, keep playing like this and you will be in the shakedown come the back nine on... well, not Sunday, but back nine of the fourth round in any case. Whenever that might finally be!

6.48pm - Ricky Barnes appears to have mishit his second shot to the sixth as he overbalances after the strike, but the ball finds the collar of the green just 18ft from the cup. He hits a weedy-looking, thinned chip... but gets away with it as the ball runs out to four feet.

Playing partner Lucas Glover's poor chip is not so lucky: he bogeys.

Westy popped in that tiddler for a birdie, incidentally, and is two under alongside Todd Hamilton. Ross Fisher and Hunter Mahan are still just ahead at three under, Mike Weir has just bogeyed the fifth to go back to six under.

6.40pm - It's hard to see how Lee Westwood went so wrong with those three bogeys after looking so good earlier on in his round - but Westy has just nailed his second shot to about two feet on the ninth.

Come on, Lee, you can get back in this thing!

6.36pm - Ricky Barnes misses his latest birdie putt by a millimetre, and is still looking great.

In case you're wondering why we're not talking about the tournament as being all over, consider the case of Gil Morgan, who got to a US Open record of 12 under par during the 1992 championship but collapsed totally. The tournament can just do that to people - that time it was weather, but this time who knows what might upset the Barnes apple cart?

6.34pm - That's Woods back to three over par - but the easiest stretch on the course is coming up, and he's every chance of getting back to level now.

6.31pm - Tiger Woods hits yet another atrocious shot on the 17th to be miles right of the green on the par-3 - he's had so many bad shots today it's just not like watching the world number one... BUT THEN HE ONLY GOES AND HOLES HIS PITCH!!!!

Sadly for Tiger, it's more total fluke than total brilliance: his ball was going a good 20ft past, and just happened to dive straight in the cup on its second bounce...

Meanwhile, Lee Westwood has just bogeyed the eighth after shoving his approach well wide of the green.

6.30pm - Barnes stuns once again, a perfect drive and an iron to seven feet at the fifth, a hole that Mike Weir just birdied with a rescue club to two feet.

6.20pm - Ricky is the man! He's come from nowhere even to be in the field this week, but Barnes has just rolled a brilliant eagle putt right into the centre of the cup! He's 11 under par and running away with the US Open!!!

6.17pm - An update for all the Rory McIlroy fans: he's been looking a little ragged around the edges, but is by no means disgracing himself and is currently at three over par.

Phil Mickelson's birdie at seven clearly got him going: he's just rolled in another on the eighth, and after looking like falling away he is right back in this... notwithstanding the fact that Ricky Barnes looks more solid than a block of tungsten.

6.15pm - WOAH!!! Ricky Barnes is on FIRE! He just doesn't know that he isn't supposed to be this good: at the par-5 fourth he's just thundered a drive down the fairway, then clobbered a fairway wood straight over the pin to 20ft! It's an eagle putt for the leader - and he could run away with this championship !

6.14pm - Ross Fisher is still in that tie for fouth at three under par, and he just burns the hole with a 30-footer on the sixth. He's looking very, very solid at the moment.

6.08pm - Phil Mickelson has hit back from his bogey-double bogey splurge on the fifth and sixth with a perfect birdie on the seventh after a lovely drive, iron to 12ft and a nerveless putt.

6.06pm - Spanish wizard Sergio Garcia just hasn't got his round going today, with no birdies and one bogey leaving him one over par; and England's Ian Poulter, one of the last starters on the 10th tee, opened his account with back-to-back bogeys.

6.04pm - Jim Furyk stands up to the tee on the third and knocks the ball to two feet for a certain birdie. He's still two over for the day, however, after a string of bogeys earlier.

5.59pm - Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell has just fluffed a chip at the second, but bombs in his 25-footer for an unlikely par - and over on the fifth, Ross Fisher pulls off the exact same trick after a bunker shot left him a good 12 foot to finish off.

5.53pm - Ricky Barnes clearly hasn't read the script that describes him fading away to let one of the bigger names take charge of this event: he's birdied the second hole to go to nine under par...

...and meanwhile, those big names are struggling: Woods gets his bogey putt, Mickelson ends up with a double, and Lee Westwood misses a six-footer on the fifth and drops back to three under par.

5.48pm - BIG trouble for Tiger Woods at the 14th: a shocking pushed tee shot dumped him in a patch of knee-high rough, and his first hack at the ball doesn't even move the ball! His second pitch gets it up to four or five feet.

And Phil Mickelson has similar trouble at the 6th, as his ball finishes up in the lip of a bunker to force him to play out sideways.

5.44pm - It might be Lee Westwood spearheading the English challenge at Bethpage so far, but Ross Fisher and Oliver Wilson are showing themselves to be great supporting acts: Wilson is still one under after eight holes, while Fisher has just birdied the 4th with a glorious pitch to within 12 inches!

5.39pm - Tiger hasn't managed to can his 15 footers on 11 and 12, so decides to solve the problem the simple way: by slamming his approach to four feet on the par-5 13th.

This has to be the one to get him going, surely... but the world number one pushes his putt to the right and misses yet another great chance.

5.35pm - The short par-5 4th is a definite birdie hole - and Lee Westwood has birdied it! The man from Worksop hit a nice pitch shot approach, and rolled in an eight footer!

Westwood to win? What a story that would be! His ball striking and putting both look fantastic... there is no reason he can't do this.

5.30pm - Another birdie for Hunter Mahan has got him to three under par both for the round and the championship. He's seeing the hole like a bucket on the greens just now.

5.24pm - Ricky Barnes is wearing a pair of grim check trousers that would give even Ian Poulter nightmares - but he's hit a perfect drive up the first. Good on yer, Ricky!

So come on then, folks, don't be shy: who do you think will pull this off? Will Tiger spring an amazing comeback? Will Phil get a first US Open win to make up for his three runner-up spots? Will Ross Fisher or Olly Wilson show the character at Majors that the previous generation have thus far only promised?

As ever, leave your comments down in the boxes provided below...

5.23pm - Tiger's birdie putt on 12 is a beauty, but it just skims round the low side of the hole and stays out... while Mickelson fails to even keep his tough pitch on the green, and will need a nice chip to save par.

Leader Ricky Barnes and second-placed Lucas Glover are on the tee at the first, about to tee off...

5.22pm - There best of the moves so far today are being made by double-US Open champion Retief Goosen, former Ryder Cupper Hunter Mahan and Denmark's Soren Hansen. All are two under for their second rounds so far.

5.20pm - Phil Mickelson had utterly mullered his drive up the short par-5 4th hole, but couldn't find the green with his 211-yard approach. He's down a gully to the left, and a birdie would be a miracle from there. Luckily, Phil specialises in short game miracles.

5.15pm - Tiger had an inauspcious start to his day, but he's just lasered a 230-yard four-iron to 8ft on the long par-4 12th: pop that one in, old son, and you could yet have a chance at pulling off an amazing comeback...

Mike Weir, incidentally, has just teed off - and has pulled his opener a clear 40 yards wide of the 1st fairway.

5.13pm - We've lead this live reporting with a picture of one of the greenkeepers for a very good reason, incidentally: their hard work in getting this course ready has been amazing.

They've been out in the worst of the weather furiously pumping water away from the greens - and directing it to the adjacent Bethpage Green course, in case you were wondering - while the pros have been milling around locker rooms and hotel rooms.

5.10pm - This is fantastic golf!!! Lee Westwood gets his day going with a brilliant birdie on the second, showing that both his shotmaking and putting are looking just as sharp today as they were over the last few days.

And Phil Mickelson, after a tee-shot straight over the pin to 18ft at the par-3 3rd, rolls in his birdie.

This might be the wettest championship for a generation, but the way things are going it could yet be heating up into a classic!

5.07pm - Geoff Ogilvy has just had a bogey on the fifth - playing partner Oliver Wilson rattled in a par save on the same green - while Tiger Woods has got his day's efforts under way with a par on the 11th.

5.01pm - The hooter blows, and all over Bethpage golfers get things going once again.

And Soren Hansen of Denmark has already had a birdie after an approach to 18 inches at the sixth!

4.53pm - The weather forecast suggests that it will stay dry - or at least, dry-ish - for the remainder of the day. The third round should finish around 9.30pm UK time, with the final round starting an hour or so later.

The loss of five hours or so of golf earlier today means that the earliest things will wrap up is on Monday.

If it goes to a play-off - always an 18-hole affair at the US Open - then the play-off will be straight after the finish on Monday... unless there are further rain delays. If they won't have time to finish the play-off on Monday, then they won't even start it: the whole thing will drag on til Tuesday!

5.45pm - Evening folks - things are drying up a bit at Bethpage and the golf is about 15 minutes from starting up again.

And it's been a Herculean effort by the greenkeepers to get things ready. Just under an inch of rain has fallen overnight, a quite astonishing amount, and it's only the loamy, sandy soil at Bethpage State Park which has meant we've had any play at all.

"If we were at some US Open venues right now and this was happening, I can't even begin to think what we"d be doing," admitted Mike Davis of the USGA.

Eurosport