Only golfers would go out in that, eh? Forget Royal Troon being on the Firth of Clyde. During a drookit day three of The Open Championship, it felt like it was bloomin’ in it.

“You could smell the rain coming,” suggested Justin Thomas with a meteorological musing of grim foreboding. When it came, it arrived in buckets. In fact, it was so wet at times, the keys of this correspondent’s laptop began to rust around the edges.

After a dry start, most of the combatants had been swinging in the rain. By 8:30pm, it was Billy Horschel who was home but not necessarily dry in first place. This Open is wide open, however.

The lead was as slippery as the handle of a sodden brolly. Shane Lowry had it and lost it spectacularly, Daniel Brown had it and lost it, Horschel had it, lost it, then got it back again. It was a chaotic scene.

When it all came out in the wash, Horschel’s two-under 69 for a four-under total left him holding a one-shot advantage over Brown, Thriston Lawrence, Sam Burns, Russell Henley, Xander Schauffele and Justin Rose. It’s a jam-packed leaderboard with 12 players separated by just four shots.

The last time Horschel played an Open at Royal Troon in 2016, he followed a 67 with an 85 in dismal conditions. Eight years on, he could find redemption with a major breakthrough.

“I love it,” said the 37-year-old, whose backwards baseball cap probably generated a few disapproving tut-tuttings from some of the more fustier elements of the Royal Troon membership.

“I’ve worked my entire life to be in this position. Listen, I've been in the lead many times going into a final round. Obviously, this is a major. It means a little bit more. We all know that. I've wanted to be here my entire life. I'm finally here and I'm embracing it.

“I’ve tried to see myself holding the trophy before I go to sleep every night, walking out to the crowd and being congratulated as Open champion. Hopefully, that comes true tomorrow.”

Horschel, who gave Mother Nature a Harvey Smith salute by playing mostly in a polo shirt, had leaked a shot on the last but, behind him, Brown was making a hash of it.

Leading by a shot on the 18th tee, his drive came to rest on the edge of a fairway bunker and, with his feet in the sand, he could only nudge his ball forward. The unheralded Open debutant, ranked at No 272 in the world, then plunged his approach into another trap and proceeded to rack up a double-bogey in a 73.

“It’s a bit frustrating but at the start of the week if you’d told me I’d be one back going into the final round of the Open I’d have snapped your hand off,” said a philosophical Brown. One back, the son of a Yorkshire pig farmer can still bring home the bacon. It would be a sizzling story.

Lowry made, well, a bit of a pig’s ear of it. Three clear early on in the third round, the 2019 champion saw his position of authority obliterated as he covered his last 11 holes in seven-over to drop from eight-under to one-under with a gruesome 77.

A back-nine of 40 was concluded with a wild ride on the 18th as he hoiked a drive right then plonked his second into the grandstand. Lowry had leaked so many shots he just about needed a tourniquet to stem the flow.

Before the heavy rain arrived, the early starters enjoyed relatively benign conditions. It was an opportunity to make hay while the sun didn’t shine. Burns and Lawrence certainly took their chance. Both sitting at three-over at the start of the day, they barged their way into contention with surging six-under 65s to jump to three-under.

Burns, who had been seven-over after 11 holes of his opening round on Thursday, blasted seven birdies in 12 holes of his third round yesterday as he hurtled into the reckoning.

“I knew I wasn't out of it,” said Burns of that stuttering Thursday start. “I knew it was going to be difficult and I made it a lot tougher on myself. But I’m proud of how I’ve hung in there and kept fighting.”

Lawrence, meanwhile, packed six birdies into his first eight holes to bolster his title push. “I'm going to try to do the same thing, be aggressive and try to win the golf tournament,” said the South African as he unveiled his battleplan for a final day assault on the Claret Jug. “It was moving day, as they say, and I definitely did it well.” He certainly did.

Joining a lurking posse on three-under was Henley who upped the ante in his push for a maiden major win with a 66. This is Henley’s 10th Open appearance and he’s missed the cut in five of them. Maybe, just maybe he’s finally getting to grips with this links golf lark?

“Links golf has really humbled me,” he admitted. “I never really feel like I've known what I was doing exactly. So today was a great round for me.”

Schauffele’s 69 had him hovering with intent while Rose battled all the way to a 73 to keep his hopes very much alive. “I’ve nothing to lose,” he said with gusto. Scottie Scheffler, the world No 1, is right there too on two-under.

It’s all to play for.