SOUTHPORT, England — Gusts that approached 50 mph required Greg Norman to manufacture shots from his 53-year-old memory yesterday in the British Open, which he called among the toughest tests he has ever faced in golf.

It only got harder after he finished another chapter in this incredible script at Royal Birkdale.

Norman played the perfect pitch shot over a pot bunker to within a foot of the cup for par, giving him a 2-over 72 and a two-shot lead over defending champion Padraig Harrington and K.J. Choi.

With so much baggage behind him in the majors, Norman did all he could not to look too far ahead. He is 18 holes from becoming golf's oldest major champion, but wouldn't bite when asked what it would feel like to win.

"Ask me that question tomorrow night if that happens, OK?" he said.

Norman is 1-6 when he has at least a share of the 54-hole lead in the majors, his only victory coming at Turnberry in 1986. His career is defined as much by the majors he lost as the two British Open titles he won. How would he reply to those who said he couldn't possible win?

"I didn't hear any of that," Norman said.

All he would acknowledge was that he was at 2-over 212, in the lead at a major with an opportunity no one saw coming.

"I've got to go out there and play my game," Norman said. "I'll answer a lot of different questions tomorrow night if I have to."

The facts in what seems like fiction are that Norman played the final eight holes without a bogey and emerged from a four-way logjam at the turn to leave himself one round away from a feat that might top Tiger Woods winning the U.S. Open on one leg.

The rest of the details are hard to believe.

This is no longer the thrill-seeking Great White Shark who used to routinely beat up on the best players in every major until it was time to award the trophy. This is a part-time golfer who had not played in a major for three years. The only reason he entered this British Open was to practice for a couple of senior majors in the coming weeks.

"It is different, no question," Norman said. "The players are probably saying, 'My God, what's he doing up there?' "

He will be in the last group today with Harrington, who doesn't see Norman as anything but a two-time British Open champion.

"When he's interested, Greg Norman can really play," said Harrington, who overcame his wind-blown mistakes with four birdies for a 72. "He's well capable of putting it together, as he's shown in the first three rounds, and I don't think anybody should expect anything but good play from him tomorrow."

Norman and Harrington were the only two players among the final 11 groups to break 75.

No one broke par. Nine players failed to break 80, including David Duval, who was three shots behind until a triple bogey on the opening hole. His 83 matched his worst score in a British Open.

Former U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk was tied for the lead until he took two double bogeys and shot 43 on the back nine on his way to a 77. Choi lost the lead for good with a three-putt bogey on the 15th and shot a 75.

The wind raged before dawn and was relentless, measuring 30 mph when the first player teed off and holding steady at close to 40 mph during the heart of the round — making it hard to appreciate what Norman was doing.

Norman is believed to be the oldest player to lead after 54 holes in a major. Julius Boros was 53 years and 3 months when he was tied for the lead in the 1973 U.S. Open, won by Johnny Miller. Boros is the oldest major champion, 48 when he captured the 1968 PGA Championship.

Yesterday, Norman bogeyed two of his first three holes, leaving him three shots behind. He was 120 yards from the green at No. 5 when he asked for a 5-iron before asking for the yardage.

"The yardage was mentioned to me, but I didn't even pay attention," Norman said. "I already saw the shot. I knew that was the shot I had to play to get the ball close to the hole. And I did that probably three or four, maybe five times today."

He also showed some flair, each hole giving him confidence, peeling away time.

Norman hit driver over the corner of some mounding on the eighth hole, leaving him a short pitch to the green where he made a 10-foot birdie putt to get back in the game. Then came another 350-yard drive with the wind at his back, over the grassy humps, bending back toward the fairway and leaving a 6-iron into the par-5 17th for a birdie.

"Obviously, I played well enough to put myself in this position," Norman said. "That comes from a good, safe, happy mind in a lot of ways. I'm very content in my mind, but at the same time, I have the lead now."

With a similar weather forecast for today, anything can happen.