Phil Price will go into the final round of the British Seniors Open at Royal Porthcawl with an outside chance of bagging a famous home victory.

Four birdies on a magnificent back nine in the third round earned him a three under par 68 and a share of seventh place, seven shots behind the leader Bernhard Langer.

If the wind holds off on Sunday, then Price will be among a host of big names ready to fight for the senior Claret Jug.

“I had a nice finish,” said Price, who ended with a birdie on 18, “and I can’t complain at coming home in four under.

“I was one over on the front nine and nothing was going on. I dropped down to six over at one stage, but it ended at only two over.

“Winning in Germany earlier in the month has done the confidence a power of good and a lot will depend on the weather on Sunday. It was a lot easier without the wind blowing and there was some good scoring.”

Price will be the best of British going into the last round, which has been brought forward to try to beat the projected bad weather later in the day.

Langer and his playing partner Tom Lehman caught the worst of the rain on their final six holes and after finishing at 6.45pm, the German was informed he will be back out again at 9.40am in the morning.

Not that that is likely to cause the machine-like Langer a sleepless night. He kept a bogey off his card for the first time and rolled in six birdies in an immaculate round.

“If I shoot under par in the final round it is going to be very difficult for anyone to catch me. I played  a very solid round and I drove the ball really well,” said Langer, who won the title at Porthcawl in 204 by a massive 13 shots.

“I knew the wind wasn’t going to be as bad as it was on Friday and I saw that there were some good scores earlier in the day. I played the best I have played here all week and it was nice to have some energy back after suffering with a throat problem for a few days.”