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My Tips who made the cut were: Steve Stricker e.w. at 80-1, Jim Furyk e.w. at 25/1

2010: And that's it for another year. Padraig Harrington gives some good answers in his press conference and says his best trait is his ability to learn. The PA's Mark Garrod informs him that he's up to number three in the world and Padraig is very comfortable with that position. He even comes out with the "beware the injured golfer" line so I feel quite pleased that I mentioned it earlier. As for me, I'm off back to the Premier Inn for some Scampi. If anyone fancies joining me in the bar and discussing who is going to win the USPGA in a couple of weeks' I'll be sat on table 11. Goodbye from Birkdale.

1900: Immaculate speech from Harrington. He thanks all the right people and the R&A must be delighted to have him as their "champion golfer of the year" again. It was a mixture of shock, relief and delight when he won 12 months ago but this time he has the inner calm that must come when proving yourself the best player for the second year running. Inside he must be thinking "I'm the dog's". And his win deflects the "Tiger wasn't there" argument. Padraig can simply say, "Well I beat him last year so how can you say I wouldn't have done so again this time." Greg Norman's tied third place helped make this a memorable week and Colin Montgomerie summed it up quite nicely after his round today, saying. "It (Norman's performance) proves this game has longevity that other sports don't have." He's quite right. Imagine Kenny Dalglish or Ian Botham still turning it on in an FA Cup final or an Ashes series.

1840: Hats off to Padraig Harrington. He finished that off with Tiger-like ruthlessness, playing his last six holes in four under to blow the field away. Unfortunately I hear the winning putt rather than see it as the mounds around the 18th green are packed. So I have no idea what Harrington did when he tapped in for victory? Did he moonwalk at any stage? KJ Choi's quadruple bogey at 18 means he drops to tied 16th and we get some each-way money back on Jim Furyk, who finishes tied fifth. Hurrah. The stakes are halved if you backed him with a firm offering five places but those who offered six will give the full payout. So a nice consolation. With Furyk tied fifth and Stricker tied seventh, the picks did okay really despite the horror shows of Hunter Mahan, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Boo Weekley over the first two days. I can't really say I ever thought of backing Harrington given how difficult it is to defend tournaments, never mind about majors. But the old saying "beware the injured golfer" gets even more credibility. First, Tiger Woods hobbles to victory in the US Open and now Harrington wins the Open after saying he thought his chances of completing four rounds this week, never mind about winning, were 50-50 after injuring his wrist.

1825: Harrington finds the fairway at the last. I'm going to dash outside and see him hole the winning putt.

1822: Harrington has his eagle. He's four clear. The engraver is going to work on the Claret Jug.

1817: Choi looks as if he's making a horlicks of the final hole so maybe Furyk can get a tie for fifth.

1812: Game, set and match. Harrington hits a wonderful approach to 17 and has just five feet for eagle. Even if he only makes birdie he'd be three clear going up the last. Tremendous stuff from the Irishman.

1810: Sergio Garcia's reaction after finishing at 17-over today: "Whatever chances I had today I threw them away on the back nine. I just went brain dead, my body just didn't react to my thoughts. I couldn't think straight and didn't make any good decisions."

1757: Chris Wood has just come into the press tent for interview but, to be honest, I want to watch TV. I'll pat him on the back later.

1755: Cheers Curtis! He bogeys 17 rather than birdies it and drops a place.

1750: Harrington birdies 15 and is now two clear of Poulter. Norman's birdie keeps him in it but he's now three behind. Furyk is now tied fifth with three others on +10 so this smacks of a hard-luck sixth place as Choi and Curtis both have the relatively easy par five 17th to play.

1737: Roars outside, roars in the press tent and roars from Ian Poulter as he holes his 15 foot par putt at the 18th. He's the new clubhouse leader at +7. A superb final round 69 and now he'll have to wait and see if it's good enough to win or reach a play-off. Some shrewdies have been backing him to win Sports Personality of the Year as the day has gone on and he'd surely have a golden chance if he were to triumph.

1735: Chris Wood drops a shot at the last but what a performance by the young amateur from Bristol. He's currently tied fifth and the joint leader in the clubhouse with.... Jim Furyk.

1730: Norman holes a monster putt to save par on 14. Hmmm. Had he missed Furyk would have climbed into the top five.

1725: The Greg Norman fairytale looks over. Harrington birdies 13, Norman bogeys and the Aussie is three off the lead. What's more, Harrington finds the green with his tee-shot at the 14th while Norman ends up in the bunker.

1713: 80-1 tip Steve Stricker finishes with a 73 and a four-round total of 12 over. That's good enough for 11th place at present - not enough for an each-way payout but it helps save my credibility a little bit maybe!

1710: This is what I wrote about Ian Poulter in my betting preview: "Poulter has a sneakily good record in majors without really ever threatening to win one. He was 11th in the 2005 Open at St Andrews, 12th in the 2006 US Open, ninth in the 2006 USPGA and 13th in the 2007 US Masters. Producing such strong finishes in all four majors shows the all-round strength of his game but, as we know, Poulter's biggest asset is his unwavering self-belief. In the 2004 Dunhill Cup he finished third and has played well on plenty of other links courses too. Some think he's just a publicity-seeking clothes-horse but does it detract from his golf? Seven European Tour wins suggests not and Poulter readily admits that he likes putting himself in the firing line like this. His tee to green game should put him in contention and if he can hole the putts Poulter could be in for a massive week." The only problem is that I wrote these words last year when I tipped him at 66/1 for the 2007 Open at Carnoustie.

1702: Massive roar in the press tent as Poulter's birdie putt at 16 hangs on the lip and drops in the hole. He's tied for the lead!

1700: Ian Poulter hits a great shot to 16. I'll made a prediction. He'll be one of two players in a play-off.

1648: Come on the BBC. Anthony Kim is a future superstar having won two of his last five events in America and he's just two off the lead here. But we've seen him play just one shot - a short putt which he missed.

1647: Furyk now up to sixth! However, with two par fives in the last four holes, I still think he'll miss the each-way money.

1645: Jim Furyk gets up and down from a bunker at the last to set the new clubhouse target at 10 over. A well-played 71 from the 25-1 each-way tip but it might just be a shot too many to get the each-way cash. He must rue yesterday's back nine 43.

1635: The clubhouse leaders at 12 over and currently in a tie for 12th are David Howell, Robert Karlsson, Ernie Els, Paul Casey and Stephen Ames. In years to come when you look at their results on paper it looks as if they've really played well but, in reality, none have ever been anyway near the lead. Els, in particular, won't feel satisfied and said as much after coming off the course. "It's been a very frustrating week. The first day (he shot 80) I played myself out of the tournament on the back nine going nine over in nine holes. How do you come back from that? Now I've got one major left and I'm going to work my tail off."

1630: Drat. Furyk can only par 17 and he stays just outside the places in tied eighth. I fear he's going to come up just short.

1625: Nine holes to play. Greg Norman leads the Open. This is bizarre!

1620: Jim Furyk, with two holes to play, is up to tied ninth now after playing his last 14 holes in one under. Keep going Jimbo. It's getting windier and the field might start coming back to you.

1616: Poulter may well have the last laugh. He's just set up a glorious birdie chance at 13 while Harrington is in trouble at the ninth.

1615: Another ironic story waiting to be written. With the world number one not here, it follows that the self-confessed second best player in the world, Ian Poulter, should go home with the trophy. The Englishman, who was ridiculed for making that that statement, is now tied fourth and just two shots off the lead. Will the Poulter have the last laugh?

1545: It looks Padraig Harrington's to lose now doesn't it. However, he does have a history of making a real meal of things even when he does win (think last year and also the 2007 Irish Open as obvious examples). But maybe winning this event last year and becoming a major champion will change all that. Perhaps he will just kick clear of the field and ease to victory. I think not though. We're only six holes in and there's plenty of drama still to unfold.

1540: Chuggers from Australia decided that Anthony Kim and Simon Wakefield were worth a bet before the start today and he backed them both at 20/1. Decent shouts Chuggers as they're still very much in touch - Wakefield just three back and Kim four behind.

1535: After immediately shooting himself in the foot with two opening bogeys, Jim Furyk has reeled off 11 straight pars to stay at +11. He's currently tied 12th so is there just a chance he could sneak into a place?

1530: Is it some kind of weird fate? Tiger Woods is absent and yet in the top four in the leaderboard we have the other man to occupy the number one spot for an era, Greg Norman, and a young amateur called Wood. The latter, Chris Wood, is playing out of his skin and birdies at seven and nine have taken him to within three of the lead. They must be going crazy with excitement back at his local club in Bristol and, back to fate again, he's all set to match the feats of Justin Rose, who also finished fourth here as an amateur in 1998.

1520: Steve Stricker-watch 'live' was pretty enjoyable for the first four holes - a brave par at the first, a nice par at the second, a tap-in par at the third after just missing a 15 foot birdie putt and another good up-and-down for par at the fourth. At the second his drive is wayward and lands just 10 yards away from me but it's in light rough and he escapes. He aims for me again at five but is 15 yards away from me this time which is a shame. His ball lands amongst the spectators and ends up against a grassy bank and as he's not left-handed he can only bunt it 25 yards into more rough and ends up with a bogey. Had he hit me I could have given it a good kick back into the fairway. Unfortunately he then decides to ride the bogey train for three holes and at +12 at the turn he's just about dead and buried in terms of securing an each-way finish. Playing partner Davis Love, dressed in identical black to Stricker, just can't putt and misses a series of four and five footers to rack up four bogeys in the first six holes. Also at the sixth, I see Robert Allenby hack out sideways after a wayward drive and a poor approach results in a treble bogey seven. There simply isn't a challenge emerging from the pack and with Greg Norman starting with three straight bogeys, Padraig Harrington - now a shot clear - is looking a great bet to defend his title. Hard to imagine he was backed at 150 on Betfair when punters overreacted to his bad wrist and poor start which saw him two over after four holes in round one.

1300: So, can remaining tips Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker get themselves into contention for victory? It's a big ask but nicking some place money is still on the cards although both will have to shoot strong rounds today. I'm going out to follow Stricker for a few holes to see if he can continue his fine play over the last day or so. The American has actually played his last 30 holes in one-under so could be a dark horse.

1255: Here goes Sergio. The Spaniard is still carrying a lot of hopes and punters' cash so can he pull something out of the bag?

1250: Last roll of the dice. I'm going to have a few quid on Davis Love (+9) at 100/1 and Ben Curtis (+7) at 28s. An American journalist told me on Wednesday that Love said he was hitting the ball the best he had in ages and I also like the fact that DLIII was eighth here in 1998 when closing with a 68.

1225: Regular e-mailer Paul Artman writes: "You Know Dave, if this golf punditry thing doesn't work out for you, you could always get a job as a cooler in a casino! You go and back Choi and he puts in his worst round of the week!" For your information, Paul, I backed Choi at 6/1 at the start of Saturday. He goes off today as a 9/2 shot. If any other punks out there want to have a go, I'll shoot you down with truth bullets too.

1217: Howell three-putts from just off the green at 18 so it's a closing round of 67. A shame to finish with a bogey but I bet he could sell that round to one of the chasing pack for an awful lot of money. Howell has a shocking record in this championship (his previous best was tied 42nd - also at Birkdale) so his three-under effort today will make it his highest Open finish. He's currently in tied 30th but expect that to improve as the day goes on.

1210: David Duval finished with a 71 today. What a pity he lost it on Saturday as he'd have been right in contention without that disastrous 83. Still, three good rounds (73, 69, 71) must give him great heart after such a disappointing year.

1205: Wow. Howell eagles the 17th and is four-under for the day. A shame that he started the day so far back as a 66 could even have given him an outside chance of winning. Howell was +15 when he started so is now +11 and in a tie for 27th. Had he been +10 before hitting his first shot, he'd now be +6, in fifth place, and on the verge of doing what Paul Lawrie did at Carnoustie in 1999. The BBC are just showing his second to 17 and he gets a huge break as his shot bounces off a mound, just misses a bunker and rolls up the green to within six feet of the flag. Commentator Mark James reckons a Howell birdie at the last might see him finish in the top 10.

1200: David Howell might just prove that a 67 is possible today. The Englishman is two-under after 16 and is playing the par five 17th, the easiest hole on the course and the only one playing under par (it's actually playing to a lower stroke average than the par four sixth). If Howell can finish birdie-par he'll have a 67 or even birdie-birdie for a 66.

1150: In a bar the other night with blogs the topic of discussion, a guy called Adam, who works for IMG, asked me if I twittered. Thinking he meant wittered, I answered strongly in the affirmative as I do indeed witter and ramble on mercilessly in this blog. However, Adam meant Twitter with a capital T - part of a new phenomenon called micro-blogging. I'll give you the wikipedia definition. "Micro-blogging is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually 140 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, MP3 or the web. The most popular service is Twitter, which was launched in July 2006 and won the Web Award in the blog category at the 2007 South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas." To help explain, popular social networking websites Facebook and MySpace also have a micro-blogging feature called "status update". In other words, I could start "tweeting" (writing a micro-blog) in the press tent and people could sign up to it and get a message over their phones that I was happy because I'd just eaten a full-English. What a strange world we live in! Although microblogging started as a way for young and technologically savvy users to keep in touch, the practice is moving into the mainstream. In the United States, for example, Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John Edwards started microblogging details from the campaign trail. So there you go.

1130: Early starter Thomas Aiken has posted a 68, showing what's possible today. If one of those at +7 (Anthony Kim, Ben Curtis, Ross Fisher, Alex Noren) could fire two-under I wonder if that would give them a chance of winning. My betting finger is starting to twitch when it hovers over Kim. He's destined to be a superstar, he's won two of his last five events and he's hit more greens in regulation this week than anyone (70% - and only a handful of players have managed over 60%). Is 20/1 worth taking?

1125: Paul Waring reaches the turn in two-under - four shots better than playing partner Phil Mickelson.

1115: What on earth was Chih-Bing Lam up to today? Being in last place when an odd number of players make the cut means you have to play on your own and players usually whizz round in double quick time. Dudley Hart found himself in such a position 10 years ago at Birkdale and virtually sprinted around the course although he did have a plane to catch as it was his wedding six days later. But Chih-Bing Lam dawdled so much today that he was put on the clock for slow play. To add insult to injury he carded an 81.

1110: Superb full English, with a special mention for the Black Pudding. A fairly quiet scene in the press canteen - Mark Roe eating scrambled egg whilst flicking at the Sunday papers, Bernhard Gallacher reading Golfweek - and out of the window I can see that the sun has come out.

1050: Just looked outside and there's a big downpour. Diagonal rain and people running for cover. Might just be a passing shower although while it blows across I'm off for some breakfast.

1030: There was a car parked outside the Premier Inn hotel (where I'm staying) this morning with "Wilmec - sponsors of Paul Waring' emblazened on the side. Perhaps it was a sign that I should have backed him at a fancy price in his two-ball against Phil Mickelson today. Waring is two-under for the day after birdies at two and three whilst the world number two has played the same four holes in one over. Waring is from Birkenhead and lives in Bebington, where I stayed when the Open was held at Hoylake two years ago. Waring also used to DJ in clubs and bars in Liverpool, spinning drum and bass sh*t mainly. If he could get "In Da House" at seven over, he could even win dis ting. Resssspect!

1020: All seven of Japan's challengers missed the cut this week but the Japanese journalists still seem to be here in force. As you'd expect they've got the coolest lap-tops but I didn't know they'd be so partial to Pringles. Big tubes of them scattered all over their desks.

1015: So, are any of the early starters shooting a low score this morning. Well, South African Thomas Aiken is two-under for the day after 13 holes while England's Richard Finch is also -2 for his round having played nine. I'm pleased to see that David Duval is also under par after shooting one-under 33 on his outward nine. After a bogey at the first, Duval followed it with four successive threes (three of them birides) before dropping a shot at the ninth. It was hugely disappointing to see him collapse to an 83 yesterday after reminding us of his seemingly lost talents over the first 36 holes. So what went wrong for the 2001 Open champ on Saturday. Here's what he said: "I am extremely disappointed with my score. I can assure you very few people hit the ball better than I did today. I just got behind it and couldn't get any nice things to happen. I don't walk away from today's round any less confident than yesterday's round (a 69). If anything I gained confidence with how I struck the ball and maintained my rhythm." Positive words then and reading them makes it less of a surprise that he's bouncing back today.

1000: The weather has been a huge factor this week and that's part of the appeal and charm of any Open Championship. On the walk in from the car park this morning I experienced sun, drizzle, clouds, clear skies and wind. It's certainly nowhere near as windy as it was yesterday although the forecast suggests it will pick up. The full weather forecast is this: 1000-1600 - A few blustery showers at first. Otherwise becoming mainly dry with lengthening sunny spells. Wind NW 20-25 gust 30-35mph increasing to 25-28mph gust 35-38mph. 1600-2200 - Dry with long sunny periods. NW 25-28 gust 35-38mph. Looking at that there doesn't seem to be a great deal of difference between the winds this morning and this afternoon so maybe the idea of a winner emerging from the pack after cashing in on the calm isn't realistic. If the leaders - Norman, Harrington, Choi and Wakefield - play well, perhaps the others won't be able to get in a blow.

0955: Will I really be writing later today that Greg Norman is Open champion again? It seems just so far-fetched that a 53-year-old, who entered his first Open in 1977 and now spends more time playing tennis, could win this prestigious tournament 22 years on from his first win. But, incredible as it would be, I wonder if there would be a feeling that he only won because Tiger wasn't there. That would be extremely harsh of course as what Norman has done this week has been nothing short of remarkable. But I do think that the "Tiger not there" card would be played more after a Norman win than, say, if Padraig Harrington wins again.