Or should that be cast to the roaring forties, because the gales were gusting well over 40mph for much of yesterday afternoon. If Justin Rose reckoned Friday was so cold that it qualified as a "four club" affair, how windy was it yesterday? Rose didn't stop to proffer an opinion but I'd hazard the Old Course was playing to the full bag of clubs for much of the day.

Conditions were sure to have an adverse effect on scores, especially when the freezing rain started lashing down midway through the afternoon. Of the five overnight front-runners who started the day on 8 and 7-under, none managed to maintain their position, although Jarmo Sandelin's level-par 70 at Carnoustie saw him take a share of the overnight lead at the end of the third round with Germany's Martin Kaymer. At 6-under they are a shot clear of Magnus Carlsson. The other four members of the leading group, overnight leader Austrian Marcus Brier, Robert Karlsson, Soren Hansen and young Ulsterman Rory McIlroy, who shot four, four, five and six over respectively, saw their scores come skittling down as the third day of this Alfred Dunhill Links Championship disintegrated into a gruelling, attritional test of character.

Most of the 168-strong field failed that test. Ten of the field, including Scot David Coltart and Ryder Cup player Miguel Angel Jimenez (who later scratched), shot 10 over or greater, and more than twice as many were only a shot or two behind. Only six players managed to break par, and only one, Englishman John Bickerton, who is within reach of the leaders at three-under par, ended the day with a round of two under. The conditions were brutal, turning seasoned pros into wild hackers.

In the circumstances, there is one name that stands out near the top of the leaderboard. Padraig Harrington may have shot a round of two over par to end the day on four-under, and he may be two shots off the lead, but those figures do little to reflect a gritty performance in which he recovered from a disastrous start of four bogeys in the first six holes before dragging himself back into contention with birdies at the 12th and 15th at the height of the storm. With the powerful incentive of a first prize of almost half a million pounds, not to mention the chance to regain the Order of Merit which Rose took off him last year, it would be a foolish punter who was willing to bet against the Irishman today in this, his year of years, with two majors to his name.

Harrington (below), who is the only player to have won this tournament twice after victories in 2002 and 2006, is tucked in behind the leading gaggle of players which includes Kaymer and Sandelin on six-under and Carlsson on five-under, with Robert Karlsson and Lee Westwood, who are Harrington's closest challengers for the Order of Merit, on three under.

Englishman Ross Fisher looked like another who would share the lead until his disastrous double-bogey on 15. One of four players who finished the day on four-under, the rising star showed why he only narrowly lost a play-off to Phil Mickelson at the HSBC Champions tournament in China before going on to win this year's European Open. The long-hitting 27-year-old bogeyed the third but was consistently long and straight after that, birdying 7, 10 and 11 to move to six under before his aberration at 15.

Another player whose dogged play suggested that he may just have the right stuff by the bucketful was Thongchai Jaidee. These weren't conditions that should suit the Thai yet he dug in to produce one of the rounds of the day, a level-par at Carnoustie that has left him just two shots off the lead after starting the day trailing the leaders by four shots. This was a rollercoaster round that didn't so much build character as reveal it. Jaidee had to graft for his 72, throwing in two bogeys on the outward nine and three on the inward, including the 18th, but also attacking the pin wherever possible and putting like a dream. The result was birdies at five and six before the turn, another at 13 and then a sublime eagle at the par five 14th.

Jaidee's shotmaking was all the more impressive as he didn't pick up a golf club until he was 16 and only turned pro at the age of 30 in 1999 after serving as a paratrooper in the Thai army and playing semi-professional football. Such has been the level of attention lavished on the player that after becoming the first Thai to win on the European Tour when he won the Malaysian Open in 2004, he was granted a diplomatic passport to assist with his globetrotting.

Yet this tournament is a trial of nerves that is unlikely to be won by a relative newcomer, especially one not used to these conditions. Harrington also turned pro relatively late on after training to be an accountant, but he grew up playing his golf on the circuit of links courses around Dublin and is coached in Largs by Bob Torrance: he instinctively knows his way around courses like these and looks like he has the scent of victory in his nostrils. More to the point, he demonstrated a fierce determination to overcome a jittery start yesterday, and despite the worst efforts of the Scottish weather, still looks like the man to beat when play commences this morning.