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SOUTHPORT, England - Trying to clinch a win for the ages, Greg Norman got off to a very shaky start Sunday at the British Open.

The 53-year-old Aussie quickly gave up his two-stroke lead with bogeys on the first two holes at Royal Birkdale. Defending champion Padraig Harrington, also playing in the final group, pulled into a tie for the lead at 4 over with a pair of tap-in pars.

Wearing a black cap and sweater on another blustery day along the Irish Sea, Norman landed in a pot bunker with his approach at No. 1 and barely reached the green with his blast-out, sand blowing in his face. He missed about a 25-footer to save par, the ball skidding over the right edge of the cup.

Norman took another bogey at the second after driving into the beaten-down rough left of the fairway, then pulling a 6-iron left of the green between two bunkers. The chip rolled six feet past the cup, and Norman missed the downhill putt to lose another stroke.

Now a part-time player, Norman was seeking to become the oldest major champion in golf history. Julius Boros was 48 when he won the PGA Championship in 1968.

Norman had not taken a lead into the last round of a major since the 1996 Masters, where his epic collapse cleared the way for Nick Faldo to claim the green jacket.

No one broke par in the third round, but some early scores Sunday indicated conditions might not be quite as challenging. David Howell fired a 3-under 67, tied for the second-best score of the week. Thomas Aiken shot 68, while Ernie Els and Robert Karlsson both posted 69s. Even David Duval bounced back, shooting 71 after an ugly 83 sent him tumbling out of contention the previous day.

But the wind off the Irish Sea picked up in the afternoon. Forecasters called for gusts up to 45 m.p.h. about the time the final groups were likely to be right in the middle of their rounds.

Norman, who married tennis great Chris Evert last month, often contended for the majors during his prime, but rarely finished the job. He won two British Open titles, but another six times, he took leads to the final rounds of the Masters, U.S. Open or PGA Championship - and didn't win any of them.

But Norman had plenty of competition, including the Irishman who won the claret jug a year ago. Harrington was trying to become the first repeat winner from Europe in more than a century, and he looked very solid at the start. He nearly chipped in for birdie at the first hole, then rolled a long birdie putt at No. 2 right next to the hole.

As if to show these were his kind of conditions, Harrington even took off his jacket and played in a short-sleeved shirt.

K.J. Choi, the 36-hole leader, started out in tie with Harrington at 214. He took a couple of bogeys at the first four holes - including a five-foot miss at No. 1 - to remain two strokes behind.

Unheralded Englishman Simon Wakefield, beginning at 215, bogeyed the first and was tied with Choi at 6 over.

American phenom Anthony Kim started with five straight bogeys and was just three strokes back. The 23-year-old Californian was already a two-time winner on the PGA Tour and trying to become the youngest major champion since Tiger Woods at the 1997 Masters.

The group at 8 over included 2003 Open champion Ben Curtis and amateur Chris Wood.