It may have fallen marginally short of Camilo Villegas's birdie blitz down the stretch, but a terrific finish from Padraig Harrington reignited the defending champion's Open challenge at Royal Birkdale this evening.

Having picked up four shots in his last four holes, Villegas had earlier birdied the final five, the Dubliner moved to two-over for the tournament and within touching distance of leader KJ Choi.

Despite nursing an injury to his right wrist, Harrington joins Co Antrim's Graeme McDowell in a share of fourth  place, three behind the Korean.

The 37-year-old Choi, with seven wins the most successful Asian player in US Tour history, will now try to become their first major champion - on the same course where in 1971 Taiwan's "Mr Lu"  finished just a stroke behind Lee Trevino.

Harrington, who reached the 15th tee on six-over, birdied that hole, eagled the 17th with a 35-foot putt and birdied the last from nine feet.

Round in 68 he said: "I would have to think I am over the wrist problem now and I'm delighted with my position. You just want to be there with nine to play."

Although Harrington began well with a birdie at the second, he lost ground on the early pacesetter Greg Norman by dropping three shots before he reached the 12th tee.

His spectacular finish, however, gave him the chance to successfully defend his Open title and match the achievement of world number one Tiger Woods at Hoylake in 2006.

The start of Harrington's round coincided with a heavy squall on another windy day on the Lancashire links course but, as conditions improved, so did the holder's fortunes.

"When we started, we were feeling very sorry for ourselves and then the wind suddenly changed to make things even tougher," Harrington told reporters. "All of a sudden I'm starting to leak a few shots and wondered what the cut is.

"Then I had the comfort of the eagle," he added, referring to his long-range putt at the par-five 17th. "You don't get many of those in Open championships; it was a real bonus.

"My finish was a total contrast to the day before when I finished six, five after doing all the hard work for 15 holes."

Elsewhere Damien McGrane (+10) and Philip Walton (+19) won't be around for the weekend action after both missed the halfway cut.

Collated Scores
(Irl & Gbr unlesss stated, Irishin bold)

139KJ Choi (Kor) 72 67

140Greg Norman (Aus) 70 70

141Camilo Villegas (Col) 76 65

142Alexander Noren (Swe) 72 70, Robert Allenby (Aus) 69 73, Jim Furyk (USA) 71 71, Graeme McDowell69 73, David Duval (USA) 73 69, Rocco Mediate (USA) 69 73, Padraig Harrington74 68

143Peter Hanson (Swe) 71 72, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 71 72, Ian Poulter 72 71, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 72 71, Stephen Ames (Can) 73 70

144Anthony Wall 71 73, Adam Scott (Aus) 70 74, Soren Hansen (Den) 75 69, Jean
Van de velde (Fra) 73 71, Scott Verplank (USA) 77 67, Dave Horsey 74 70

145Chris Wood 75 70, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 72 73, Zach Johnson (USA) 73 72, Jay Williamson (USA) 73 72, Simon Wakefield 71 74

146Retief Goosen (Rsa) 71 75, Anders Hansen (Den) 78 68, Ross Fisher 72 74, Nick Dougherty 75 71, Graeme Storm 76 70, Thomas Sherreard 77 69, Anthony Kim (USA) 72 74, Justin Rose 74 72, Tom Gillis (USA) 74 72, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 75 71, Gregory Havret (Fra) 71 75

147Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 75 72, Jeff Overton (USA) 72 75, David Howell 76 71, Paul Waring 73 74, Ben Curtis (USA) 78 69, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 75 72, Brendan Jones (Aus) 74 73, Tom Lehman (USA) 74 73, Chih-bing Lam (Sin) 72 75, Phil Mickelson (USA) 79 68, Justin Leonard (USA) 77 70, Kevin Stadler (USA) 72 75, Mike Weir (Can) 71 76, Craig Parry (Aus) 77 70

148Steve Stricker (USA) 77 71, Bart Bryant (USA) 70 78, Colin Montgomerie 73 75, Woody Austin (USA) 76 72, Todd Hamilton (USA) 74 74, David Frost (Rsa) 75 73, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 75 73, John Rollins (USA) 73 75, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 74 74, Sean O'Hair (USA) 75 73, Richard Finch 75 73, Richard Green (Aus) 76 72, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 77 71, Jonathan Lomas 75 73, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 74 74, Douglas Labelle (USA) 78 70, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 76 72

149Martin Wiegele (Aut) 75 74, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 75 74, Andres Romero (Arg) 77 72, Davis Love III (USA) 75 74, Lucas Glover (USA) 78 71, Heath Slocum (USA) 73 76, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 74 75, Simon Khan 77 72, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 75 74, Paul Casey 78 71, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 73 76, Ernie Els (Rsa) 80 69, Phillip Archer 75 74, Ariel Canete (Arg) 78 71, Lee Westwood 75 74

The following players missed the cut

150 Damien McGrane79 71, James Kingston (Rsa) 77 73, Azuma Yano (Jpn) 74 76, Josh Cunliffe (Rsa) 79 71, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 76 74, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 77 73, Scott McCarron (USA) 75 75, Pat Perez (USA) 82 68, Peter Baker 75 75, Yoshinobu Tsukada (Jpn) 75 75, Tom Watson (USA) 74 76, Stewart Cink (USA) 75 75, Alex Cejka (Ger) 76 74, Jon Bevan 78 72, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 75 75, Paul Lawrie 77 73, Peter Appleyard 74 76, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 78 72

151Andrew Tampion (Aus) 78 73, Oliver Wilson 77 74, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 81 70, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 77 74, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 76 75, Charles Howell III (USA) 76 75, Vijay Singh (Fij) 80 71, Mark O'Meara (USA) 74 77, Mark Calcavecchia (USA) 76 75, Craig Barlow (USA) 79 72, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 77 74, Brandt Snedeker (USA) 72 79

152Michael Letzig (USA) 78 74, David Smail (Nzl) 76 76, Barry Hume 76 76, Matt Kuchar (USA) 79 73, Simon Dyson 82 70, Johan Edfors (Swe) 78 74, Hunter Mahan (USA) 80 72, Paul Goydos (USA) 77 75, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 79 73, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 79 73

153Gary Boyd 77 76, Boo Weekley (USA) 80 73, Tim Clark (Rsa) 76 77

154Rodney Pampling (Aus) 77 77, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 79 75, Jeff Quinney (USA) 79 75, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 72 82, Doug McGuigan 79 75, Angelo Que (Phi) 76 78, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 77 77

155Ewan Porter (Aus) 76 79, Rohan Blizard (Aus) 78 77

156Jamie Elson 78 78, J.B. Holmes (USA) 79 77, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 79 77, Scott Strange (Aus) 84 72

157Reinier Saxton (Ned) 80 77, Hiroshi Iwata (Jpn) 73 84

158Michoi Matsumura (Jpn) 82 76, Tim Petrovic (USA) 82 76, Adam Blyth (Aus) 81 77

159Steve Webster 79 80, Philip Walton77 82, Brad Lamb (Aus) 85 74

160Jerry Kelly (USA) 83 77, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 82 78

161Shintaro Kai (Jpn) 80 81

163Danny Chia (Mal) 76 87

164Peter Fowler (Aus) 82 82

169John Daly (USA) 80 89

170Jamie Howarth 85 85