I spoke too soon. The noise that had been so obvious on the the first two days at The Players was absent on the third. Where there had been cheers and roars on Thursday and Friday there was birdsong on Saturday. In a two-hour walk around the course I heard only two roars.

This meant one thing. The players were having difficulty in coping with the challenges presented by the 7215-yard golf course. It was fast and firm and the greens were running at 13 on the Stimpmeter. The course had been difficult for the first two rounds but now was made much more difficult by the addition of third-round pressure. In the third round the field is sent out in reverse order, back markers first, leaders last. TV coverage of the leaders starts on the first tee and continues to the completion on the 18th green. Suddenly it is serious, really serious.

What often happens under these circumstances is that the field starts to bunch up. No one goes round in 66 as Garcia did on Thursday nor 67 as Langer had on Friday. In fact Garcia was wobbling towards the end of his 73. He had four bogeys in his last six holes while Langer took eight strokes more than the previous day, 75 to a 67. The best round among the leaders was a 70.

What also sometimes happens when the field bunches like this is that an unlikely golfer moves to the front of the field and Paul Goydos is certainly that. The American, who is 43, has been on tour for 16 years and has one victory to his name - the Sony Open in Hawaii in January 2007. He is articulate, self deprecating, has a dry sense of humour and would be a popular winner were he to do so but he would be the first to say he would be an unlikely one.

"This golf course tests you in all facets of your game" Goydos said. "I passed the exams for three days. Hopefully, I can pass a fourth."

After 54 holes he leads by one stroke from Kenny Perry, the overnight leader, and three from Garcia and four from a group that includes Bernhard Langer and Phil Mickelson. These names have something in common. With the exception of Garcia they are in their late thirties or even older. Langer is 50, Perry 47 and Mickelson 37. Age counts for something.

Whether one of the older players will win the first prize of $1.5m remains to be seen. For now, it is getting more difficult by the minute. It is compelling theatre, absorbing, even if it is no longer a roar a minute.