“Anybody in the top 64 can beat anybody. And just the fact that Tiger and Vijay are out (he did not know about Mickelson losing as well) does not say there is no class left in the field. We can all play.”

After convincing wins over JimFuryk and Stuart Appleby – he was a combined 13 under par – Poulter trailed South African Rory Sabbatini by two with five to play in the third round.

But the last surviving of 15 Europeans who began the week took the 14th with a par four, holed an eight-foot birdie putt at the 16th, went ahead on the 17th when his opponent failed to get up and down from sand and closed out the game with a solid par five.

Mickelson’s bid for a third successive US Tour victory was ended by Toms, while Singh’s loss to 51-year-old Jay Haas means he has still to progress beyond the event’s second round.

The same is true of Lee Westwood, thrashed by a record-equalling seven and six margin by Davis Love, who then lost at the 20th to Cink.

Donald, Poulter and Garcia were the only Europeans to get even as far as the last 16, but Donald, his putting touch suddenly gone, finished with three successive bogeys to lose five and four to O’Hern and Garcia went out four and three to Scott.