And although his cushion was briefly reduced to three shots, first by Peter O’Malley’s superb 62 and then by playing partner Phil Price, the South African remained on course to claim the first prize.

Birdies at the third and ninth took Els to the turn in 34 at 13 under par, four ahead of Price and five clear of O’Malley, who had set the clubhouse target on eight under.

Price had also birdied the third and got within three shots with another at the seventh, but knew he was unable to rely on mistakes from the Open champion who had dropped just one shot in 45 holes so far.

O’Malley had earlier given himself an outside chance of a second Scottish Open title with a brilliant third round 62.

O’Malley carded nine birdies to jump from a share of 44th place overnight to second place. It equalled Retief Goosen’s course record from 1997 but will not count for record purposes due to the preferred lies in operation because of the wet conditions.

It was also O’Malley’s second 62 in the Scottish Open, his other coming in the final round at Gleneagles in 1992 when he famously played the last five holes in seven under par to pip Colin Montgomerie to the title.

The 38-year-old Australian employed his new belly-putter to great effect to fire four birdies in a row from the second, and raced home in 30 with five more to equal the lowest round of his career.

“I played well in France recently so I felt the form was pretty good and I am very much a confidence player,” said O’Malley, who had rounds of 67 and 76 on the first two days.

“If things go well I ride that wave and yesterday I got a bit negative after a bad start. If the vibes are there I ride on them and I holed a couple of good putts early on today.

“That’s the key round this course. I had 24 putts on Thursday, 33 yesterday and 25 today. I’ve been using the belly-putter for five or six weeks but used this one for the first time this week because it’s a bit heavier.”

O’Malley was not too concerned that his score would not be in the record books, and admitted: “You could not play without preferred lies, there is too much mud on the ball.

“It would make a difference and the only reason we didn’t play preferred lies on Thursday was because they had already started the round before we had the rain and four-hour delay.”

Fellow Australian Nick O’Hern had also taken advantage of a soft course and no rain falling for the first time this week to card a 65 and improve to four under, but Phil Mickelson faded after a flying start and could only manage a 70.

Mickelson birdied the second, third and fourth and after a bogey on the fifth hit back with another birdie on the sixth, but then dropped three more shots before a birdie on the last left him one over for the tournament.

“The course played much easier today with the wind dying down,” said the left-hander. “There are a lot of low scores out there and I thought I could get with the start I had but I made a few mistakes.

“There is not one area of the game I’m really concerned about but all areas have been inconsistent.”