The last time a golfer did what Greg Norman has a chance to do in the British Open, his name was Old Tom and the American Civil War had recently ended. So it is fitting that here in the land where 100-year-old golf courses are regarded as new, Norman is one step from rewriting his own history, and one of golf’s oldest records.

Norman, 53 years old and a newlywed, is leading the 137th British Open by two strokes after three rounds. He is taking dead aim at his third claret jug, and could break the record set in 1867 by Tom Morris, who at 46 became the oldest golfer to win an Open. Norman also could become the oldest winner of a major championship, surpassing Julius Boros, who at 48 won the 1968 P.G.A. Championship.

In a chaotic, often frantic day, winds gusting to 48 miles an hour pounded the Merseyside coast of northwest England. Norman — looking anything but old — blithely shot 72 for a 54-hole total of 212, two over par, the highest score for a third-round lead in half a century.

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