England’s Justin Rose made the most of his last-hole heroics to post a record-equalling score in the third round of the 147th Open Championship.

But whether the record would stand by the end of the day was a matter for debate as defending champion Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods were among those to exploit the benign conditions in a feast of low scoring.

Rose, who finished fourth in the Open as a 17-year-old amateur 20 years ago, birdied the 18th hole on Friday evening to make the halfway cut with nothing to spare on three over par.

And the Olympic champion carried on where he left off on Saturday, taking advantage of benign conditions to fire seven more birdies in a flawless 64, equalling the lowest score in an Open at Carnoustie achieved by Steve Stricker and Richard Green in rounds three and four respectively in 2007.

At four under par Rose was just two shots off the lead when he signed his card, but his fears that the good conditions would continue were realised as Spieth drove the green on the 380-yard opening hole and holed from 12 feet for an eagle two.

A tap-in birdie on the fourth then took Spieth into a share of the lead with compatriots Kevin Chappell, Zach Johnson and Kevin Kisner, the latter pair seeing their overnight lead wiped out before teeing off.

Minutes later England’s Tommy Fleetwood made it a five-way tie with a birdie on the second and then there were six, Woods two-putting the 14th from long range for his sixth birdie of the day.

“It was massive to take advantage today,” Rose said after the lowest round of his career in any major. “I was very excited last night not to be down the road, ruing another Open opportunity gone. I picked up where I left off and it was a great day’s work.”

England’s Chris Wood, who was fifth in the Open as an amateur in 2008 and third a year later, had been the first player to threaten a historic score after racing to the turn in 31 and picking up further shots on the 10th and 13th.

However, he then needed two attempts to escape a bunker on the par-five 14th and also bogeyed the 17th before completing an eventful 66 by holing from long range for par on the 18th, where his approach had finished underneath the out-of-bounds fence.