But the 33-year-old produced a storming front nine and a scarcely believable finish to his final round to take the clubhouse lead at Muirfield.

There was no sense of the drama set to unfold when he bogeyed the opening hole to drop seven shots off the lead, but he hit straight back with birdies on the second and third.

Four in a row from the eighth - his birdie putt on the ninth lipped out - took him out in 31, and at that stage a share of second place alongside Australian Peter O’Malley who went on to finish four under.

The former English amateur champion then holed an enormous putt across the width of the 10th green, and when he rolled in another from much shorter range on the 11th, he was leading on his own.

That lead became two when Els drove into a fairway bunker on the first and took five, and it could easily have been three.

Evans’ birdie putt from seven feet on the 15th had slipped agonisingly past the hole moments earlier, and he did well to hole the return to remain six under.

His chip from short of the 16th green then came up two inches short of another birdie, but his chance appeared to have disappeared when he hooked his second shot on the 17th into heavy rough and could not find the ball within the allotted five minutes, despite the help of the crowd.

Four other balls were found but none were his, and he was forced to return to where he had played the shot and, after taking a penalty drop, took on the same shot, now his fourth.

This time he found the putting surface but was still staring at a bogey before rolling in an extraordinary 50-foot putt to save par, sparking scenes of fist-pumping jubilation around the green.

He exchanged high-fives with playing partner Scott Verplank and then mouthed ‘‘That was for you Mum,’’ into a television camera.

Unbelievably there was more drama to come on the last after he missed the fairway to the right, then hit his second into the grandstand on the left.

That was not too disastrous as he was allowed a free drop, and from there his pitch rolled just off the green but stopped short of the bunker.

His pitch then ran five feet past but he bravely holed the return to card an incredible 65 for a five under total of 279 and the clubhouse lead.

‘‘I have never shaken like that before over a putt in my life, the one on the last,’’ a visibly drained Evans told BBC television.

‘‘I thought if I miss this, my one and only golden opportunity of getting close...I’m just dying at the moment.

‘‘I can’t get my head round it at the moment.

‘‘I was walking up to the 17th green and a friend of mine gave me a ‘link’ word to think about, ‘Strong like a bull,’ to make me focus a little bit. I was just trying to get it close and when it went in I couldn’t believe it.’’

By the time he had finished, Maruyama had gone past him into the lead with a birdie on the ninth, but he then bogeyed the 10th to drop back alongside Evans, Els and now Australian Steve Elkington on five under.

Ireland’s Padraig Harrington was a shot back with Sergio Garcia another stroke adrift on three under.