Jordan Spieth will live out a dream when he goes into the final round of The Open knowing a potential battle is on his hands with Tiger Woods.

Defending champion Spieth carded a sensational 65 on a dramatic moving day to take a share of the lead with Kevin Kisner and Xander Schauffele ahead of Sunday's final round at Carnoustie.

Spieth's exploits followed an equally brilliant showing from Woods, who rolled back the years with a 65 of his own and briefly co-led.

The 14-time major winner will start four shots back from the leaders and Spieth is excited to see Woods contending in a major tournament again.

"I saw he played pretty well. I don't know what he finished at. I wasn't doing a whole lot of scoreboard watching, but I'm not surprised," he said.

"He seemed confident walking off the putting green, the little that we talked. I was doing an early session and he was about to go to the tee.

"The way that he's striking those two or three irons, he's certainly going to be in it [on Sunday], which is really exciting for us. 

"I've always wanted to battle it out in a major with Tiger. Who hasn't? It's kind of a dream come true just to have the opportunity. 

"It's nice that he's on point. It's really good for the sport, obviously, for the extra interest."

While Spieth is excited by the prospect of going head-to-head with Woods, he concedes that his dream scenario occurred at the Masters.

"I mean, I think I played it out at Augusta in my head, but we'll do it - you know, there's a lot of guys. I don't really know exactly how bunched it is," he added.

"Like I said, I haven't done much scoreboard watching, nor will I really be, I don't think, very interested in it.

"We have a totally different golf course [on Sunday], and then I didn't do any scoreboard watching Sunday at Augusta this year, and it seemed to free me up a little bit. 

"I may as well stick to the same game plan. It's not like you can force anything coming in anyway. So what difference does it make? You play to the spots out here.

"It's very cool looking at it from a big picture, but my head will be down."