Colin Montgomerie swept past dispirited rivals in wild, wet conditions here on the West Course yesterday to claim a share of the lead after three rounds of the £1.3 million Volvo PGA Championship. Among those left in Monty's wake was Darren Clarke, who had the most miserable of rounds while carding a 77.

As holder of the title, the big Scot was unusually careful not to dig any holes for himself in his post-round comments. "I set out to get myself into contention and that's what I've done," he said with obvious satisfaction, after climbing from 12th place overnight to be level with Retief Goosen entering the final round.

It was the sort of testing day when a slice of luck made a huge difference to a player's well-being. And as Clarke amply testified, the converse was equally true. Even Goosen, one of the Irishman's playing partners, was moved to comment: "Apart from two bad chip shots, Darren didn't seem to do much wrong. He just had a bad day."

Bernhard Langer, the first round leader, feared he might have to echo those words after a rules wrangle involving a television viewer. But all came out well for the German in a round of 70 which left him on eight-under for the tournament and sharing third place with Mark McNulty.

The viewer alleged that Langer broke a small branch of a tree in the area of his intended swing on an approach shot to the ninth, which he bogeyed. Three rules officials, David Rickman, David Garland and John Paramor studied the video and spoke to Langer. "There is certainly a large degree of doubt," said Paramor after announcing there would be no penalty.

For his part, Langer commented: "Someone made them aware that I had hit off a small twig or some leaves with my second shot on my practice swing. Then I made my swing, but the intended line of swing was nowhere near where the twig came off."

Meanwhile, McNulty's caddie could tell that his master was going to have a productive round. "This is a lucky sign," said the colourful Basil van Rooyen when a rather large bird's dropping landed on his shoulder while they were on the eighth tee.

McNulty's response was: "It's only lucky if you think it's lucky." And having adopted a receptive mental attitude, he went on to birdie the hole and also three of the next four on the way to a 67. Indeed there was nothing faulty about Basil's contribution insofar as he had also helped McNulty with his putting stroke the previous night.

Remarkably, Montgomerie had more eagles than birdies on his card - two to one. Even more important, however, was that he didn't drop a shot to a demanding course. And he was determined that this should be so.

"When I had my first eagle on the 12th to go to eight under for the tournament, I knew it was important that the others could see I wasn't dropping any from then on," he explained. "My job is to put pressure on the others." And did it work? "Well, when I went to 10 under, Goosen dropped back to 10."

He then made it clear that the player he fears most at this stage is Els, even though the South African dropped three strokes off the lead after carding six bogeys in a round of 74. "If I can beat Els, I feel I have every chance of winning," Montgomerie said, highlighting the scars that remain from their rather one-sided tangles in the US Opens of 1994 and 1997.

As for Els, he was less than pleased with his return on the greens. "For some reason I had no feel on the greens and I really putted terrible."

The finishing holes of the West Course have been a source of tremendous excitement over the years. They also offer wonderful opportunities for those, like the Scot, who play them well. In the event, Montgomerie got himself into contention by sinking a 12footer for eagle at the 12th, and he completed the job on the 18th, hitting a four-iron of 218 yards to 10 feet and then sinking the putt.

Significantly, Goosen got nothing there by way of compensation for bogeys at the 15th and 16th, where he failed to get up and down from greenside bunkers. "It was a bad finish," he admitted. "The back nine was so long, compared with the first two rounds, that it was a totally different course. I hope they're my bad holes for the week."