From a position of dominance overnight, Paul McGinley is in danger of merely making up the numbers after a nightmare PGA Championship third round at Wentworth today.

Resuming with a four stroke lead on 13-under, the Dubliner carded a desperately poor round of 79 to drop like a stone down the leaderboard.

At six-under, McGinley remains just about in the hunt for the title but that is perhaps due to the general lack of quality golf on a difficult day for the players.

Of the leading group, only Robert Karlsson managed to get under par, his round of 70 good enough for 11-under and a four stroke lead over Miguel Angel Jimenez and Oliver Wilson.

McGinley's closing bogey six dropped him into a tie with Argentina's Daniel Vancsik and Indian Jyoti Randhawa.

McGinley's problems started when he pushed a long-iron off the first tee into a bunker and came up short of the green in two.

He then chipped off the back and after electing to use his putter sent it six feet past and missed the return for a double-bogey six.

A pulled drive down the 465-yard third led to a bogey and his next mistake came when he went a fraction long at the short fifth and missed his five-foot par attempt.

He did come back with a birdie on the sixth, but three-putted the 11th and even though he birdied the long 12th - the last hole downwind - Karlsson eagled it after two marvellous shots to 10 feet.

The closing stretch was a challenge for everybody and, try as he did, McGinley just could not prevent further bogeys going on his card at the 13th, 14th, 16th and 18th.

Karlsson, meanwhile, had recovered from a three-putt bogey on the first to turn in a level par 35 and although the eagle was followed by bogeys on the 15th and 16th he hit straight back with two birdies, making a 25-footer on the long next and two-putting the 538-yard last.

Jimenez also birdied the final two holes for a 72, while Wilson's 73 keeps alive his hopes of grabbing his first Tour title after six second places, the last of them two weeks ago in Milan.

Paul Casey, quizzed by reporters after his second round about whether he had sworn at an official, did not feel the need to curse despite dropping four shots in the last four holes and finishing seven behind.

Worst score of the day was an 80 from Wentworth's own Ross Fisher, the player who shared the lead with a round to go last year and crashed to an 84.

Another to suffer was Dane Soren Kjeldsen, who after turning in 33 shared the lead, but laboured home in 43 to be alongside Casey.

Collated third round scores (Irish and Gbr unless stated, Irish in bold, par 72):

205 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 66 69 70

209 Oliver Wilson 70 66 73, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 70 67 72

210 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 68 70 72, Paul McGinley 65 66 79, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 73 68 69

211 Gary Orr 70 68 73, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 70 73 68

212 Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 71 67 74, Paul Casey 71 68 73, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 68 71 73, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 71 65 76, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 72 66 74, Richard Green (Aus) 70 69 73, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 71 70 71, Miles Tunnicliff 70 65 77, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 67 69 76

213 Peter Hanson (Swe) 72 71 70, Steve Webster 71 70 72, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 72 71 70, Simon Khan 71 71 71, Oliver Fisher 71 73 69

214 Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 72 72 70, James Kingston (Rsa) 72 71 71, Andres Romero (Arg) 72 69 73, Alexander Noren (Swe) 75 68 71, Marc Warren 69 70 75, Alastair Forsyth 72 70 72, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 72 71 71, Luke Donald 72 69 73

215 Damien McGrane 72 66 77, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 71 69 75, Soren Hansen (Den) 76 66 73, Simon Dyson 75 67 73, Peter Lawrie 73 72 70, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 72 69 74, Sam Walker 75 68 72, Paul Lawrie 72 73 70, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 76 69 70, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 73 68 74, Mark Foster 72 70 73, Sam Little 74 68 73

216 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 70 70 76, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 69 76 71, Ariel Canete (Arg) 74 71 71, Simon Wakefield 68 71 77

217 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 75 69 73, Garry Houston 68 74 75, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 67 76 74, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 73 70 74, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 73 72 72, Paul Broadhurst 72 71 74, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 71 72 74, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 74 73

218 Graeme McDowell 70 73 75, David Howell 70 71 77, Jamie Donaldson 72 72 74, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 74 70 74, Johan Edfors (Swe) 71 74 73, Thomas Levet (Fra) 74 71 73

219 Nick Dougherty 70 73 76, Ross McGowan 73 72 74

220 Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 69 76 75, Anton Haig (Rsa) 70 75 75, Robert Dinwiddie 78 63 79

221 Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 70 72 79, Anders Hansen (Den) 75 69 77, Matthew Morris 71 74 76

222 Marcel Siem (Ger) 71 73 78

225 Ross Fisher 72 73 80