Westwood storms home

one of those days when everything seemed to fall good for me," he commented. "I was just trying to get in a position for tomorrow, two or three behind."

Overnight leader Michael Lorenzo-Vera, playing just his 16th Tour event, could manage only a 75, as did his playing partner Marcel Siem, and it was Swede Robert Karlsson, Chile's Felipe Aguilar and 48-year-old South African David Frost who were in joint fourth.

Frost, trying to become the oldest ever winner on the tour, fired a 66.

Harrington was hoping for better than 70 and gave himself six strokes to make up, while Paul McGinley fell eight back with a 73 and Colin Montgomerie, round in the same score, was down in 36th place on one-over.

As for 19-year-old Rory McIlroy, his 70 moved him up, but only from 11th to ninth on four-under.

Third Round of the Irish Open (Par 72):
-9: Bradley Dredge 68 73 66
-8: Richard Finch 71 72 65
-7: Lee Westwood 75 70 64
-6: Felipe Aguilar 71 72 67, David Frost 74 70 66, Robert Karlsson 71 70 69
-5: Ross Fisher 74 68 69, Mikko Ilonen 77 66 68
-4: Stephen Gallacher 73 71 68, Gregory Havret 77 70 65, James Lee 69 73 70, James Kingston 75 68 69, Rory McIlroy 70 72 70, Gary Murphy 74 70 68, Alvaro Quiros Garcia 72 72 68, Anthony Wall 72 70 70
-3: Darren Clarke 72 69 72, Padraig Harrington 72 71 70, Pablo Larrazabal 70 70 73, Michael Lorenzo-Vera 68 70 75, Jarmo Sandelin 76 66 71, Alvaro Velasco 69 72 72
Also:
-2: Peter O’Malley (Australia) 70 73 71
-1: Richard Green (Australia) 66 74 75
+3: Scott Strange (Australia) 71 74 74
+9: Matthew Millar (Australia) 73 73 79