Wall finds his form in Hamburg

England's Anthony Wall, who considered giving up European Tour life earlier this season because he was struggling so much, produced one of the lowest rounds of his career in Hamburg today.

While defending champion Tiger Woods remained deep in the pack, 27-year-old Wall had an eight-under-par 64 in the third round of the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open at Gut Kaden.

Having survived the halfway cut with only one stroke to spare at three under, Wall charged all the way into second place just two behind Padraig Harrington. But all the overnight leaders had still to tee off again.

“I contemplated jacking it in – the last thing I want to do is struggle. I work too hard for that,” said the former tour winner, who in his first eight events this year missed six halfway cuts and earned only €4,232.

In April, though, he turned to ex-colleague Peter Mitchell for help and the radical changes he has been making bore fruit with an eight-birdie display.

“The big boys have great technique as well as talent,” he said. “My technique has not been as good as it should be and I was surviving, no more.

“I was getting worse and worse, week after week. What’s the point? I’ve put my whole life into this and something had to change. It’s stressful and I could earn as much money doing something else with half the stress.”

Woods, for whom the words “survival” and “struggle” have no relevance, resumed in very unfamiliar territory at the tournament. On four previous trips the world number one has finished first, third, first and first, but this time he was only 38th at halfway.

Birdies at the fourth and sixth helped his cause, but many more were needed if he was to climb back into contention. Instead, though, he bogeyed the seventh and even after picking up another stroke on the 420-yard 10th to get back to six under he was still down in 36th spot.

Harrington led by three from Retief Goosen at 13 under after rounds of 65 and 66 in Woods’ company. But since he lost by four after leading by four at last week’s Benson & Hedges International Open, the Dubliner knew there was a lot of hard work ahead to take the €455,000 first prize.

Before he resumed, fellow Irishmen Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell had both had early birdies to join Goosen on 10 under.