Westwood shares lead

One bad shot followed by one great putt left Lee Westwood sharing the lead with Retief Goosen in the Smurfit European Open title at the wet and windy K Club near Dublin today.

Westwood, trying to win the€3m event for a third time, had just birdied the short eighth to narrow the gap to one, US Open champion Goosen having resumed with his first bogey in 28 holes.

But the Worksop golfer, who admits he much prefers the Palmer Course on which he won the trophy in 1999 and 2000, then pulled his drive into the trees on the Smurfit Course’s 464-yard ninth.

He was eventually driven back to the tee and made four with his second ball, but a double bogey six went on his card and he dropped to joint third spot.

The Ryder Cup star then went looking for a quick response, however, and certainly came up with it in the shape of an eagle putt of around 40 feet at the 551-yard 10th.

By then South African Goosen had bogeyed the ninth, so they were level on seven under, one ahead of Jose Manuel Lara and Nick O’Hern.

Spaniard Lara had his best finish on the European tour when he was runner-up in last year’s Italian Open to Mathias Gronberg and, having run up a bogey six on the third, Lara, who holed-in-one at the second yesterday, birdied the fourth, seventh, 10th and 11th.

As well as boosting his title hopes, it put him in position to qualify for the Open at Troon in two weeks’ time as the leading non-exempt player.

Darren Clarke, abandoning his experiment with a belly putter, could do no better than a 74 and was down the field at six over along with Padraig Harrington, who finished his 76 with a double bogey seven, while Nick Faldo was four over following a 74.