Westwood and Harrington make early charge

Lee Westwood and Padraig Harrington produced early fireworks in round three of the £4m (€5.9m) NEC World Championship in Akron.

Westwood raced through the back nine in a spectacular six-under-par 29 to charge from five over par overnight to one-under.

Over on the outward half, meanwhile, Harrington launched his third round with four birdies in five holes to be on the same mark.

An early alarm call did not have any detrimental effect on them – and nor did it on Paul McGinley, whose two opening birdies briefly put him into the lead at five-under in the race for a first prize of over £716,000 (€1m).

Things could hardly have been tighter at the top, though. McGinley, one behind Luke Donald and Tiger Woods overnight, was out on his own in front for only a few minutes.

Playing partners Vijay Singh and Henrik Stenson also birdied the long second and when they rolled in putts of 28 and 12 feet on the next they stood five-under as well.

Woods made it a four-way tie when he struck a glorious second to 12 feet at the 526-yard second and just missed the eagle attempt.

And when he hit his approach to six feet on the next, the world number one, who closed his second round with a double bogey, topped the leaderboard again at six-under.

With thunderstorms expected in mid-afternoon, the third-round tee-off times were brought forward.

With the 71 players being sent off from the first and 10th holes, Westwood was in the very first group off at 7.20am, along with Ryder Cup partner Darren Clarke.

They both opened with a pair of birdies, but while Clarke gave the strokes back with bogeys at the 13th and 18th to be three-over, again Westwood was flying.

After making putts of six and nine feet at the 10th and 11th, he holed from 12 feet at the short 15th, pitched to two feet on the next, was only four feet from the flag with his 162-yard second to the 17th and smashed a 380-yard drive down the last before pitching to six feet.

Harrington, three-over when he set off again at 7.40am, pitched to three feet on the first, chipped to two feet at the par-five next and when he made a nine-footer on the third he was up to level par.

McGinley very nearly spun off the green at the first but holed from eight feet to make instant amends for his closing bogey last night.

He was then on in two, like Woods at the second.