Ferrie in front

England’s Kenneth Ferrie, who came from seven shots behind to win the European Open in July, now finds himself the man everybody else is trying to catch at St Andrews tomorrow.

With Colin Montgomerie stumbling to a disappointing 73 at Kingsbarns, the 27-year-old from Northumberland took the opportunity to race away from the field in the third round of the Dunhill links championship.

Ferrie went round St Andrews in a five-under 67 and will start the final lap of the race for a first prize of nearly £450,000 on 13 under par.

Montgomerie, pushed into second place by the same player at the K Club near Dublin three months ago, now reckons he will need something even better than his sparkling 65 on Friday to overhaul him.

With play still continuing, he was in the clubhouse on eight under along with Swede Henrik Stenson and said: “It was a very difficult day.”

More strong winds down the east coast of Scotland led to a number of players - Montgomerie and Ferrie included – watching balls blown either closer or further away from holes.

Montgomerie, involved in real controversy over the replacing of a ball in Indonesia in March, found himself in yet more discussions with a rules official when it happened to him on the short 15th.

His tee shot failed to make the carry and finished on the edge of the rocks. From there, his recovery skidded some 25 feet past the flag on to the exposed top edge of the green.

As the 42-year-old Scot prepared to attempt his par putt, he could see the ball was oscillating and stepped back. Seconds later, it started rolling and came to rest around eight feet from the cup.

Not wanting to fall foul of the rules again – in March he gave his prize money to charity after seeing video of an incident which will never be forgotten by many of his fellow tour players – Montgomerie asked for a referee.

But after the situation was explained, he was allowed to play the ball as it lay.

Even from only a third of the distance of the original position, however, he missed the putt and dropped to nine under.

Asked whether there was a moment when he thought ‘Oh no’, Montgomerie replied: “Sure. If it had blown the other way it was in the ocean.

“I was pretty confident I had done nothing wrong but called the rules official, and he told me it was okay. Then I wasn’t quite concentrating on what I was doing and missed the putt.”

Ferrie had taken advantage of a similar incident to Montgomerie’s, his ball blown much closer to the hole on the short 11th.

That was the Northumberland golfer’s fourth birdie of the day – and he picked up more shots on the 12th, 15th and 16th.

A bogey on the Road Hole 17th followed, though, to cut his advantage from six to five.

Also eight under and still out on the three courses being used for the celebrity pro-am were Swede Pierre Fulke and Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez.

Former winners Padraig Harrington and Lee Westwood climbed onto the leaderboard but then slipped up to finish on five under. Westwood double-bogeyed the 17th at Kingsbarns for a 69; Harrington bogeyed the 13th and 17th there for 71.