Ferrie goes five clear as Monty falters

England’s Kenneth Ferrie, who came from seven shots behind to win the European Open in July, will be the man everybody looks 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 £2.7million Dunhill Links Championship.

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

He also leads the team competition with Olympic gold medal winner Jonathan Edwards, whose highlight was a birdie three on the famous Road Hole 17th.

Montgomerie, pushed into second place by Ferrie at the K Club near Dublin three months ago, now believes he will need something even better than a repeat of Friday’s sparkling 65 to overhaul the leader.

The Scot stands eight-under, alongside Swede Henrik Stenson and Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez, and said: “I didn’t play very well, but 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 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 onto 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 the 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 take advantage of a similar incident to Montgomerie’s, his ball being blown from 20 feet to six feet from the hole on the short 11th.

That set up his fourth birdie of the day and Ferrie picked up further shots on the 12th, 15th and 16th.

A bogey on the 17th followed, though, to cut his advantage from six to five and he was annoyed to three-putt not just there, but also at the driveable 18th for a par four.

“I’m pretty confident and playing well, but there’s no excuse for three-putting in my eyes – it’s just giving shots away,” said the former British boys’ champion, who has come down from 20 to 16 stones in the past year.

“If I’m happy with doing that then probably I’m doing the wrong sport. It’s not a game of perfection, but everybody strives to get there.”

If he wins, Ferrie will lead the Ryder Cup points table and will be on course to return to the K Club to face the Americans next September.

“I’m sure there’s not too many of the guys that will be too worried if I go top,” he said. “There’s a long time left and it’s not guaranteed, but obviously to get a big win early on would be brilliant.”

Former winners Padraig Harrington and Lee Westwood climbed onto the leaderboard but then slipped up to finish joint seventh on five-under.

Westwood double-bogeyed the 17th at Kingsbarns for a 69, while Harrington bogeyed the 13th and 17th there for 71.