O'Malley hits the front in Shanghai

Australia’s Peter O’Malley stormed to the top of the leaderboard midway through the third round of the rain-hit BMW Asian Open in Shanghai.

The 40-year-old veteran hit four birdies, three of them on the trot, to move into a share of the lead with Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano.

The Spaniard was also impressive and was still to drop a shot after 10 holes.

Overnight leader Henrik Stenson fell back into third alongside Scotland’s Paul Lawrie, Portugal’s Jose-Felipe Lima, New Zealand’s Mahal Pearce and England’s Paul Casey by dropping one shot in his front nine.

A 19-year-old veteran on the European Tour, O’Malley was lying in joint 12th position overnight before his devastating burst under overcast conditions presented him a chance of winning his first title since 2001.

Lying 58th in the European Tour Order of Merit, O’Malley is best remembered for his finish to the 1992 Scottish Open at Gleneagles when he covered the last five holes in seven under par to pip Colin Montgomerie for the title.

Casey also moved up the leaderboard with an impressive start to his round that saw him eagle the ninth hole with a 50-foot putt and make three other birdies on the front nine.

Stenson had held onto top spot by one stroke after completing his second round early on.

Stenson was left with a birdie putt on the 18th yesterday before lightning and rain forced play to be suspended.

Returning to the last green, the world number 15 missed from about 10 feet and settled for par to complete a level-par 72.

He was four under during his third round thanks largely to his five-under 67 on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Scotland’s Montgomerie completed a second round two-over-par 74 to slip further down the leaderboard and was lying in 10th place. He started the campaign with a 69 on Thursday.

Montgomerie collected more bogeys than birdies in his second round as he failed to finish strongly when play resumed.

The fiery Scotsman began the third round brightly when he birdied the par-four first hole but has bogeyed on the third and 11th holes.