Westwood ready for final-day duel for Ryder Cup points

Lee Westwood and Robert Karlsson will have the Ryder Cup on their minds in the final round of the Deutsche Bank Players’ Championship in Hamburg.

Karlsson holds a two-shot lead after shrugging off a weather delay of 95 minutes – and the theft of his ball marker – to card a 66 to lie 20 under par.

Westwood, seeking a third victory at Gut Kaden, fired a 67 to finish 18 under, two shots ahead of Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam and South African Charl Schwartzel.

World number five Retief Goosen, Scotland’s Gary Orr and Italian Emanuele Canonica share fifth place on 15 under.

With 600,000 points on offer to the winner, victory on Sunday could be crucial to the leading duo’s chances of qualifying for the European team at the K Club in September.

Karlsson could move as high as seventh in the standings while Westwood could reach as high as 12th.

Wales Open winner Karlsson had made a superb start to his third round with five birdies in the first seven holes but lost his momentum when play was suspended due to the threat of lightning with the last group on the 11th green.

When it resumed at 4.50pm local time both Karlsson and Woosnam’s ball markers were missing and the pair had to estimate where they should be replaced before play could continue. Karlsson had in fact been facing a relatively short birdie putt but eventually missed it and had to settle for par.