Rose remains four ahead of Harrington

Justin Rose is in sight of becoming the European Tour's youngest number one for 18 years after an amazing rollercoaster ride at Valderrama on Saturday.

Third behind Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington in the Order of Merit race entering the season-ending Volvo Masters, the 27-year-old goes into the final round with a commanding four-stroke lead over Harrington and Yorkshire's Simon Dyson.

Playing together for the second time in three days, Open champion Harrington and Rose both returned 71s to remain four under and level par respectively, but it was not as straightforward as that. Anything but, in fact.

Harrington, four behind at the halfway stage, incredibly cancelled that out in just two holes when he birdied the first while Rose followed an opening bogey with a sloppy double-bogey.

For all the world, it looked as if Rose had lost his way in pursuit of the money-list crown and his first tournament win since last November's Australian Masters.

But he has not risen to 12th in the world since then for nothing - and victory tomorrow could now see him ranked the sixth best player in golf.

Rose was almost in the lake on the long fourth, but after escaping there with a par five he settled down and was soon taking control again.

Birdies on the eighth, 10th and 11th repaired all the damage and by then Harrington had become the one to wobble.

His opening three was something of a miracle as he had to hit his second through a gap in the branches of a tree, but things started to go wrong three holes later.

Heading towards the lake with his second, the ball hit rocks and flew 60 yards away to the right.

It was lucky he was back on dry land, but from the rough he then pitched into the water and took six.

The Dubliner did come straight back with a 20-foot birdie putt, but bogeyed the seventh and 13th to fall five adrift before narrowing the deficit with another birdie on the long 17th.

It might have closed further on the last, but Rose got up and down from sand and, from trailing Harrington by a mere £461 (€666) at the start of the week, is on course to grab the Order of Merit by collecting the first prize of nearly £470,000 (€677,800).

Dyson, meanwhile, had a seven-birdie, five-bogey 69 to improve from seventh spot to joint second and knows there is a chance to open all sorts of doors for himself tomorrow by leaping into the world top 50 from his current 86th.

Harrington stated: "Justin came back very well from that start. I can't now get away with having a bad day, whereas he can still win not having a good day.

"It's kind of in his hands tomorrow."

What Harrington will be reminding himself is that Rose's third round start showed how quickly things can change.

And he also has the memory of last year when he was down in 20th place and six off the lead with only 16 holes to play, but roared back to take the second spot he needed to pip Paul Casey for the money list.

"I was a little bit shell-shocked after the start," admitted Rose. "It was certainly not what the doctor ordered, but on the third tee I told myself I was still leading.

"I said yesterday that a four-shot lead at halfway is nothing to get excited about and I proved it.

"But I survived today. It was a great day to get round in level par and maintain a four-shot lead.

"A few weeks ago I was of the mindset that if it (becoming Europe's number one) happened it happened, but last week came the realisation that it's something I really wanted."

With a further three-stroke gap to fourth-placed quartet Colin Montgomerie, Ian Poulter, Soren Kjeldsen and Martin Kaymer - the German rookie had a best-of-the-week 66 - it looks game over for Els.

Having decided to play in Singapore rather than Spain the South African, despite a healthy £152,000 (€219,203) lead, will become European number one for the third time only if Rose and Harrington are outside the top three.

Swedes Henrik Stenson and Niclas Fasth were also in with a chance on Thursday morning, but they both had to win just to have a chance and at 12 over and eight over respectively their fate looks sealed too.

In other words, it has almost certainly come down to a straight duel between Rose and Harrington, although they will not be going head-to-head on the final day because Dyson's round puts him into the last group with Rose.

It should still be exciting, though - as long as you overlook the fact that Tiger Woods is actually the European Tour's leading money-winner for the sixth time in nine years and has won almost as much as Rose and Harrington combined so far, but does not appear on the Order of Merit because he did not play the required 11 events.