Irish Open:  Darren Clarke made a complete mess of the 18th to effectively play himself out of contention going into the final round of the Irish Open at Adare Manor where Welshman Bradley Dredge is the player they all have to catch.

After a poor pre-round workout on the range, Clarke struggled with his swing at the start of today's round to record two bogeys in the opening five holes.

However, the 39-year-old then knuckled down to reel off five birdies and no bogeys to get within two shots of the lead standing on the 18th tee. And that's when his Irish Open unraveled in front of him.

This year's BMW Asian Open winner should have taken his medicine after a wayward drive left him behind trees. Instead Clarke took too much on and found a horrid lie in a bunker further up the fairway.

From there he thinned his effort over the stands and out of bounds behind the green and had to drop another in the bunker. He eventually pitched out, found the green and two putted for a triple bogey eight.

Running up a cricket score like this meant he signed for a level par 72 to drop back where he started the day on three-under. He is joined on that mark by defending champion Pádraig Harrington, whose 70 might have been so much better.

"I played all the good golf over the first 11 holes then lost my way a bit in the last seven," said the British Open champion afterwards. "It's a bit frustrating because I played well but should have shot better than 70."

"I must shoot a good score tomorrow…there have been low scores today so it's definitely on. As the greens soften the chances are there, I just have to get a hot putter going tomorrow."

Gary Murphy (68) and Rory McIlroy (70) are the two leading Irishmen as they go into tomorrow's final round five off the pace on four-under.

While Clarke was having all sorts of problems on the final hole his playing partner Dredge closed with a birdie for a round of 66 to lead on nine-under, one ahead of England's Richard Finch (65) and two ahead of Lee Westwood, who shot a course record 64.

Westwood began the day on the wrong side of par at one-over but quickly got the ball rolling with a birdie and an eagle at the seventh to reach the turn in three-under 33.

A bogey at the par five 12th might have spoiled the momentum, but instead, only served as a prelude to the most thrilling of finishes. The Ryder Cup star reeled off four birdies in-a-row before closing out his round with an eagle three at the par five 18th.

"Today was great, I really enjoyed that," said the tournament leader afterwards. "That was a nice eagle at the last but I pulled my four-iron if I'm being honest - but it was a nice pull!"

Last night Westwood went straight to the practice putting green and clearly addressed a few issues with the blade. "I worked on a few things with the putter last night and that certainly helped."

"I was just trying to avoid the bogeys I made yesterday, it's much easier to attack flags when you hit fairways. You get more control and that's the key to making birdies around here," added Westwood, who would have been happy to go even lower than his seven-under leading aggregate.

"Today's score could have been even lower as I missed a few chances but I certainly made up for it with that finish."

Paul McGinley struggled to get anything going and he lost ground after a 73 left him on one-under. Peter Lawrie was the only other Irishman to make it into the weekend and his 72 left the Dubliner on two-over.

As for Dredge, he will he hoping to go one better at this immaculate Limerick venue in tomorrow's final round to erase the memory of losing last year's play-off to Harrington.

Collated third-round scores (Gbr and Irl unless stated, Par 72):

207Bradley Dredge 68 73 66

208Richard Finch 71 72 65

209Lee Westwood 75 70 64

210Robert Karlsson (Swe) 71 70 69, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 71 72 67, David Frost (Rsa) 74 70 66

211Ross Fisher 74 68 69, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 77 66 68

212Anthony Wall 72 70 70, Rory McIlroy 70 72 70, Lee S James 69 73 70, James Kingston (Rsa) 75 68 69, Stephen Gallacher 73 71 68, Gary Murphy 74 70 68, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 72 72 68, Gregory Havret (Fra) 77 70 65

213Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 68 70 75, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 69 72 72, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 76 66 71, Darren Clarke 72 69 72, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 70 70 73, Padraig Harrington 72 71 70

214Marcel Siem (Ger) 68 71 75, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 71 71 72, Steven O'Hara 74 68 72, Johan Edfors (Swe) 68 73 73, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 70 73 71

215Richard Green (Aus) 66 74 75, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 77 68 70, Paul McGinley 73 69 73, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 70 73 72, Paul Broadhurst 73 74 68

216Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 73 73 70, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 74 70 72, Oliver Fisher 72 75 69

217Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 66 76 75, Gary Orr 71 73 73, Peter Baker 72 69 76, Colin Montgomerie 75 69 73, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 73 72 72, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 72 73 72, Julio Zapata (Arg) 72 73 72, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 77 69 71, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 72 72 73, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 75 69 73

218Oliver Wilson 74 73 71, Alastair Forsyth 71 72 75, Peter Lawrie 71 75 72, Barry Lane 73 72 73

219Luis Claverie (Spa) 73 73 73, Scott Strange (Aus) 71 74 74, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 74 72 73, Stuart Manley 71 72 76, John Bickerton 72 70 77

220Stephen Dodd 74 71 75, Ross McGowan 74 71 75, Simon Khan 71 74 75, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 71 74 75

221Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa) 71 75 75, Pedro Linhart (Spa) 71 76 74, Paul Waring 76 70 75, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 77 74

222Peter Hanson (Swe) 74 73 75

223Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 73 74 76, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 72 74 77

224Benoit Teilleria (Fra) 75 72 77

225David Drysdale 74 72 79, Matthew Millar (Aus) 73 73 79