Defending champion Padraig Harrington made an immediate impact as he tried to make inroads on David Toms’s Honda Classic lead in Florida this evening.

The Dubliner pitched to within seven feet on the 383-yard first and made the putt to move to within three shots of the American.

Harrington went on to par the next four as Toms rectified a dropped shot and second-placed Billy Mayfair played to par through the first five.

Luke Donald and Lee Westwood shared seventh place on five under when the resumed but the latter three-putted the first and then bogeyed the second and fourth to drop to two-under.

Ian Poulter, relieved still to be competing, was fuming after one hole dealt a massive blow to his hopes of qualifying for next month’s Masters.

Poulter, with only two more weeks to climb into the world’s top 50 from his current position of 65th, had survived the halfway cut at Mirasol right on the limit of three over par.

In an inspired first 13 holes of his third round he grabbed six birdies to move up from 64th to 19th place - but then came a triple-bogey seven on the 470-yard 14th, with putts accounting for four of the dropped shots.

Just short of the green in two, Poulter chipped to 22 feet, but hit his par attempt four feet past, did the same with his bogey effort and missed the hole again coming back.

Dropping another stroke at the 16th meant the Ryder Cup star finished with a 70 and at one over was 11 adrift of Toms.