Charl Schwartzel extended his lead at the top of the Madrid Masters leaderboard early in the final round today with a birdie at the fourth hole. Having started the day 14-under, the South African picked up a shot at the first par-five of the day to have a two-shot advantage over Argentinian Ricardo Gonzalez.

The third player in the leading group, Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal, enjoyed the brightest start of the trio, posting birdies at the second and fourth to reach 13-under, but he then dropped a shot at the sixth.

His compatriot Alvaro Quiros and Englishman Robert Rock were the men in form at the Club de Campo course and made an early assault on the summit.

Rock racked up five birdies on the front nine to move to 12-under for the tournament, while Quiros fired a birdie and two eagles in his opening seven holes to share that score.

Jose Maria Olazabal shot a two-over-par 73 to finish two over for the tournament.

Although a long way off the lead, the Spaniard, who had not played a competitive round since June before this week, said he was happy with the progress he had made.

"The best thing to take from this week is that I'm holding up OK," said the 42-year-old who has been out with injury and illness. "I didn't get any worse and I felt like I progressed each day so this is the best part.

"I will go home for a week and have some more treatment on my back, and if that goes OK I will play the Castellon Masters the following week."