After finishing his second-round 65 at Dubai's renowned Emirates Golf Club on Friday with three straight birdies, the in-form World No 3 came back on Saturday to picked up more shots on three of his first four holes on his way to a rock solid 67 that lifted him to 15 under and onto the top of the congested leaderboard.

Germany's Marcel Siem and Scot Stephen Gallacher, winner with his hole-in-one earlier in the week of a luxury Mercedes Benz sedan, are a solitary shot adrift, having each carded 68s playing alongside Westwood.

Spain's Rafael Cabrera-Bello, who played with McIlroy and Thomas Bjorn and had to birdie 18 to come away with a third-round 70, is tied with Siem and Gallacher and at just one of the pace, the first round leader is still very much in with a chance against a man who doesn't have an especially strong record in recent years of winning when entering the final round on top of the leaderboard.

In the meantime, while McIlroy and Bjn, the joint overnight leaders, will both have been disappointed that they could only muster rounds of 72 and 73 and have slipped back into joint 5th and 9th places respectively, both men will nevertheless be well aware that at just two and three shots off the pace, they are also still strongly in the running to win. RocketBallz MAX Irons Graphite


This especially applies to McIlroy, Ulster's World No 2, who closed his roller-coaster day with a fourth birdie at the last that nullified his four bogies to join Germany's World No 4 Martin Kaymer, Scotland's Scot Jamieson and the latest Swedish talent Joel Sjoholm at 13-under.

Former Open Champion Ben Curtis of the USA, whose 67 included an eagle at 13, and South African George Coetzee were alongside Bjn in the group at 12-under.

On his latest situation a still optimistic McIlroy said: "Two shots over 18 holes is nothing. I still feel in a pretty positive frame of mind and the windier it is on Sunday the better. It will make it a tough battle."

He did admit however, that his quality of RocketBallz MAX Irons Graphite
had slipped in round three.

"It was pretty ragged to say the least," he said