• Irish Open, Round Three

Howell roars into contention at Killarney

David Howell prospered as Rory McIlroy plodded on Saturday © PA Photos

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A flawless round of 64 put Englishman David Howell on course for his first victory in over five years, as playing partner Rory McIlroy suffered opposite fortunes at the Irish Open on Saturday.

Howell, a two-time Ryder Cup player who is currently ranked 282nd in the world after nearly dropping out of the top 500 in recent times, made seven birdies while avoiding a single bogey during his third round - enough for a score of 64 that set the early clubhouse target of 11-under.

"I'm flying now - I must be one of the hottest players in the world!" Howell joked afterwards. "I've not been in the best of form, so I was intrigued how I was going to be playing with Rory. He's the star of world golf.

"But there were no nerves and I think I was inspired by the atmosphere. The crowds were amazing."

McIlroy, meanwhile, double-bogeyed the first and struggled to recover - also bogeying the third before picking up five birdies between another couple of dropped shots that left him one-over for the day and some way adrift at three-under for the tournament.

"It was not a great start, but I got it together at the end and one over is not too bad considering how I played at the start," the 22-year-old noted.

He was joined at that total by fellow US Open victor and birthday boy Graeme McDowell, who also signed for a round of 72 that leaves both men with little realistic chance of being victorious at Killarney GC come Sunday evening.

Howell, meanwhile, will start tied for the lead with two other players as he looks to pick up his fifth European Tour title, and his first since the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in 2006.

Fellow Englishman Simon Dyson and Australian Richard Green both played patiently to catch the 36-year-old late in the day, picking up their final birdies of the round at the 17th and 18th respectively to reach the 11-under benchmark as both men carded 67s.

Scotland's Stephen Gallacher is also nicely poised for a final round charge, after going bogey-free in a solid round of 67 that puts him nine-under for the event, and at the head of the chasing pack.

Overnight leader Marcel Siem had looked like joining Gallacher in that position, after he repaired the damage of a underwhelming first 13 holes with two birdies to move to ten-under for the tournament. But a double-bogey at the last could prove to be a massive blow to the fiery German's chances.

Nevertheless, he still outperformed the other member of the day's final group, Jeev Milkha Singh, who could not get anything going on the way to a disappointing 74, 11 shots worse than his opening round on Thursday.

In the preceding group Soren Hansen and Ignacio Garrido could both only manage one-over rounds of 72 that saw them squander their position somewhat to drop to eight-under and seven-under respectively.

Hansen was joined at his mark by defending champion Ross Fisher, who managed a 70 to keep alive his chances of back-to-back successes on the Emerald Isle.

Also alongside Garrido four behind the leaders, Alexandre Kaleka (66), John Parry (67), Mark Brown (68), Barry Lane (69), Peter Lawrie (70) and Carlos del Moral (70) will all still harbour realistic hopes of overhauling Howell, if they can make a fast start to their final rounds.

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