• BMW International Open, Round Three

Willett on target to claim first European Tour win

Danny Willett is in pole position to land his first European Tour title © Getty Images

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Danny Willett heads fellow Englishman Chris Wood in the hunt for a maiden European Tour victory, after the former carded a 69 to rise to the top of the leaderboard at the BMW International Open.

Willett, still searching for a first triumph in four seasons on Tour having racked up 19 top-ten finishes, rose to the summit after mixing six birdies with three bogeys in a three-under effort to move to 12-under for the tournament.

Wood, a three-time runner-up at the event, turned in a three-under par 33 to jump to 12-under but a solid back nine was punctuated by a bogey on his penultimate hole saw him close the day one stroke adrift of Willett following a 70.

It was a day to forget for Sergio Garcia, the Spaniard's game completely deserting him during a torrid 18 holes. He opened with back-to-back bogeys before a double at the par-five third left him with a mountain to climb. He steadied things with a string of pars but more errors soon crept in and anyone that takes 36 swings of the putter is going to struggle to post a decent number. He was seven-over for the day - a score that leaves him little hope of victory from one-over.

Compatriot Miguel Angel Jimenez struggled too, scratching his way to a 75 to go into Sunday's final round on one-over, but fellow Spaniard Gonzalo Fdez-Castano is in the hunt after a second successive 69 catapulted him to seven-under-par.

Former Dunhill Championship winner and home favourite Marcel Siem is loitering dangerously on nine-under after a second 68 of the week, while overnight leader Joel Sjoholm battled back from an error-strewn front nine to post a 72 to sit alongside Wood in a tie for second.

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