Poulter did not qualify for the Ryder Cup

THIRD ROUND LEADERBOARD:
GB & Ire unless stated
-19 I Poulter
-15 R Gonzalez (Arg)
-14 C L Nilsson (Swe), G Orr
Selected others:
-12 P Harrington
-8 JM Olazabal (Spa)
-7 D Clarke

Ian Poulter fired a third-round 64 to lead the Madrid Masters by four shots.

The Englishman had eight birdies over the final 13 holes to move to 19 under par overall.

Overnight leader Padraig Harrington is seven off the lead after a 72 while his Ryder Cup team-mate Darren Clarke is 12 strokes behind after a 69.

Spain's Jose Maria Olazabal, another member of Europe's Ryder Cup team, shot a 67 to move to eight under and had a hole-in-one on the par-three 13th.

Argentina's Ricardo Gonzalez is second after his third successive 67, one shot ahead of Scotland's Gary Orr (70) and Sweden's Christian Nilsson (68).

Clarke's five birdies were offset by bogeys at the 4th and 12th holes, and the Northern Irishman, playing his first tournament since the death of his wife, was disappointed with his putting.

"Today was not quite as good as the first two days, but I'll work that out," Clarke said.

I swung better and hit it better today, but around the greens I couldn't see the lines Padraig Harrington

"I'm just not knocking enough putts in. I kept getting to the edge of the green and chipping it stone dead.

"I am working hard on it and they will go in because I am not hitting bad putts."

Poulter birdied the 6th to start a run of six birdies over eight holes as the hot weather dried out the course and brought scores down.

Harrington couldn't recover from a poor start that saw him record a double-bogey at the 2nd, 6th and par-three 13th holes.

"I swung better and hit it better today, but around the greens I couldn't see the lines," Harrington said.

"After a start like that it's hard to come back, but such is life."

Olazabal may have won a car for his ace, but, somewhat ironically, he was not happy with his golf driving.

"To be honest, the driving is not working the way I want it to," said Olazabal.

"Everything is leaking a bit to the right and it's costing me a lot of opportunities.

"The rest of the game is OK, but I'm going to have to work hard on the driving for the next few days."