Tiger takes control in Hamburg

Woods has a two-shot lead going into the final day

Having made a slow start during the first two days, Tiger Woods did not drop a stroke on Saturday to move two shots clear of the lead in the European Tournament Players' Championship in Hamburg.

His third-round 67 at Gut Kaden gave him a great chance of successfully defending his Deutsche Bank-SAP Open title.

It was not a one-man show however, as five players finished the round two off the lead including Lee Westwood, Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke, and Australian Geoff Ogilvy.

Clarke had an eagle and four birdies in a 68

Darren Clarke

Clarke had an eagle and four birdies in a 68 while Ogilvy shot 66.

Colin Montgomerie birdied three of the last five holes for a 68 to be on five under, the same mark as Ian Woosnam and Open champion Paul Lawrie.

Clarke will be going head-to-head with Woods over the final 18 holes - and the last time he did that was the million-dollar final of the World Matchplay Championship in California in February, when the Ulsterman won four and three.

He said: "I didn't play that well but I hung in there. The greens are incredibly difficult to putt on, but I was very patient.

"Tiger was always going to be the man to beat, but if I can play well and hit it close then I'll be up there."

Darren Clarke is pairing Woods in the final round

Woods' surge up the leaderboard began with a 25-foot birdie putt on the first. He added another on the 429-yard fourth, then continued his demolition of the par fives.

Five under par for the four of them in his first round 70 - he chipped in for eagle on the 17th then - he birdied the sixth, 15th and 17th, where his second shot ran through a bunker and allowed him to chip to three feet.

A solid par at the last completed a good day's work and set up the prospect of a fourth victory in 10 starts this season and 15th in the past 12 months.

Westwood pulled his approach to the last into sand, failed to get up and down and so dropped two behind Woods.

Third round scores

207Tiger Woods, United States
209 Geoff Ogilvy, Australia; Miguel Angel Jimenez, Spain; Emanuele Canonica, Italy; Darren Clarke, Northern Ireland; Lee Westwood, England
210 Soren Kjeldsen, Denmark; Peter Mitchell, England; Lucas Parsons, Australia; Jean Van de Velde, France; Retief Goosen, South Africa; Paul McGinley, Ireland; Gary Orr, Scotland
211Paul Lawrie, Scotland; Miguel Angel Martin, Spain; Peter Baker, England; Michael Campbell, New Zealand; Colin Montgomerie, Scotland; Jesper Parnevik, Sweden; Ian Woosnam, Wales; Raphael Jacquelin, France; Angel Cabrera, Argentina.
Others
212Padraig Harrington, Ireland
213Sergio Garcia, Spain; Nick Price, Zimbabwe; Bob May, United States
214Peter O'Malley, Australia; Mark James, England; Jose Maria Olazabal, Spain; Stephen Leaney, Australia
215Greg Turner, New Zealand
216Rodger Davis, Australia; Stephen Allan, Australia; Craig Hainline, United States
217Tony Johnstone, Zimbabwe; Nick 0'Hern, Australia.