Cabrera tops crowded leaderboard

The European golf tour could be set for its first 15-man play-off. The third round at the Smurfit European Open at the K Club near Dublin ended with Argentina's Angel Cabrera one in front of defending champion Lee Westwood and his Ryder Cup team-mate Jarmo Sandelin.

However four more players, Irish pair Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley, twice winner Per-Ulrik Johansson and Ryder Cup Spaniard Ignacio Garrido, are just two behind on the four under par mark of 212.

But the race for the £250,000 first prize on Sunday is wide open and seven-time European number one Colin Montgomerie is far from out of it despite a second successive 73.

He is only four behind and don't forget Dorset's Gary Emerson, one of the six halfway leaders. The 36-year-old from Bournemouth, like Cabrera chasing his first success on the circuit, had a triple bogey, a double bogey and nine bogeys in an 85.

After teeing off last in the third round Emerson is now only one shot off last place.

Westwood and Clarke, central figures in last year's drama on the same Ryder Cup course, were cursing last-hole mistakes. First Clarke, who after a second round 60 12 months ago lost a six-shot lead on the final day, hit his second into the lake.

Then Westwood, who capitalised on his close friend's collapse with a closing 65, three-putted for par.

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