Seven behind at the halfway stage of the Compass English Open at Hanbury Manor near Hertford, Montgomerie scored a third-round 65 to charge onto the leaderboard.

But 24 hours after grabbing birdies at the last five holes Ulsterman Clarke returned to the scene and did exactly the same.

On the 16 under par mark of 200 after a 67, Clarke enters the closing 18 holes five clear of a group of six - Montgomerie, two more Scots in Andrew Coltart and Gary Orr, English pair David Carter and John Bickerton and Australian Stephen Leaney.

Clarke, whose form for the first four months of this year was simply dire (he was 70 over par), is now in sight of his first success since the Volvo Masters last November.

He won that with a course record-equalling 63, but will be hoping it does not need anything like that to collect the £199,043 first prize this time.

Win or lose on Sunday, however, Montgomerie has done enough to justify his position as one of the favourites for the Us Open starting at Pinehurst in North Carolina on Thursday week.

"There are probably better golfers than me out there, but very few have the will to win I have," he said.

"Anybody who thought I was here to make up the numbers with the US Open coming up was wrong. A quiet week is not me.

"There are a lot of confident players across the Atlantic as well - Duval, Woods - but so am I right now. I love that US Open (he has twice finished second and once third) and I have as much confidence as I can have."

The 35-year-old made his move with four successive birdies around the turn, a 20-footer on the 14th and then two more with which to finish. In fact, he just missed a 12-foot eagle chance on the long 17th.

Montgomerie's closing putt brought him into a share of the lead, but Clarke still had seven holes to play at that stage and he made them count.

Fifteen-foot putts found their target on the 14th and 15th, he struck a seven-iron to six feet at the next, chipped to five feet on the long 17th and then made a 10-footer to put the icing on the cake.

"Nothing much had happened until the 14th, but I thought to myself that there was no reason why I should not finish with five in a row again.

"It feels great to turn an average day into a very good one. I looked at the scoreboard a few times, but it didn't make any difference to me that Monty was on it.

"If I keep playing the way I am I'm not bothered what others do. I'll be uncatchable."

It was a day of spectacular low scoring. Swede Robert Karlsson began it in joint 49th place, but charged all the way to 10 under par with a 63 - and then headed off to Wembley in time for the match.

"I haven't got a ticket, but I am prepared to pay a lot more now I was this morning," said Karlsson, back in with a chance of his first victory for two years.

Coltart followed up with a 64, not only the lowest round of his European tour career but also in his own view his best golf ever.

He had to wait until the seventh for a birdie putt to drop, but then added seven more.

Orr, seeking his first win on tour, returned a 66, Carter and Leaney 67s and first round leader Bickerton chipped in at the 17th for eagle and a 68.

It was all a world away from Nick Faldo, however. The former world number one, now 133rd in the rankings and without a solo success for 27 months (he did win the World Cup with Carter last November), managed only a 73 and is 17 shots behind Clarke in joint 70th place.

A spectator told Faldo he had placed £5 on him at 100-1 to win the US Open. Faldo made no promises except that he will work hard and try his best.