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Dodt moves into lead in Wentworth wind

Australian golfer Andrew Dodt

Andrew Dodt surged into a one-shot lead heading into the fourth round of the BMW PGA Championship as each of the pacesetters at the midway point fell away.

Scott Jamieson, Thomas Pieters and Francesco Molinari held a three-way share of the lead after the first two rounds, but they all carded over-par rounds on Saturday as many of those who made the cut found Wentworth more difficult to deal with in windy conditions.

But Australian Dodt had no such problems, posting a four-under 68 to move to eight under for the tournament – one shot ahead of nearest challenger Branden Grace.

Dodt, who carded successive 70s in his first two rounds, appeared unlikely to improve when he bogeyed the par-five fourth.

But he recovered that dropped shot at the eighth and finished extremely strongly on a back nine on which he recorded four birdies.

Grace made a similarly poor start as he dropped a shot at the first, with further bogeys coming at six and nine, cancelling out birdies at the fourth and seventh.

Like Dodt, though, Grace found his form after making the turn, starting the back nine with four birdies in five holes, and he would have held a share of the lead if not for a fourth bogey of the round at 16.

That Molinari's two-over 74 was the best performance of the three overnight leaders served as evidence of their struggles, Jamieson and Pieters going four and six over respectively for the day to drop away.

Molinari is three off the pace, level with Lee Westwood after the Englishman went even par.

Henrik Stenson carded a 73 and is four off the lead along with Shane Lowry and Hideto Tanihara, whose five-under 67 marked the most impressive score of the day.

Johan Carlsson, who had led after round one, endured a nightmare day – he and Luke Donald the two men to card nine-over 81s, falling to four over and eight over respectively.

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