Dredge edging closer

After stretching his halfway advantage from one to four shots by going to the turn in 33 – helped by a 50-foot chip-in on the first – Dredge had that suddenly cut to one when England's Ross Fisher started for home birdie-eagle. But the Tredegar golfer, whose last European Tour victory was nearly four years ago, responded with birdies on the 11th and 13th and parred in from there.

With 18 holes to play, Dredge is 18 under par, while Fisher was joined on 15 under by little-known qualifying school graduate Simon Thornton, yet to have a top-10 finish on the circuit and ranked 629th in the world.

Born in Yorkshire but now an Irish passport holder, 33-year-old Thornton had his third successive 67 while Fisher, gunning for a win that could lift him to seventh in the Ryder Cup table, shot 66 for the second day running.

Scotland's former Open champion Paul Lawrie is one shot further back in fourth following a 68.

Meanwhile, Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie has no intention of missing either of his next two tournaments to make sure he is fit for The Open. The 47-year-old has been battling with a torn calf muscle and an Achilles problem for the best part of the last month, but with injections, painkillers and tape has played on in this week's BMW International Open.

"I don't fancy the prospect of four events in a row, but I want to play all of them so I will," said Montgomerie, deep in the pack at six under par after a third-round 72 in Munich.

The Scottish Open field boasts three of golf's four current major champions in Graeme McDowell, Phil Mickelson and YE Yang, but only two of Europe's current top 12 in the world in new US Open champion McDowell and German Martin Kaymer. Nearly all of them, though, are in Ireland at the start of the same week for the JP McManus Pro-am also featuring Woods.

The absence of the stars, of course, could have an impact on the race for places in his side to take on the Americans in October.

Yesterday was a rollercoaster ride for overnight leader Elliot Saltman as bogeys outweighed birdies and his five-stroke lead was cut to two at the Fred Olsen Challenge de Espaa.

After such a dominant display over the first two rounds, the Scot will hope yesterday is not a sign of things to come and that his slender lead over home favourite Alvaro Velasco and England's Jamie Little will be enough for him to claim victory today.

He said: "I didn't putt as well, missing a short one for par at the first, but I was pleased with the birdies on three, six and nine.

"I took a step back with three putts on 10 and 12 and the double at 16, but still managed to finish well with two birdies."