Paul Lawrie leads with a little help

An astonishing European Tour record-equalling round of 60 has put England's Kenneth Ferrie just one behind Scotland's Paul Lawrie with a day to go at the Andalucian Open in Malaga.

Lawrie remains on course for his first Tour win since 2002 after a bogey-free 65 took him to the top of the leaderboard on 12 under. The Aberdonian conjured up five birdies in his third impressive round of the week but needed a bit of help from by an unwitting spectator.

The 1999 Open champion was heading for big trouble at the short 13th when his pulled tee shot struck the spectator on the back and rebounded onto the green. Lawrie was able to make par to go with his birdies on holes two, five, six, 14 and 17 to lead the field.

Ferrie, meanwhile, became only the 14th player to shoot 60 on the Tour without the help of preferred lies since Italian Baldovino Dassu was the first to do it 40 years ago.

After making the halfway cut with nothing to spare, the 32-year-old from Northumberland was only a few inches away from achieving the magical 59 achieved five times on the PGA Tour in the United States, but never in Europe.

After an eagle and seven birdies on the first 17 holes of the par-70 Parador course, Ferrie needed to hole his six-iron approach to the 449-yard last and, from the right-hand rough, it trickled past the edge of the cup.

When he tapped in for another birdie, he had charged from joint 45th overnight into a three-shot lead with a ten-under-par round, Ferrie, who is tied for second with compatriot Mark Foster, wore a Superman belt when he led the 2006 US Open after three rounds, but this is the nearest he has ever come to playing like him.

The former European Open winner described himself as "ecstatic" about the round, but then was at pains to say there was nothing extraordinary about it.

"It was unspectacular, but it added up to a spectacular score," he commented. "You'd expect somebody with such a low score to have holed putts and hit spectacular shots, but it was just a very steady round - lots of fairways, lots of greens and a lot of wedge shots to four or five feet which I managed to knock in.

"Some days you shoot 70 and you are doing cartwheels and are over the moon, but I don't feel I did anything above and beyond.

"I realised that, if I finished birdie-birdie-birdie, it would have been 59, but 16 and 18 are strong holes and, if you get out of position on them, you are going to struggle to make pars.

"My six-iron at the last looked very good and when it landed I got a little bit excited, but I would gladly have taken 60 with three to play."

Foster, whose only Tour win came eight years ago, had six back-nine birdies for a 65.

Catriona Matthew was tied for tenth place after two rounds of the rain-delayed Kia Classic in California.The North Berwick golfer added a level-par 73 to her first round 70 at the Industry Hills Golf Club course at Pacific Palms and trails leader Jiyai Shin of South Korea by nine strokes. Scotland's other representative, Mhairi McKay, is six-over after rounds of 75 and 77.