Westwood had complained about the state of his putting before last week’s Omega European Masters, but finished sixth in Switzerland and was in imperious form today.

Five birdies and one bogey took the 34-year-old to the turn in 32, and after pars at the 10th and 11th the real fireworks began.

Westwood birdied the 12th and 13th from 12 and 20 feet respectively, parred the 14th and then chipped in from 40ft for eagle at the 15th. Further birdies from 18ft, 18 inches and 18ft respectively at the last three holes put the Ryder Cup star in pole position for his second victory of the season.

“I’ve been playing well recently and carried it on today,” said Westwood, who also won in Germany the last time he shot 61 in the third round of the Deutsche Bank Championship in 1998.

“I got off to a slow start, level-par after four holes, and felt I was one or two behind the field but kept hitting it close like I have been for the last few months.

“The greens are immaculate, as good as I’ve putted on for a long, long time, and if you start it on the right line it will go in. It was an advantage to be out early but you still have to take advantage and I did that.

“My putting has been dreadful for most of the year and it was starting to irritate me.

“I’ve always putted well with a mallet putter and I went into the garage on Sunday night after getting back from Switzerland, sifted through a few and picked one out that felt nice. There are some putters I have good memories of that go in the special ’had a good day’ rack!

“I’ve also gone back to placing the putter in front of the ball, and then back behind it, like I did in 1997-98 (when he won 11 tournaments worldwide). It keeps me ’moving’ over the ball, I’m not so stationary.”

Westwood held a four-shot lead over Denmark’s Soren Hansen with English pair Nick Dougherty and Simon Dyson a shot further back on six under. Former Open champion John Daly was among a group of players on five under while Darren Clarke returned a 69 after missing a two-foot par putt on the 18th.

Dougherty and Dyson were paired together and are rivals for an automatic place on the Great Britain and Ireland Seve Trophy team which will be finalised after the tournament on Sunday evening. Captains Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros will announce two wild cards on Tuesday.

“I’d like to qualify by right rather than having to rely on (Nick) Faldo to hopefully give me a pick because there are some good players that aren’t in it,” admitted Dougherty, who is a protégé of the six-time major winner.

“I’m not sure my relationship with Nick works in my favour because it puts a lot of pressure on him. He could receive a little bit of stick if he did pick me but I’d like to think no-one would say ’that’s ridiculous.

“Hopefully I’ll be one of the obvious guys to pick from but I’d rather get in on my own accord like last time.”

At the other end of the leaderboard, David Howell’s recent struggles continued, although he was actually happy to salvage a 73 after starting four, eight, six.

“It was a good comeback after a debacle of a start,” he told PA Sport.

“I was lucky to make par down the first, we found my ball with 20 seconds of the search time left so that could have been a disaster.

“I played the second like an idiot and it was an easy eight. Bunker, trees, hack, drop, hack, bunker, miss. Then I three-putted the third, I don’t know where my mind was, in Japan or somewhere, but it wasn’t where it was supposed to be. Fortunately I birdied the next and steadied the ship.

“I’m just looking for any nugget of something positive happening, and obviously starting eight, six isn’t exactly what you’re after but I turned it round nicely.

“I’ve played seven of the last nine weeks so I can’t blame rustiness, I’m just not playing very well and the game’s difficult at the moment, simple as that.”

Howell reached number 12 in the world last year and led the Order of Merit for a large part of the season, helped by winning the European Tour’s flagship PGA Championship at Wentworth.

However, back and wrist injuries have hampered his progress in 2007 and he is currently 132nd on the Order of Merit and has plummeted to 84th in the world rankings. The 32-year-old from Swindon has not enjoyed a top-20 finish all season and that again looked like being the case even though the field is restricted to just 78 players.