At that stage the world number nine enjoyed a five-shot lead, but after dropping his first shot of the week on the 10th, the 28-year-old also carded a hat-trick of bogeys from the 15th and had to birdie the last to come home in 39 and complete a 68.

"I played great most of the day and then chucked a couple of horrid shots in there and it was nice to make birdie at the last after composing myself quite nicely," said Willett, whose group were put on the clock for slow play.

"You could have just chucked it and finished really poorly, but to make birdie on the last was good and shows a little bit of mental strength. It was still not quite the back nine I was hoping for but 10 under par, you'd have taken it at the beginning of the day."

Asked about the impact of being timed along with playing partners Soomin Lee and Victor Dubuisson, Willett added: "It's tough to obviously double-check yardage and stuff with blustery winds and a few tight flags out there.

"This place plays hard when the wind is swirling around. You'd like as much time as possible to double-check your numbers and make sure you're happy with what you've got.

"A couple of shots out there I hit a little bit too quickly and got the wind a little bit wrong, but you can't blame anything when you hit a couple of bad shots."

At 10 under par Willett enjoyed a two-shot lead over Australian Scott Hend, with former US PGA champion YE Yang a shot further back.

Spain's Rafael Cabrera-Bello, Thailand's Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Holland's Joost Luiten were all in the clubhouse on five under, Luiten having challenged Willett for the lead before also covering the back nine in 39 to shoot 74.