Six strokes clear after 13 holes of his third round the 42-year-old Scot will go into the final day only level with Sergio Garcia, who caught him on the 10 under par mark with a closing birdie – his third in four holes.

But New Zealander Michael Campbell, the only man who can stop Montgomerie in the money list race, is six strokes back in eighth place – and is already nearly £105,000 (€154,000) behind.

Montgomerie, joint leader with an opening 67 on Thursday and two ahead after following up with a 66, continued to look in total command as he covered all but the final five holes in four under par.

The script began to take a twist, however, when he bogeyed the 14th. Garcia birdied the next two and then Montgomerie, having laid up on the 536-yard next, hit into the water short of the green.

“I hit it a bit heavy unfortunately,” he said in a brief press conference afterwards.

Asked for the yardage on the short he answered: “You don’t want to know the yardage.”

Garcia should have levelled there, but three-putted for a par five.

A few minutes later, though, he hit his approach to three feet on the last and added another birdie for a 68 to Montgomerie’s 70.

“I have a different agenda to 53 other guys and I am doing my job fine,” stated Montgomerie in an obvious reference to the Order of Merit duel with Campbell.

“I am very proud of what I am doing. Scoring under par was a very good effort. As I said, this isn’t easy and it’s proving it.

“There’s nothing wrong with my game. It’s just that Sergio had a great finish.”

Four players – Paul McGinley, defending champion Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Paul Broadhurst – are tied for third, but they are four adrift of Montgomerie and Garcia.

Then comes Jose Maria Olazabal on five under and then comes Campbell, who despite having a mountain to climb is not prepared to concede defeat yet.

The US Open champion was presented with honorary life membership of the European tour after his 68 and then spoke about how he would love to play in the Ryder Cup.

Campbell is a proud Maori, but had a home in the United Kingdom for 12 years, his son was born here and his great-great-great-grandfather was Sir Logan Campbell, who emigrated from Edinburgh to New Zealand in 1845.

Whether being granted dual citizenship would make the 36-year-old eligible for Europe is something that has not been discussed. The Americans might well object because only last month Campbell was facing them as part of the International side (the rest of the world minus Europe) in the Presidents Cup.

Other sports, of course, have accepted players on residency grounds after far less time than 12 years, but Campbell will not be holding his breath to see what happens.

On his pursuit of Montgomerie he said: “Kiwis don’t surrender. I’ll give it my best shot. Eighteen holes is a lot and the 17th green is brutal. I had 90 yards and was worried.”

And he made that comment before Montgomerie had even come to the same stretch of ground.

Montgomerie will return to the world’s top 10 by winning the tournament and, having fallen as low as 83rd only nine months ago, that would be an even more stunning achievement than capturing the Order of Merit again six years after he last topped it.

“That’s fine. We’ll talk about that if and when it happens,” he said.

Victory – or even a top five place – would also make an eighth Ryder Cup cap at the K Club near Dublin next September a near-certainty.

As a local boy McGinley wants to be there as well, of course, and to be joint third with a round to go is an amazing effort from him considering he had a double bogey and triple bogey in his first seven holes on Thursday.

The 38-year-old had a best-of-the-day 65, while Broadhurst and Westwood shot 67. Not so happy, naturally, was Poulter, who after sharing the lead on day one and being only two behind at halfway fell four back with a 72.

For the second day running he had a bogey six on the 11th and he needs a dream final round now to maintain his record of at least one win every year on the European tour since he qualified at the fourth attempt in 1999.