Karlsson storms into the lead after McGinley suffers Wentworth nightmare

While the towering 6ft 5in Swede coolly compiled a two-under-par 70 to move to 11 under overall, the Irishman's game collapsed in the sort of fierce gusting winds that would have been an everyday occurrence in his amateur days at County Louth.

Sinking feeling: McGinley sizes up a long putt

Paul McGinley had a nightmare day at his local Wentworth office as he handed over a huge advantage in the BMW PGA Championship to his K Club Ryder Cup team-mate Robert Karlsson.

While the towering 6ft 5in Swede coolly compiled a two-under-par 70 to move to 11 under overall, the Irishman's game collapsed in the sort of fierce gusting winds that would have been an everyday occurrence in his amateur days at County Louth.

McGinley had begun his third round four shots clear of the field and with eyes on the £597,000 prize which would have made a huge contribution to the money he needs to earn to make Nick Faldo's team to take on the Americans at Valhalla.

And few players know Wentworth better than McGinley, who lives just down the road in Sunningdale and uses the club's gym for his fitness programme.

But he failed to recover from a nightmare start which saw him drop three shots in his first two holes and after an afternoon of painful torture he signed for a seven-over-par 79.

It was even worse than his collapse at the Hong Kong Open in 2002, where he had also opened with rounds of 65 and 66 but then tumbled down the leaderboard with a 74.

At least yesterday he had plenty of company, as only three scores in the 60s were produced and none of them by the leaders. But he now goes into today's final round five shots adrift of Karlsson in joint fourth place.

"It's a cruel game, golf," said McGinley last night. "It can lift you so high sometimes and so low the next day. My putting was horrendous, I holed only one 10-footer for a birdie, and that's just not good enough. Questions were asked of me and I didn't have the answers."

McGinley's collapse was a bitter blow to his chances of making his fourth Ryder Cup appearance in September.

Karlsson, on the other hand, has a huge incentive today to push for victory. If he collects the biggest prize in Europe to date this season, it would take his Ryder Cup qualifying points close to the 2 million euros mark - that is 500,000 more than it is estimated European- based players need to earn for one of five automatic places in Faldo's team, based on performances this side of the Atlantic.

Karlsson was not counting his chickens at Wentworth, saying: "The Ryder Cup is still a long way off and I'm only concentrating on this tournament."

But he now has a golden opportunity to erase memories of his 3 & 2 defeat by Tiger Woods at the K Club two years ago.

Among the pack chasing Karlsson today will be England's Oliver Wilson and Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez, who start out in joint second place at seven under.

Tour rookie Robert Dinwiddie, who had an amazing course record 63 at the end of the second day, managed only a 79 and fell to four over. Worst score of the day was an 80 from Ross Fisher.