Clarke shoots 69, Poulter leads in Madrid

MADRID, Spain -- Darren Clarke shot a 3-under 69 Saturday and is 7 under early in the third round of the Madrid Masters to be 10 shots off the lead.

Clarke, who is playing in his first event since the death of his wife from breast cancer last month, had five birdies. But bogeys at the 4th and 12th holes kept him from moving up the leaderboard.

Ian Poulter was 6 under through 13 holes to lead at 17 under. Former winner Ricardo Gonzalez was 3 under through 14 to be three strokes behind the Englishman.

Second-round leader Padraig Harrington started his round with double-bogeys at the 2nd and 6th to finish the front nine at 3 over. Despite three birdies over the first four holes on the back nine, a double-bogey 5 at the par-3 12th kept him five shots back of Poulter.

Clarke went into the 12th hole on a high after reeling off three straight birdies, but a bad bounce left his drive under a tree that forced him to take a penalty drop on his way to a bogey-5.

"Today was not quite as good as the first two days, but I'll work that out," Clarke said. "I just got off to a tough start with two-putting everywhere, and then hit the wrong club on 4 because the wind changed round on me."

Clarke's putting did save him from bogey on the par-3 4th when he sank a 12-footer. Three holes later, the exasperated look on his face after missing a six foot putt for a birdie 3 said it all.

"I'm just not knocking enough putts in," he said. "I kept getting to the edge of the green and chipping it stone dead. I am working hard on it and they will go in because I am not hitting bad putts."

Clarke's frustration with the putter lifted when he sank one of those 12-footers he'd been missing all day for a birdie-3 on the 9th -- his third in three rounds at that hole.

He made it three straight birdies with textbook shots at the par-5 12th - a hole he'd bogeyed in the two prior rounds. A bogey at 12 left him frustrated, but a birdie-4 at the par-5 16 offered some hope.

"I think they will keep going forward looking at the scoring today, so I will probably be a bit far back, but I'll be doing my best tomorrow," the Northern Irishman said. "I'd still like to shoot 64 or 63."

Poulter birdied six of eight holes to stretch his lead as the hot weather dried out the course and brought scores down.

Jose Maria Olazabal, who shot a 67 to move to 8 under, had a hole-in-one on the par-3 13th.

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