And that despite driving into the lake at the last and not making the most of a sparkling front nine in the European Open at the windswept London Club today.

Harrington, having made the halfway cut with only one shot to spare, raced to the turn in just 31 strokes and although the inward half contained a second eagle of the day, there was also four bogeys.

The Dubliner signed for a three-under-par 69 and five-under total of 211, then waited to see if the leaders came back within range in the difficult conditions.

It started to look as if they might when Ross Fisher and Graeme McDowell, 13 under and 12 under overnight, both bogeyed the 412-yard second.

But Sergio Garcia birdied the same hole and, at 11 under after four holes, was favourite for the £400,000 title.

Colin Montgomerie remained seven under and joint fourth after five holes, but Ian Poulter, on the same mark when he resumed, double-bogeyed the second and bogeyed the next.

Harrington said: "The game is in far better shape than at any stage last year. This is a period I have to work very hard at and sometimes hard work is not the best.

"Going out on a Saturday with nothing to lose like today is more the attitude I need for four days rather than beat myself up.

"It's pretty windy [the gusts were up to 25mph], but there are still plenty of scoring opportunities.

"It really was affecting the putting, though. You had to go with the wind rather than the line at times."

The strength of the wind can be gauged by Harrington's play on the 563-yard eighth and 548-yard 15th. He hit a nine iron and wedge second shots into them.

McDowell went joint leader with a birdie on the long fifth, Fisher driving into the deep hay and being unable to do better than par.

Garcia remained two behind, while Montgomerie, who birdied the eighth, 48-year-old South African David Frost and Swede Michael Jonzon were four behind in joint fourth.

Among those to struggle badly was last season's number one Justin Rose. He closed with a triple bogey seven, driving into the lake like Harrington and then fluffing a chip into the bunker short of the green.

His 77 saw him fall all the way back to three over and joint 63rd out of 70.

McDowell had the momentum and on the short seventh he went into a two-shot lead. While Fisher had to work hard just to bogey after going long into a bunker the Ulsterman rolled in a 30-footer.

He was 13-under, Fisher 11 and then it was Garcia and Frost, trying to become the oldest winner in Tour history, on nine.

Poulter managed only a front nine 41 to be two under. He had dropped 22 places to 27th.