That he made an eagle two and four birdies and still shot over par says it all about Graeme McDowell’s performance on moving day in the UBS Hong Kong Open.

A one over 71 sent the Rathmore man tumbling 13 places down the leaderboard to tied 23rd on four under — 11 strokes behind duelling co—leaders Lucas Bjerregaard and Justin Rose.

McDowell birdied the second and third but then bogeyed the fifth, sixth and ninth to turn in one over before coming home in level with an eagle two at the 10th followed by a triple bogey seven at the 11th, back-to-back birdies at the 13th and 14th and a bogey at the 16th.

It was a true rollercoaster effort from a player who is slowly inching his way back into the elite but he has a long way still to go to match the consistency shown by Rose and Bjerregaard at Hong Kong Golf Club.

Rose had held a one shot lead over the Dane coming into the weekend and the world No 7 had two eagles and two birdies in an immaculate, six under 64 that saw him move to 15 under. 

But Bjerregaard withstood everything his playing partner could throw at him and signed for a 63 with a bogey on the last the only blemish as he goes in search of a first European Tour title.

Anirban Lahiri was at 11 under after a 65 with countryman Jeev Milkha Singh and recently crowned British Masters champion Matthew Fitzpatrick a further shot back, but the story of the day was the toe-to-toe battle between the leaders.

"Lucas played unbelievable golf today," said Rose. "I actually didn't know much about his game – first of all he's a lovely guy and second, he can really play. “I hung with him and what impressed me today was the couple of par saves that I had to make, which I managed to do.

"The first hole, I didn't play the hole particularly well but made a nice 15-foot putt for par there and then eagling the third kind of got me up and running. It was just a really fun day playing with Lucas and flip-flopping birdies and eagles and really stretching away from the field. It was a lot of fun.”

Bjerregaard said: “It was great. I really enjoyed it out there with Justin. He's a really good guy and we kept making birdies, especially around the turn.

“I played some good golf today and it was nice to get off to a good start, as well, to take some of the pressure off. So I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. Obviously it's not fun to finish off any round with a bogey and especially not today. I hit a bad tee shot on 18 there, pretty much my only bad shot of the day. It wasn’t the way I wanted to finish, but still, I'm very happy with the round today."

Ian Poulter’s bid to complete what would have been an incredible victory following his late entry to the tournament seems to be over after the Englishman dropped down the field with a three over par 73 to join his Ryder Cup team mate McDowell on four under.

American Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed, meanwhile, posted a fine 65 to move to eight under going into the final round.

Complete third round scores:

195 J Rose (Eng) 65 66 64, L Bjerregaard (Den) 66 66 63,

199 A Lahiri (Ind) 67 67 65,

200 M Fitzpatrick (Eng) 67 67 66, J Singh (Ind) 65 70 65,

201 J Scrivener (Aus) 68 68 65, Y Yang (Kor) 68 66 67, M Ford (Eng) 69 65 67,

202 G Bhullar (Ind) 69 66 67, P Reed (USA) 68 69 65, T Jaidee (Tha) 71 67 64, N Holman (Aus) 68 66 68,

203 L Wen-Tang (Tpe) 67 68 68, O Fisher (Eng) 66 69 68,

204 R Gangjee (Ind) 66 70 68, L Wei-Chih (Tpe) 64 69 71, S Rahman (Ban) 67 71 66, S Brazel (Aus) 69 67 68,

205 J Knutzon (USA) 68 68 69, S Lee (Kor) 70 69 66, S Yates (Sco) 69 68 68, C Pan (Tpe) 65 73 67,

206 G McDowell (Nir) 66 69 71, C Shih-Chang (Tpe) 71 69 66, C Pigem (Esp) 69 71 66, I Poulter (Eng) 67 66 73, P Hanson (Swe) 69 70 67, E Goya (Arg) 73 66 67, B Evans (Eng) 69 71 66, C Nirat (Tha) 67 72 67, M Fraser (Aus) 72 66 68, P Uihlein (USA) 70 70 66, A Que (Phi) 72 67 67, M Kawamura (Jpn) 68 69 69,

207 D Drysdale (Sco) 68 71 68, M Foster (Eng) 69 69 69, A Dodt (Aus) 71 68 68, P Maddy (Eng) 70 70 67, J Janewattananond (Tha) 69 68 70, P Marksaeng (Tha) 70 67 70, J Kruger (RSA) 71 68 68, D Chia (Mas) 71 66 70, S Chawrasia (Ind) 66 70 71,

208 J Walters (RSA) 71 68 69, A Da Silva (Bra) 71 68 69, R Dinwiddie (Eng) 69 68 71, J Randhawa (Ind) 70 70 68, R McEvoy (Eng) 67 68 73, C Lee (Sco) 71 67 70, M Nixon (Eng) 70 67 71, V Dubuisson (Fra) 68 70 70,

209 U Park (Aus) 68 70 71, W Ormsby (Aus) 71 69 69, D Gaunt (Aus) 68 71 70, P Meesawat (Tha) 67 69 73, A Pavan (Ita) 64 71 74, L Jensen (Den) 70 68 71, M Perera (Sri) 71 69 69, J Wang (Kor) 71 69 69, S Jamieson (Sco) 71 67 71, G Havret (Fra) 72 68 69,

210 R Kakko (Fin) 67 73 70, R Wannasrichan (Tha) 69 67 74, C Paisley (Eng) 70 70 70, T Pilkadaris (Aus) 69 71 70, S Supupramai (Tha) 68 69 73, L Weber (Fra) 73 66 71, M Lundberg (Swe) 71 68 71,

211 N Fung (Mas) 71 67 73, A Groom (Aus) 68 70 73, R Karlberg (Swe) 69 69 73, R Gonzalez (Arg) 69 68 74, D Lipsky (USA) 68 70 73,

212 P Pittayarat (Tha) 70 70 72,

215 P Tangkamolprasert (Tha) 71 69 75,

219 D Van Tonder (RSA) 73 67 79