Rose and Hansen almost there as Havret clings to lead

GLENEAGLES (Reuters) - Justin Rose and Soren Hansen appeared to seal their Ryder Cup debuts with one round to go in the Johnnie Walker Championship while France's Gregory Havret clung on to the lead for the third day in a row.

Colin Montgomerie's hopes of playing in his ninth successive Ryder Cup seem to have vanished after the wildcard hopeful slumped to a 76 to trail Havret by 12 strokes at the end of Saturday's third round.

With only Sunday's round to count before Europe's top-10 automatic places are decided for next month's clash against the U.S. in Kentucky, Briton Rose and Dane Hansen are in the thick of the title chase at Gleneagles.

The 31-year-old Havret shrugged off his second consecutive double-bogey at the par-four 15th to return a four-under 69 for an 11-under 208 total, with Briton Anthony Wall (65) in second position on 209.

"It's going to be a big hunt tomorrow especially with those Ryder Cup guys doing so well," the Frenchman told reporters.

"It's still a very open tournament but it's always nice to lead after three rounds."

Hansen (68) was joint third on 210 alongside Argentine Ricardo Gonzalez, Marcel Siem of Germany and Britons Lee Westwood and David Howell, with Rose (67) a further shot adrift.

Rose, eighth in the Cup table, found a purple patch of form that yielded five birdies and one eagle in 12 holes from the seventh.

"I said to myself this morning I'm not going to think about the Ryder Cup any more because it would take a minor miracle for something (bad) to happen," said the Englishman.

WRIST SPRAIN

Hansen, ninth in the Cup standings, has been knocking on the leader's door all week despite spraining his wrist on Friday.

"The wrist feels pretty good after the guy in the physio truck sorted it out and it was one of my better ball-striking rounds today," said the Dane.

"Now it's the Johnnie Walker Championship title to concentrate on instead of just the Ryder Cup."

The final automatic Cup slot is still in the balance.

While 10th-placed Oliver Wilson fired a 68 to lie eight shots off the lead, fellow Briton Nick Dougherty was two strokes better after a 69.

Dougherty, 14th in the Cup table, trails Wilson by 178,019 points.

Briton Darren Clarke, hoping to gain one of two wildcards from Cup captain Nick Faldo especially after winning the Dutch Open last Sunday, slipped to a 73 for 218.

Fellow countrymen Paul Casey and Ian Poulter are the other players being touted as wildcard candidates.

Rose said he had taken a call from his friend Poulter, who decided to play in the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston this week rather than scrap for an automatic place in the team.

"He (Poulter) said he was determined to go out today and shoot a low one in America and just make as much of a fight of it as possible (for a wildcard)," said Rose.

(Editing by Tony Jimenez)