Westwood Up in Dubai

World No. 2 Lee Westwood carded a 5-under-par 67 to take over the top spot in the Dubai Desert Classic. The $2.5 million European Tour began Thursday at Emirates Golf Club.

The 38-year-old Brit assumed the lead from second-round co-leaders Rory McIlroy and Thomas Bjorn, who fell down the leaderboard after rounds of 72 and 73, respectively.

Westwood carded seven birdies and a pair of bogeys Saturday. He now stands at 15-under 201, one shot ahead of Scotland's Stephen Gallacher (68), Rafael Cabrera-Bello of Spain (70) and German Marcel Siem (68) and two in front of 2010 PGA champion Martin Kaymer (70), Scott Jamieson (70) Joel Sjoholm (66) and McIlroy.

"I played well. I got off to a good start. I was 3-under par after four (holes)," said Westwood, a 21-time winner on the European Tour. "The only time I dropped two shots was when I hit two poor drives on six into the left rough, got a heavy lie and eight hit it into the sand on right. Other than that very solid and gave myself lots of birdie chances."

He's looking forward to tomorrow's final round. "Yeah, I know how to play with the lead. What did I win, four times last year?" Westwood said.

"When I get a chance, I'm pretty good at finishing off. I've won (38) times (worldwide). You know, that's not somebody that's not good with a lead. It's a habit. You get used to it, you know. You get used to knowing what to do; when to press, when not to press, when to be patient."

While Westwood was pleased with his day, European Ryder Cup teammate McIlroy wasn't. "It was pretty ragged to say the least," said the reigning U.S. Open champion.

"I think the conditions were a little tougher, the wind got up, and had not really played in wind like that all week, so that sort of put me off a little bit, and the greens got a little firmer, pin positions were a little tougher . . . just definitely didn't come as easy to me as it did the first couple of days."

Bjorn, who racked up three wins in Europe last year, is tied for ninth at 204 with South African George Coetzee and 2003 British Open champion Ben Curtis.

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2012/tournamentid=2012006/leaderboard/index.html.

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