Defending champion Luke Donald is set to move back to World No. 1 after breezing to a two stroke lead on day three of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

There was cheers of ‘Luke, Luke, Luke’ on day three when Donald holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the final green in a round of 69 to move to 11-under par.

Luke Donald on target to move back to World No.1. (Photo - Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)

“That was by far the best round of my three as conditions were very tough out there, and to shoot in the 60s today when the wind was pretty constant was very pleasing,” he said.

“I hit a couple of loose shots coming down the stretch but I’ve very happy making that birdie on the last as it was hugely important for me.”

However when asked to respond to Ernie Els outburst on the state of the course, Donald said:  “There were a couple of greens that were a little firmer and certainly 12 was getting that glean to it.

“But then I would have thought Ernie’s kind of use to it playing some events in the States where the greens get like that.

“So in general it was not something that my caddy or myself talked about in great general.”

Donald arrived at Tour HQ needing to finish eighth to unseat current World No. 1 Rory McIlroy and his task of also holding onto to the gleaming BMW PGA trophy was made that more easy when the curly-haired McIlroy folded in hopelessly missing the halfway cut.

Donald will play the final round in the company of good friend, Justin Rose who posted a 69 to move into second place on nine under par.

Rose and fellow Brit Ian Poulter (69) were there were just three players to break 70 while nine players shooting 80 with former Open Champion, Ben Curtis among them.

Curtis, who won the recent Texas Open and was joint runner-up last week with Martin Laird in the Players Championship, ended with a pair of eights in his 81.

Another seven players had scores of 79.