In the sky above the Majlis course, a banner advertising his latest business venture was dragged behind a helicopter, but Ernie Els is not one of those who come here only for commercial reasons. In yesterday’s third round of the Dubai Desert Classic, his leap to the top of a strong leaderboard demonstrated his continued appetite for a tournament he has won three times already.

Els, who opened his “desert links” in Dubai Sports City last week, is threatening to win his first event of 2008 after a 65 that took him to 11 under par, one ahead of Henrik Stenson and three ahead of Lee Westwood and Graeme McDowell. Tiger Woods is a stroke further back after toiling to keep up with his Irish playing partner, Damien McGrane, never mind the rampant Els.

As Woods struggled to a 73, his first overpar score since the second round of last year’s Open at Carnoustie, Els took advantage. The South African, who is slimming down his schedule with the majors in mind, has been runner-up on each of his past two visits to Dubai, and will fancy his chances in today’s climax.

“I probably need a really low one,” he said. “I can’t see Henrik, Tiger and the other guys not shooting low.”

Els made his biggest move just after the turn. A five wood to within two feet of the flag set up an eagle on the 10th, before a seven iron to three feet produced a birdie on the 11th. It coincided with that aerial marketing exercise, about which Els was suitably embarrassed. “I did feel a little bit uncomfortable with that,” he said. “I thought the guy was going to circle once, but he just kept on coming.” The emergence of Els, whose 61 here in 1994 is the course record, has given the leaderboard a familiar look. Stenson, who bases himself in Dubai, birdied his first three holes on the way to a 68 that gives him a fighting chance of retaining the trophy he lifted last year. Woods won it in 2006, but he will have trouble repeating the feat if he cannot improve his accuracy off the tee. While there was no sign in the opening round of his only discernible weakness, Woods was all over the shop yesterday, or as he put it, “spinning the ball, not penetrating it through the wind”. Whatever. It was a ragged round, with the odd twitch from short range, and a few spats with photographers thrown in for good measure.

The course Woods is building in Dubai is called Al Ruwaya, which means serenity, but the quality was in short supply here. He was able to forgive those in the crowd who clicked their cameras throughout, but when the professionals released their shutters too early, the most photographed golfer in the world ran out of patience. At the first hole, he was disturbed by a green-side snapper, before backing off, and then missing, a four-foot birdie putt. McGrane’s caddie, John Hort, was offended enough to reprimand the culprit, who was then admonished by a steward.

That was nothing to an incident on the eighth tee, when Woods uncoiled that unstopp-able swing of his, only to hear the dreaded click on his way down. The world No 1 didn’t even watch his ball shoot left into the scrub. He turned on his heels, smacked his club into the ground and yelled: “Come on, not on my swing, not on my downswing, godammit.” In truth, Woods was making a perfectly good job of losing himself in the desert, without unsolicited help from the side-lines. The man who had found only five fairways on Friday lodged his ball behind a ridge of sand on the second, a mistake that forced him to come out backwards. On the sixth, he was in more of the brown stuff, this time on the right, and under a tree. His powers of recovery let him down on both occasions.

With ground to make up on the back nine, he missed a three-footer for birdie on 17, then dumped his approach into water at the last. By the time he had dropped, chipped on and two-putted for bogey, he was signing for one more than McGrane, an outcome which the Irishman was oblivious to. “It’s news to me,” said the man who is 318 places behind Woods in the world rankings, and remains on the seven-under total at which he started the round. “We were struggling with our game, not doing each other any favours,” continued the 36-year-old, as though he had been out for a few holes in the monthly medal. If he wasn’t exactly in the zone, he was certainly unfazed by the experience, which is just as well, for the two resume their partnership today.