THIRD ROUND LEADERBOARD:
-13 R Goosen (SA), S Stricker (US), S O'Hair (US) -12 P Harrington (Ire), K Na (US), S Verplank (US) Selected others: -10 J Furyk (US) -4 S Garcia (Spa), T Woods (US) -3 B Davis (Eng) -2 P Mickelson (US), G Owen (Eng) Level L Donald (Eng) +3 J Rose (Eng)
Goosen has shot 65, 67, 68 at the TPC Boston in Norton |
Steve Stricker, Retief Goosen and Sean O'Hair share the lead at 13 under going into the final round of the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston.
America's Stricker, who led after round one, eagled 18 to finish with a six-under 65, while joint overnight leader O'Hair shot a 70 and Goosen a 68.
Ireland's Padraig Harrington fired a third successive 67 to join Kevin Na and Scott Verplank one shot back.
Tiger Woods dropped back to four under after a one-over round of 72.
O'Hair's fellow overnight leader Jim Furyk dropped three shots on the front nine but birdied 17 and 18 to recover to 10 under par.
O'Hair also birdied the last to move into the three-way tie after an indifferent round that had begun with him dropping two shots in the opening three holes.
"I was feeling uncomfortable and nervous on the first tee," he said.
"But I fought back well and I was happy to shoot a 70 because the round could have slipped to four over very easily."
The emphasis today was grind a little bit harder on my putting Steve Stricker |
Stricker lost the first-round lead he had earned with a dazzling 63 after carding a 72 on Saturday and admitted he was "very disappointed".
"I don't know if I lost focus or what," he said. "I got tired, I felt tired at the end of the round. But I just didn't make any putts yesterday.
"So the emphasis today was grind a little bit harder on my putting and concentrate a little bit harder on my putting and make some good strokes, and I did today, which was very satisfying."
Stricker, the world number four, can overtake Woods at the top of the Fed Ex Cup standings if he wins on Monday - Labour Day in the US.
The English quartet of Brian Davis, Greg Owen, Lee Donald and Justin Rose all fell away after shooting over par rounds.
Davis dropped two shots and is three under, while Owen is alongside world number two Phil Mickelson on two under after he, too, dropped two shots.
Donald is at level par after a one-over 72 while Rose, who had picked up a couple of birdies, had a disastrous run of eight dropped shots in 11 holes, to finish with a six-over-par 77 and three-over total.
The event is the second of the four end-of-season play-offs in the Fed Ex Cup on the PGA Tour.
The 125-strong field at last week's Barclays tournament was whittled down to 100 for this week.
A total of 70 players will make it through to the BMW Championship with the final 30 from the Fed Ex Cup points list competing at the season-ending Tour Championship.
Source