PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Paul Goydos does not have a Q-rating, an endorsement deal or a top-30 finish in the last 16 months. What he does have, for the first time in his career, is a 54-hole lead — in The Players Championship, no less.
Seemingly immune to the mounting pressure and a course getting tougher by the day, Goydos seized the lead Saturday with a 10-foot birdie putt on the island-green 17th, and a great escape on the closing hole for a 2-under 70 and a one-shot lead over Kenny Perry.
As well as he played, his self-deprecating humor was even better.
Asked if he had ever had a 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour, Goydos shook his head.
"But I've only been on tour for 16 years," he said.
He was at 7-under 209, the highest score to lead at TPC Sawgrass since 1999.
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Perry saved par with a nifty wedge on the 18th hole for a 72 that put him at 210 and in the final group today. Sergio Garcia hit the ball as well as anyone for the second straight day, and got nothing in return.
Garcia was tied for the lead standing on the 17th tee, but he three-putted from just outside 10 feet, then hit into the rough on the 18th and closed with another bogey for a 73, leaving him three shots behind.
Through three rounds, Goydos has taken 78 putts, which is 18 fewer than Garcia.
"I'm a little bit disappointed, because I feel like the last two days, I show the highest score I could shoot," Garcia said. "And I still have a chance. With everything that has happened, I'm still there."
The numbers are shrinking, with only 13 players remaining under par, just three of those with a major to their credit.
Phil Mickelson, trying to become the first repeat champion in the 35-year history of this tournament, was making a move up the leader board until he knocked his tee shot into the water on the 14th and took double bogey. He still wound up with a 71 and was in the group at 2-under 214, five shots behind.
"I'm pretty sure Mickelson is not going, 'Well, I'm playing for second,' " Goydos said.
Also five shots behind was 50-year-old Bernhard Langer, whose two victories this year have come on the Champions Tour. A day after knocking in a 60-foot birdie on the island green, Langer three-putted for bogey and finished with a 75.
The group at 1-under 215 included former British Open champion Tom Lehman (69) and Boo Weekley.
LPGA Tour
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — Rarely spectacular but remarkable for her consistency, Annika Sorenstam shot her third consecutive solid round, and her 2-under 69 signaled that she may be ready to give fellow UA alum Lorena Ochoa a run for No. 1 again.
The eight-time player of the year, plagued by injuries in a winless 2007, gave Ochoa and Jeong Jang up-close evidence that the steady game that made her the top female player in the world is coming back.
Sorenstam stretched her bogey-free string to 53 holes before hooking her drive into the water on No. 18. Even then, she drove again, hit a 6-iron within 8 feet and made the putt.
The bogey left her with a three-shot lead over Jang (69) at 14 under. Sorenstam, a two-time winner this year, opened with rounds of 64 and 66.
Ochoa lost her putting stroke and fell back quickly. Her string of four bogeys in five holes ended just before Sorenstam made two long putts, both for birdie, to open an eight-shot lead over the woman who has taken her place at the top of the sport.
Ochoa holed a long birdie putt on the first hole and was 2 under through seven holes, but 5 over after that, finishing with a 74 to drop into a tie for 10th.
European Tour
MILAN, Italy — Hennie Otto shot a 9-under 63 to take a four-stroke lead into the final round of the Italian Open.
Otto had a 22-under 194 total. Christian Nilsson (64), Robert Karlsson (69) and Alvaro Velasco (64) were tied for second.
