Mark Wiebe, briefly rattled after he had to snatch a child out of the way of a golf cart, shot a six-under 66 last night to take the third-round lead in the Touchstone Energy Tucson Open.
Wiebe, who last won in 1986, leads Garrett Willis by two shots. On a day of low scoring, Willis fired a 64, the best round of the tournament.
His 54-hole total of 14-under 202 was good enough for a twoshot lead over Willis, who made a PGA Tour cut for the first time in four attempts on Saturday and then came back with a 64 - the best score of the tournament.
Wiebe will play the final round with Willis, and introductions will be in order.
"There's guys that can play that nobody in this room has heard of yet that will someday pop up, and we'll say, `Who is that?'," Wiebe said.
"Somebody said, `You guys have a lot in common - you really like the course.' I said, `Who is Garrett Willis'?"
Glen Hnatiuk fired a 66 to get into a four-way tie for third with Kevin Sutherland, Mark Hensby and 1994 champion Andrew Magee.
So did Steve Flesch, Harrison Frazar and Brandt Jobe. They were five shots back along with Bernhard Langer, Hunter Haas, Geoff Ogilvy and Chris Riley.
Wiebe had four birdies by the turn. Then came an incident in which a young boy asked for his autograph while Wiebe was sitting in the back of a cart.
Somehow, the driver allowed the vehicle to roll backward and Wiebe, the father of three, grabbed the boy by the arm and lifted him onto his lap.
Everyone expected a South African to be leading after the third round at the $3.5 million Mercedes Championship on Saturday.
Few, however, thought it would be Rory Sabbatini (24), who took advantage of ideal conditions to vault to the front with an eightunder-par 65 at the Kapalua Plantation course.
He posted a 16-under 203 total with one round left, two strokes better than Vijay Singh, who birdied the last for 67.
Halfway leader Ernie Els uncharacteristically dropped four shots in the final seven holes to shoot 73 and plunge into a tie for third with Jim Furyk (69), four strokes behind.
Tiger Woods shot a respectable 68, but he still had his work cut out, eight strokes behind.
Sabbatini enjoyed a near-perfect day, hitting all 18 greens in regulation.
He hit the front with a spectacular eagle at the par-four 16th, where he holed his second shot with a sand wedge from 96 yards.
Sabbatini was as surprised as anyone else to be in the lead, because this is his first event in two months, and he has hardly practised because of an upheaval in his personal life.
"There have been a lot of other things going on in my life that have drained me mentally and physically," he said.
"Last week I played nine holes and I would have been a good 10 handicapper. I've no explanation for this week. It's just come together."
Els, meanwhile, appeared in total control after picking up four successive birdies starting at the sixth hole to make the turn at 16 under, but stumbled coming home.
A bogey at the 12th ended a streak of 42 successive holes without a dropped shot. He also bogeyed the 15th, then dropped two shots at the par-five 18th after hitting a wicked slice off the tee.
