Waite & Woods share lead into last day

Grant Waite finally gets another chance to play head-to-head with Tiger Woods. Only this time, the Bell Canadian Open is on the line.

And Woods is no longer in high school.

Woods navigated through a traffic jam of players today at Glen Abbey with an 8-under-par 64, and Waite recovered from a shaky start by playing the final six holes in 5-under to grab a share of the lead with the No. 1 player in the world.

Both were at 15-under 201, one stroke ahead of J.L. Lewis and Stephen Ames, a Canadian resident who reportedly made critical remarks of Woods earlier in the year.

Waite, who recovered from a scrambling front nine for a 4-under 68, last played with Woods in the 1993 GTE Byron Nelson Classic.

"He was 17 and I could beat him then,'' Waite said. "He wasn't as intimidating.''

Woods is every bit of that now.

A victory would be the perfect end to an incredible summer during which he won three straight majors and completed the career Grand Slam. At stake Sunday is a chance to become the only player besides Lee Trevino in 1971 to win the innocuous "Triple Crown'' -- the U.S. Open, British Open, and Canadian Open -- in the same year.

"An Open is an Open,'' Woods said. "A national open is something you take pride in winning.''

He'll face a new cast of characters, similar to his victory in the PGA Championship in which he was challenged by players with not much experience posing with a trophy.

Waite, who had a one-stroke lead after 36 holes, won for the only time on the PGA Tour in the 1993 Kemper Open. That happened to follow his experience playing with Woods in Dallas, where both missed the cut.

"Maybe he rubbed off on me," Waite said.

Lewis, who won the John Deere Classic a year ago, eagled the 18th hole to get closer to the leaders. He was joined by Ames, who had a chance to tie the course record at Glen Abbey until he missed a 12-foot birdie putt on the last hole.

Ames had a 63, the low score of the tournament, and he might be the only player capable of drawing more cheers than Woods. Ames, a native of Trinidad & Tobago, moved to Calgary six years ago and is trying to become a Canadian citizen.

He needs approval from the government, but the massive gallery surrounding the 18th green gave him a strong endorsement with a standing ovation.

The relationship with Woods hasn't always been the best. Ames was quoted in the Calgary Herald in April as calling Woods a "spoiled 24-year-old'' who was disrespectful of his peers.

Ames later said he was taken out of context, and said he apologized to Woods.

"I don't think we'll have boxing gloves on,'' Ames said.

None are needed, because Waite held it together and went into the final pairing with Woods.

It will be the second straight week in Canada that Waite has played in the final pairing. He finished one stroke behind Rory Sabbatini last week in Vancouver, British Columbia. Waite called that a "building block'' but he now has some serious work to do Sunday.

Woods, still struggling with lingering effects of the flu, is getting better each day. Even more daunting to his relatively unknown challengers is his record -- 21-2 worldwide when he has at least a share of the 54-hole lead.

"A lot of these players haven't won a lot, but on a golf course like this you can get away with a lot,'' Woods said. "It's pretty much wide open because so many players are bunched up.''

That's the way it was all day, with as many as six players tied for the lead at one point.

Woods, who has won half of his 16 events on the PGA Tour this year, wasted little time joining the fray with a 12-foot birdie putt on No. 2 and then a 25-footer from the fringe on No. 3 that dropped on its last turn.

He caught a break on the par-4 eighth when his drive sailed right, plunked a spectator on the head and bounced out to the fairway. Woods apologized, gave him a ball, and made sure all he had was a knot on his head.

"He wasn't all there, which is understandable,'' Woods said.

Woods was.

He rolled in a 15-footer for birdie on No. 11 and two-putted for another birdie on the 13th that gave him a share of the lead with Ames in what looked to be a duel between two players intent on separating themselves from the pack.

Ames holed a 40-footer for birdie over the ridge on the 15th, got up-and-down for another birdie on the par-5 16th, and was almost embarrassed when a 35-foot putt he struck too hard rammed into the back of the cup on 17.

Each putt gave him a one-stroke advantage over Woods. Each time, Woods responded.

As Ames crouched over his 3-foot par putt on the 18th hole, he backed off when he heard a cheer resound from over the clubhouse by the 16th, where Woods made a 10-foot eagle putt to take the lead.

DIVOTS: Corey Pavin tied a PGA Tour record in the second round, taking only 18 putts in his round of 65, twice chipping in from off the green. Only five other players have gone a round with 18 putts, last accomplished by Jim McGovern in the second round of the FedEx St. Jude Classic on the TPC at Southwind. ... Hal Sutton will be "defending'' his title a year later in the Texas Open in two weeks. Sutton, the 1998 winner, had to skip last year because of another commitment. "That little exhibition,'' he said with a smile and a wink, referring to the Ryder Cup. "I promised them I'd come back this year.''

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