Cink moves into a three shot lead

Playing extra holes today in the Colonial seemed to help Stewart Cink, who took over the lead with two impressive strings of birdies.

Cink was 10 under for the 31 holes he played, moving to 11 under and three strokes ahead of Davis Love III, who had five birdies and four bogeys in his third round of 1-under 69.

Forced to play the final 13 holes of his rain-delayed second round Saturday morning, Cink carded five straight birdies for a 64 to move within a stroke of co-leaders Love and David Toms.

"That never hurts you confidence, it only helps," Cink said of his birdie stretch from Nos. 2-6. "It is always nice to go out and get a good feel for the course. I was just aiming at the hole and the hole looked so big."

And that feeling carried over into his afternoon round with Love and Toms.

Cink had four birdies over a six-hole stretch - Nos. 7-12. He took over the lead with a long birdie putt at the 402-yard 9th, which he followed with birdies at the 404-yard 10th and the 433-yard 12th. He had just one bogey in his third-round 65.

Cink, who won the MCI Classic last month, will try Sunday to join Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Hal Sutton and Jesper Parnevik as multiple winners on the PGA Tour this season.

Love will try to avoid his eighth second-place finish since he his last victory - at the 1998 MCI Classic 47 tournaments ago. Love and Mickelson lost in a playoff with Parnevik last week in the Byron Nelson Classic.

After a third-round 67, Scott Dunlap was alone in third at 7-under 203. Among a quartet at 204 was Fred Couples, who made an early charge before being shaken up by a wayward tee shot that hit a woman on the head.

When Cink sank his birdie putt to get to 7 under at the 7th, he was a stroke behind Toms, who went to 8 under when his putt circled the cup and dropped for his second straight birdie. But Toms then went the wrong way, with four bogeys over the next six holes.

Toms played 32 holes Saturday. He was 4 under for his last 14 second-round holes to complete a 66 that put him in the lead with Love after two rounds.

Love only had to play 18 holes Saturday. He was able to complete his second-round 66 before the first of two weather suspensions Friday.

Love and Toms both birdied the opening hole of the third round, and matched stroke-for-stroke through the first six holes. Both had bogeys at the 476-yard 3rd and 470-yard 5th, the two longest par 4s at Colonial Country Club.

At No. 5, Love lipped out his par while Toms actually did a nice job to salvage a bogey. After his approach buried into the upslope of the bunker, Toms couldn't get the ball out on his first attempt, but it rolled back into a better position in the sand and he then blasted within 5 feet of the pin.

After three birdies his first six holes, Couples was at 7 under and sharing the lead. Then his tee shot on the 7th hole disappeared into the trees, bouncing back into the fairway after hitting a woman on the head.

It appeared to be a lucky break, but Couples was obviously shaken after going to the gallery and speaking briefly to the woman, bleeding from a gash on her head as she laid on the ground. Couples then hit his approach shot into the bunker and ended with a bogey.

While the woman, who never lost consciousness, went to get stitches, the momentum Couples had built was ripped away. After the bogey at No. 7, he finished his round with 11 straight pars and a 68.

"I'm not going to say it was a cause for the bogey, but I was thinking about it on the second shot, on the chip shot and on the putt, but I also thought about it on a lot of other holes," Couples said. "I couldn't just shake that off. The fact that she was cut needed stitches, it's not a good feeling."

DIVOTS: Defending champion Olin Browne missed the cut by a stroke with a 144 total. Ben Hogan, whose imposing statue is at the clubhouse entrance, is the only player to ever win consecutive Colonials, the first two in 1946-47 and then again in 1952-53. ... Stuart Appleby had a hole-in-one on the 178-yard 13th hole.

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