Sutton's lead reduced to three

Hal Sutton admitted a four-putt 15 years ago would have ruined his round and likely his chances of winning the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic.

But a more mature Sutton overcame his early double bogey on the fifth green to shoot an even-par 72 today and remain in control heading into the final round.

"As a younger player you panic in a situation like that. I've done that before," Sutton said. "It's hard to come back from something like that as a younger player. I've learned my lesson several times, so I needed to put that to use."

Cool temperatures, windy conditions and slick greens at Forest Oaks Country Club made it difficult for Sutton to come close to duplicating his 11-birdie performance in the second round.

He hit only five of 18 greens in regulation and eight of 14 fairways, but few in the field made up any ground on the 20-year PGA Tour veteran as Sutton finished at 13-under 203 for a three-stroke lead over Andrew Magee.

"There's a lot of good things about today's round because I held it together," Sutton said. "And it could have easily gotten away from me."

Magee matched Davis Love III for the low round of the day, making an 8-footer for birdie on No. 18 to close with a 68 for a three-day total of 10-under 206.

"You can't rattle Hal," Magee said. "He's a solid veteran. He's not going to shoot 75 (Sunday). I know what I have to do. I have to play great golf."

Love, a former Greensboro champion, was six shots back and tied for fifth at 209.

"I'm back in the race maybe for second," Love said when asked if he could catch Sutton. "I figured I needed to get at least into double digits to have a chance."

Barry Cheesman started the day in second, five shots behind Sutton, and kept pace with his playing partner before bogeying three of his final five holes to shoot a 73 and drop into a tie with Love and several others at 7 under.

Sutton wasn't close to the precision that produced a spectacular 64 Friday. He parred the first four holes in his third round before running into trouble on the green at the par-4, fifth hole.

After backing away from a 35-foot birdie putt because of gallery movement, Sutton left his first putt 8 feet short and proceeded to four-putt for a 6 as Omar Uresti pulled within one shot.

"I walked off that green and evaluated what went wrong," Sutton said. "It wasn't my putter that went wrong, it was my focus. If I put my focus back on what I was trying to do, then I didn't need to doubt my putter. That's what I did."

Sutton quickly rebounded with birdies on the next two holes as Uresti bogeyed No. 11 and finished 2 over on the back for a 69. Uresti and Dudley Hart, who also had a 69, were tied for third at 208.

Sutton, who putted great in his first two rounds, regained his form on the greens on the back nine, saving par on consecutive holes from 4, 4 and 8 feet.

He then made a 15-foot uphill birdie putt on No. 13 to move to 14 under before bogeying the next hole from a bunker. Sutton went from rough-to-rough on No. 15, but saved another par with a 4-footer.

Sutton needed only 23 putts Saturday to move into second place in that category after 54 holes.

Uresti, whose 72.67 third-round scoring average is 152nd on tour, started the day at 5 under, eight shots behind Sutton and seemingly out of contention. But he birdied four of his first six holes to card a front-side 31 and move to 10 under before closing with a 2-over 38 on the back nine.

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