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Tiger Woods one behind Romero

Eduardo Romero carded a mistake-free round of 66 Saturday for a total of 17-under-par 199 and a one-shot lead through three rounds of the Deutsche Bank - SAP Open TPC of Europe. He is being chased by Tiger Woods, who fired a brilliant nine-under 63 to vault into a share of second place with struggling New Zealander Michael Campbell.

Campbell, who led by six strokes over Romero and 10 over Woods after finishing the suspended second round Saturday morning, faltered in the afternoon with a 73 that featured a back-nine score of three-over 39.

Romero rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt for 16-under at the 12th, where his playing partner Campbell, who was 20-under coming into the hole, completed the three-shot swing with a double-bogey six after losing his tee shot in the brush.

Campbell bogeyed the 14th then dropped another shot two holes later when his drive landed in water. Romero finally wrenched the lead from Campbell with a birdie putt at 16.

Although Romero will have to contend with the top-ranked Woods, who captured the 1999 Deutsche Bank event the only other time it was held at St. Leon Rot, the 46-year-old Argentinian, known as "El Gato" -- the cat -- has never lost when leading after 54 holes.

"The confidence is going up and maybe tomorrow the Cat will beat the Tiger!" Romero said with a laugh. "I think it's my best moment this year. I have great confidence in my swing after the problems in January, the injury to my leg."

Romero, a seven-time European Tour winner who last won at the 2000 European Masters, is playing in only his fifth tournament of the year after missing time because of serious dog bites that injured his left leg and left hand.

Woods posted back-to-back birdies to start his round, then eagled the fifth hole for the second straight day with a 50-foot putt that banged into the back of the cup.

"Thank God the putt on the fifth hit the hole because I hit that putt too hard," said Woods. "I was going at least eight feet by and it slammed in there pretty hard. It was nice to get away with that one."

After adding a birdie at the seventh, Woods knocked his approach out of a fairway bunker to 10 feet for a birdie at the ninth and a front-nine 30. He made it three in a row with birdies at 10 and 11, then missed some chances on the way in before closing with an eight-footer for birdie at the home hole to join Campbell at 16-under-par 200.

"I knew I had to shoot something in the mid-60s this afternoon to at least put myself in with a chance," Woods explained. "If Michael went ahead and shot another round just like he had been shooting it would have been pretty tough to catch him tomorrow. I did the only thing I could do -- go out and control my own game."

Campbell tacked on a 65 to his opening 62 for a commanding six-shot lead through 36 holes. He managed to post three birdies against no bogeys over the first 11 holes of the third round, but ultimately his driving let him down.

Rookie Henrik Stenson, who grabbed his first victory at The Belfry last week, continued to impress by matching playing partner Peter O'Malley with a 63. The two stand tied for fourth at 14-under, one stroke ahead of Padraig Harrington, who joined the parade of low scores with a 64.

Retief Goosen (64) and Nick O'Hern (66) are knotted at 12-under, while Paul Eales (66), Warren Bennett (67), Andrew Coltart (68) and Colin Montgomerie (69) round out the top-10 at minus-11.

Defending champion Lee Westwood carded a 70 and is eight shots off the pace at nine-under 207.

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