DiMarco maintains two shot advantage

Chris DiMarco might not be playing golf for a living if not for Skip Kendall, who taught him the "claw" putting grip and rescued his career.

DiMarco has gone on to win three times on the PGA Tour.

Kendall is 0-for-260.

They will be in the final pairing Sunday at the Disney World Golf Classic after DiMarco shot a 3-under 69 in the third round to maintain his two-stroke lead.

It seems like an appropriate time for DiMarco to repay the favor.

Forget it.

"My job tomorrow is to not give it to him," said DiMarco, who was at 20-under 196 Saturday. "If he goes out and beats me, I'd probably feel just as happy as if I won. If I play good and somebody beats me, that's fine. And if it's Skip, it's even better."

Kendall put himself in position to become the 16th first-time winner on the PGA Tour this year by making birdies on eight of his first 13 holes and finishing with a 66.

"The goal today was to close the gap, which I did," Kendall said. "I didn't expect Chris to shoot 3 under, especially as well as he was playing. But I'm glad he did."

The final round is far from a duel.

Despite his only bogey on the final hole, Scott Hoch had a 69 and also was only two strokes back at 198, along with Bob Burns (67).

And don't count out Tiger Woods. Despite a pedestrian 67 on another easy day for scoring on the Magnolia course, Woods gave himself 17 birdie chances and was among 19 players within six strokes of the lead.

That might be a lot of ground to make up at most tournaments, but not at Disney. Two years ago, Woods appeared to be in a final-round duel with Steve Flesch when Duffy Waldorf closed with a 62 to make up six strokes and beat them both.

"I'm really close," Woods said, referring more to his game than his position.

Kendall might be the sentimental favorite. None of the 15 first-time winners has a history quite like his.

A Wisconsin native, Kendall moved to Florida in 1989 and waited tables at an Olive Garden to pay the bills while he played on the mini-tours. The restaurant has since been shut down, but Kendall has made a nice career out of golf. All that's missing is a victory.

"It's so hard to gauge who's going to win every week," Kendall said. "Hopefully, I'll be one of them tomorrow."

Standing in his way is DiMarco, of all players.

They were at a mini-tour event in the Orlando area in 1995 when DiMarco was thinking about giving up golf because of the most important club in the bag.

That's when he ran into Kendall, who learned the "claw" several years ago but has never tried it himself in competition. The grip requires players to rotate the lower hand so that the fingers are on top of the grip, instead of beneath it.

It worked for DiMarco.

He has won three times in the last three years, and is among the top 20 players in the world ranking. Now, rarely a week goes by that someone doesn't try it - Kevin Sutherland before he won the Match Play Championship, and even Mark Calcavecchia.

"It was something I was taught a long time ago," Kendall said. "He's not the first one that I taught how to do it. He happened to be the first guy on tour. It has kind of carried on in a way that I don't think anybody ever expected."

Kendall joked that he will demand DiMarco use a conventional grip on Sunday.

That's only fair, right?

"I might putt the 3- or 4-inch putts conventionally," DiMarco said. "But that's about it."

DiMarco might need every putt he can make Sunday.

After two days of hitting the ball well and making every putt, DiMarco was tentative Saturday on a day when the course average was 69.6.

By the time he made the turn, his two-stroke lead was gone. A couple of holes later, he was two strokes behind Kendall and trying to limit the damage.

Kendall, however, made bogey from the bunker on the par-3 15th, then three-putted for another bogey from 30 feet on No. 17. DiMarco picked up two birdies to restore his two-stroke advantage going into the final round.

The lead doesn't look as large on a course yielding birdies at every turn.

"Somebody can go low," DiMarco said. "I'll be more aggressive tomorrow. There's a lot of birdies out there, and you just have to stay patient." yards behind him and rolled not too far from his feet. After the round, Barlow's caddie apologized to Woods, who said it was no problem. "I had been hitting it next to Luke (Donald) all day, then all of a sudden one flies 40 yards farther," Barlow said. ... Charles Howell III is thinking about skipping next week's Buick Challenge because he's exhausted. He is playing his fourth straight tournament at Disney, and won for the first time on the PGA Tour a few weeks ago. Howell had a 68 and was at 13-under 203. ... Bob Tway opened with double bogeys on his first two holes, and was 8 under over the final 16 holes for a 68.

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