Barlow edges ahead of Lowery

Craig Barlow birdied the last three holes to inch ahead of Steve Lowery and claim the third-round lead Saturday in The International.

Sergio Garcia made the most noise in the third round, carding an eagle and eight birdies to storm the leaderboard and move into fifth place.

Barlow's short birdie putt on the 18th hole gave him 11 points for the round and 28 points for the tournament under the modified Stableford scoring system used in this event.

Moments earlier, Lowery, playing in the same group, also birdied No. 18 to go to 27.

Mark Brooks was at 26 and Rich Beem 25. Garcia stood at 21.

The scoring system awards 5 points for eagle, 2 for birdie, zero for par, minus-1 for bogey and minus-3 for double bogey or worse.

The field was cut again Saturday to the top 36 players and ties for Sunday's final round.

Players enjoyed favorable weather conditions Saturday after battling winds that gusted as high as 40 mph during the first two rounds and dampened scores.

On Saturday, scoring improved dramatically. Garcia's 19 points represented the best round of the day - just one off the tournament record. Greg Norman and Steve Stricker each had 16-point rounds, and Beem had 15.

``The course was playing rather benign compared to the first two days,'' Beem said.

Norman and Stricker had 20-point totals, along with British Open champion Ernie Els. Ian Leggatt and Geoff Ogilvy stood at 18.

Barlow, 199th on the money list and in need of a good finish to avoid losing his Tour card for the third time in five years, closed strong. He birdied five of his last six holes to move from plus-18 to plus-28.

Lowery, the second-round leader with 21 points, faltered early but made four birdies on his back nine.

Brooks, winner of the 1996 PGA championship as well as six other tournaments, also flirted with the lead but couldn't match the final-hole birdies by Barlow and Lowery.

Garcia was in danger of missing the cut after two mediocre rounds to open the tournament, but regrouped Saturday.

Garcia, starting on the back nine, was quiet for seven holes before an eagle at the par-5 17th hole, a green he reached in two.

That pushed his total to 8 points, and he added 13 more on the second nine in which he had seven birdies and a bogey.

Garcia sank a 50-foot birdie putt at No. 3 but needed to make mere 2-footers for birdies at Nos. 1 and 4. He finished his flurry with four straight birdies, including a 16-foot curling putt on the ninth hole that left him twirling his index finger in the air to the cheers of the crowd.

``It was just a day where things were going my way,'' Garcia said. ``I was hitting the ball great, and I finally got it going with the putter. It seemed like I made a couple of putts and I gained some confidence that just kept me going.''

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