Steady Love maintains lead

Using long irons off most tees and hitting to the center of greens, Davis Love III had few scintillating moments. He also avoided any spectacular mistakes.

Love played steady, conservative golf to maintain his 10-point lead Saturday in The International.

Love consistently avoided trouble in his 5-point round, increasing his total to 41 points under the modified Stableford scoring system used in this event.

"I'd say steady is a good word," Love said. "It was obviously not as good as the last two days, but I hit a lot of good shots, was on a lot of greens and was never in danger of making a big score. I swung the club real well and did what I had to do."

What he had to do was hold his lead heading into Sunday's final round, and he succeeded. Love, who began the day with 36 points and a 10-point lead, had three birdies and one bogey. His lead was as much as 11 points and never less than 8.

John Rollins also earned 5 points and remained in second place with 31 points. Vijay Singh was third with 28 after a 9-point round.

Chris DiMarco and Retief Goosen each had 26 points, and Phil Mickelson had an up-and-down round to finish at 23. J.J. Henry was at 22, and Charles Howell III had 21.

The scoring system gives players 8 points for a double eagle, 5 points for an eagle, 2 points for birdie, zero for par, minus-1 for bogey and minus-3 for double bogey or worse. Rich Beem won last year with a four-round total of 44 points, including 19 on Sunday.

The field, cut after 36 holes, was trimmed again to the low 36 players and ties for Sunday's final round.

Among those missing the 54-hole cut were David Toms, who had 11 points; Justin Leonard, 8; Masters champion Mike Weir, 7; Darren Clark, 4, and Lee Janzen, minus-2.

Love survived despite failing to earn a point on the par-5s. On Thursday, he birdied all four of the par-5s, and on Friday he eagled three of them.

Asked if he could afford to be blanked on the par-5s on Sunday and still win, Love said, "I doubt it. I'll have to do better on them.

"I birdied the hard holes today -- 5, 9 and 10 -- and not the easy holes. But the par-5s played trickier. I hit a bad 5-iron on No. 1, I had a tricky lie at 14. I hit two good shots at 17 and just got a bad break, and 8 played very long today."

History would favor Love on Sunday. In the 10 years under the current format, the third-round leader has gone on to win six times, and the largest comeback is 3 points.

"Davis is going to be tough to beat," said Rollins, who had three three-putt bogeys. "He's hitting the ball so solid and putting great. I want to get off to a quick start Sunday. I'm going to come out aggressively and see what happens."

Rollins birdied the first hole, cutting Love's lead to 8 points. But Rollins then bogeyed No. 4, and Love birdied No. 5, pushing the lead to 11 points.

When Rollins bogeyed No. 7, he slipped back into a tie for second place with Singh, who birdied four of his first seven holes to get to 26 points.

Rollins birdied No. 8, but Love made a 15-foot birdie putt at No. 9 and made the turn with an 11-point advantage.

Both players birdied No. 10 with short putts, and Rollins cut the lead to 9 points with an 8-foot birdie putt on the par-5 14th hole, while Love chipped poorly and settled for par.

Love and Rollins squandered birdie opportunities at the short par-5 17th hole, missing the green with their iron shots and making pars.

Love, who saved par from the sand at No. 13, did so again on the 18th hole, making an uphill 4-footer. Meanwhile, Rollins three-putted, missing a curling 3-footer and taking bogey.

Mickelson made an early move, getting to 23 points through three holes. But he double-bogeyed Nos. 4 and 5 and needed four birdies on the back nine to recover.

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