Appleby stretches lead to four shots

Australia's Stuart Appleby took control of the Bay Hill Invitational in Saturday's third round, shooting a six-under-par 66 in breezy conditions to move into a four-shot lead over Chad Campbell.

The season-opening Mercedes Championships winner finished on 16-under 200, while Campbell, who began the round tied with Appleby at 10-under, shot a two-under-par 70 to settle for a 56-hole 204 total.

Another Australian, Adam Scott sits alone in third place on 206 following a 68 that included birdies on the last three holes, and overnight leader Shigeki Maruyama of Japan stands a further stroke back after shooting a three-over-par 75.

Australian Rod Pampling, Steve Lowery, John Daly and Briton Darren Clarke are tied for fifth, eight shots behind Appleby.

It was a bad day for four-time winner Tiger Woods, however, the world number one registering a second straight two-over-par 74 to finish 15 shots behind the leader and out of contention for an unprecedented fifth straight title.

Appleby's 66 was the best round of the day by two shots and continued a trend that the Australian showed in the Mercedes Championships of taking control and not looking back.

In that victory, Appleby also shot a 66 in the third round to wrestle the lead away from Vijay Singh and went on to win a hard-fought, one-shot victory over the Fijian.

"My swing has really started to get better, really improved," Appleby said.

"I'm getting a better feeling of what we've been working on, my coach and I, for now the last two or three years.

"A lot of physical issues that I've had, my body was not being able to repeat itself, the good self when I actually did play, it was struggling to repeat it's feel every day."

Starting the day with a bogey to fall back to nine-under, Appleby rectified the situation immediately with a birdie on the second hole and continued the trend with a string of four birdies between the fifth and eighth holes.

The success at the eighth gave Appleby the outright lead over playing partner Campbell and two more birdies in the round ensured a comfortable margin by the end of the day.

The only time he came close to making a bogey was at the par-three 17th, where he holed a 20-foot par putt.

"It's a great quality golf course," Appleby said.

"It really demands quality shots. It really makes you think out there.

"This course plays its best when it's firm. This course is built for my game; it requires fades, draws, highs and lows and technical thinking."

After falling out of a share for the lead at the eighth, Campbell lost momentum and dropped back to 12-under with three bogeys and two birdies for a one-over-par 37 on the back nine.

"We played really well on the front nine, me and Stuart both," Campbell said.

"On the back nine, I missed a couple of fairways and got in trouble a little bit and didn't really finish off the way I would like.

"But Stuart played a great round and it's going to be tough to catch him."

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