Roberts vaults to top of leaderboard with 64

American Loren Roberts shot a seven-under-par 64, the lowest round of the day on Saturday, to take the lead after three rounds of the $5.25 million Buick Classic.

Roberts, 12 days shy of his 49th birthday, jumped to 12-under 201 and a one-shot lead over South African Rory Sabbatini (65) and Cameron Beckman (66).

Tom Byrum followed up his 64 on Friday with a three-under 68 and joined Britain's Luke Donald (70) on 203, two shots off Roberts's pace.

Donald had reached 12-under on his round and had taken the lead, but fell back over the last seven holes.

Ireland's Padraig Harrington (68) and Fiji's Vijay Singh (71) are tied for sixth on 204 but world number two Ernie Els carded a 72, falling back to 209 and a tie for 30th.

On a day when the leaders committed lots of errors, Roberts made only one, failing to get up and down from the greenside bunker on the par-four eighth for his only bogey of the round.

However, eight birdies more than atoned,

Roberts, who has won eight times on the PGA Tour, is generally a strong front-runner, but has struggled this year with only one top 10 finish in 11 events.

He said: "I don't know if I'm starting to feel my age or what, but hopefully I've still got some competitive fire in me, so I'm looking to get things going because I still think for me there's some golf courses out here on tour that I can compete on, and I think this is one of them."

While Roberts has struggled in 2004, Sabbatini has played well with three top 10s.

He said: "I'm going to go out there and try and limit my mistakes and if I can do that, and in the process go and make three or four putts and suddenly go and shoot another round in the mid- or high-60s, I think there's a good chance."

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