Brendan Jones moves to top of leaderboard

Australian rookie Brendan Jones sits atop the leaderboard of the B.C. Open after three rounds. It's a precarious perch.

Jones, whose best PGA Tour finish this year was a tie for 14th at the Zurich Classic, shot a 6-under 66 on Saturday to finish at 19-under 197. He was just one shot off the tournament record for 54 holes set in 1982 by Calvin Peete and matched two years ago by Steve Lowery, and it hardly seemed to matter. A dozen players were within four shots.

"You just have to look at the scores. Who knows?," said Jones, who began the day just two shots behind 49-year-old David Edwards. "I'm in the position I really want to be. If I play the way I've been playing, then, hopefully, guys only two or three back have got a chance. We'll have to wait and see. Hopefully, none can catch me."

Just one shot back were Ryan Palmer (67), Jason Bohn (66) and India's Arjun Atwal (65), who had a chance to tie Jones but missed a 4-foot birdie putt at No. 18.

John Rollins, Canadian David Hearn, and J.P. Hayes began the day tied and finished the same way as each carded 64 to finish at 17-under 199. They were even with Edwards (70) and Matt Hendrix (69), who each rallied with three birdies on the back side after faltering early.

Michael Bradley and Jim McGovern also shot 64 and were tied with Sweden's Mathias Gronberg (68) another stroke back.

Barring a meltdown by every one of the leaders, the tournament record of 22-under 266 since the course was renovated for the 1997 tournament was almost certain to fall. Jeff Sluman and Paul Gow established the mark in 2001. Calvin Peete shot 265 in 1982 when the En-Joie Golf Club course played to par 71.

The PGA record for 72 holes is 26 under (254) by Tommy Armour at the 2003 Bolero Texas Open on a par-70 course.

Play was halted by rain for 90 minutes in early afternoon, but the delay had little effect on the forgiving layout. It played soft for the third straight day, allowing the players to shoot aggressively at the pins again, and the scoring average dropped for the third straight day. The 77-man field averaged 68.117, down from 69.534 on Friday and 70.129 on Thursday.

"It's like lawn darts out there," the 40-year-old McGovern said after his third straight sub-70 round. "It almost seems like you can birdie every hole. I don't know if I'll be in the mix, but I gave myself a chance. That's kind of what I came up here for."

Jones needed only 21 putts en route to a 64 on Friday, his best round of the year. Two shots off the lead to start the third round, after missing two easy putts on the first two holes, he made four birdies in a seven-hole span and gained the lead with an eagle at the par-5 12th hole. He felt he could and should have gone lower, but his chip from 31 feet at No. 17 hit the middle of the pin and didn't drop.

"When you can walk off with 66 and still feel like you've left a couple out there, obviously, you're playing well," Jones said.

Whether he sleeps well is another story.

"You can never be relaxed out there because you know that somebody is going to shoot low," he said. "You hope for maybe a little bit of wind to make the course play harder. But you can only look after yourself. I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing. It's been pretty successful to this point."

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