Curtis & Furyk top leaderboard

Ben Curtis is looking to end a long drought since a glamorous victory. Jim Furyk is looking to end questions about his injured wrist.

Curtis shot a bogey-free 5-under-par 66 and Furyk carded a 67 to share the lead at 12-under 201 after Saturday's third round of the $5 million Western Open.

The duo has a three-shot lead over Tim Herron, with Tiger Woods five back and Vijay Singh six shots off the pace.

Curtis, the 2003 British Open champion who is 224th on the money list this year, sank five birdies.

"I was just trying to make as many birdies as I could," Curtis said. "I wasn't really worried about what would happen if I made a double(-bogey) or a bogey. I think I was just focusing on making a lot of birdies."

Curtis sank a 20-footer for birdie on his first hole and birdied No. 18 to draw even with Furyk, who took command earlier with an eagle on the par-5 15th.

Curtis will be matched with Furyk in Sunday's final group.

"I've played with him quite a bit over the last couple of years, so I've gotten to know his game very well," Curtis said. "It's very solid and there's no weaknesses."

The co-leader after firing a first-round 64, Curtis has been in a prolonged slump in 41 events since hoisting the Claret Jug at the 2003 British Open. During that stretch, he has made just 15 cuts and registered only one top-10 finish.

"I was just in a bad rut. I couldn't do anything I wanted with the golf ball," Curtis said. "It didn't matter if it was with a wedge or a driver. It was one of those things that I needed a quick fix, and I've always been pretty consistent on playing, and for the last several months I wasn't."

This season, Curtis has made the cut in just two of 14 starts. He has two sub-70 rounds this week, matching his 2005 total entering this event.

Furyk, who has not won since the 2003 Buick Open, has three runner-ups this season but would like to finally break through to prove his injured wrist is fully healed.

"A lot of people aren't going to think I'm fully back until I have a season like I did in '03," Furyk said. "Coincidentally, that happens to be my best year ever. I played more consistent and I won two events, which I had never done in one year before; I won a major championship, which I had never done before. It's ] kind of a good news, bad news.

"It just happened to come right before having wrist surgery, so the comparisons, I won't say they're unfair, but the bar is set and the standard is set very high, which I think is OK. At least you've got something to shoot for. I feel every bit as good as I did in years 2000-2003."

Last week at the Barclays Classic, Furyk held or shared the lead through the first three rounds. The 35-year-old was tied for the lead after the first round here and one shot back after the second round.

"After four tough days I was in the lead pretty much all week last week, so it takes its toll on you," Furyk said. "It's physically tiring; just probably because you're working so hard mentally, I think it wears it out physically.

"So I got some rest on Monday and Tuesday. I didn't spend a lot of time here at the golf course on Tuesday and just tried to prepare and get rested and get ready to go that week, and so far I've done a good job."

Herron, who began Saturday one stroke back, shot a 70. He is at 204, two shots in front of Woods (70) and Shaun Micheel (68).

"I was looking for the mid-60s again, which would be nice," said Woods, who needs just $56,974 to become the first player to reach $50 million. "If I would have gotten somewhere near 10(-under) it would have been great, but I didn't quite get there. I got it to 7(-under), which is fine."

After carding his lone bogey of the round on No. 14, Woods regrouped by firing an eagle on No. 15 for the second straight day.

"I hit a beautiful drive down there downwind and hit a 7-iron there, which was nice," he said. "It was playing pretty short today, which is unusual."

The top-ranked player in the world, Singh fired a 65 to move into a tie for sixth at 207 with Pat Perez, Brett Quigley and second-round leader Chris Couch, who stumbled to a 3-over 74.

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