A 9-under 61 today tied the Colonial course record and gives Greg Kraft a chance to get rid of the bad taste from his collapse at Doral two months ago.

Scott Verplank will get another chance to win on the PGA Tour for the first time in 11 years. Billy Mayfair will have a chance to make those long hours on the putting green pay off.

All three are tied for the lead at 7-under 203 after three rounds of the MasterCard Colonial.

But it's not like they're the only ones who will have a chance Sunday.

At the end of a topsy-turvy Saturday at Colonial Country Club, 28 players were within five shots of the lead and no one was banking on anything.

John Cook had a 70 and was at 204. The six players at 205 included U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen (65), PGA champion Vijay Singh (66) and Phil Mickelson (70).

Tom Lehman, who bogeyed two of the first four holes but still had a 64, and Davis Love III (68) were among those another stroke back.

"There's so many people," Verplank said after his 4-under 66, a remarkable score given the late afternoon firmness of Colonial. "It's possible someone could go out early tomorrow and shoot a 61. And if it gets difficult in the afternoon, that could be enough to win."

That's what Kraft did Saturday, finishing off his 61 with a 60-foot chip for birdie.

The 61 tied the course record set by Keith Clearwater and Janzen in 1993. Neither player went on to win that year, when conditions were so perfect that Fulton Allem established a 72-hole scoring record at 264.

That's probably safe this year. The 203 is the highest 54-hole score at Colonial since Ben Crenshaw led after the third round in 1990 with a 6-under 204.

Kraft signed his card before the last group reached the second tee, then said he hoped it would be good enough to be within shouting distance of the leaders at the end of the day.

But as the greens got baked by the sun, the leaders didn't go anywhere. Of the top 10 players on the leaderboard at the start of the round, only Mayfair (69) managed to break par.

"I'm real happy with the position I'm in," Mayfair said.

Corey Pavin, trying to win for the first time since the 1996 Colonial, had a 4-over 74. Steve Elkington had a 75.

It was the second time in two weeks that Kraft made a quantum leap up the leaderboard, going from a tie for 52nd to a three-way tie for the lead in one round. A week ago, he closed with a 64 to go from 60th to a tie for 12th in the Byron Nelson Classic.

Now, he gets to experience the late-afternoon conditions that everyone else suffered through on Saturday.

"The guys who played this morning are going to find a very different kind of golf course tomorrow afternoon," Cook said.

Kraft is just glad to have another chance.

His only victory didn't count in the PGA Tour books because the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic was an unofficial event in 1993. Kraft could have taken care of that in March, when he was tied with Elkington on the final hole of the Doral Open.

But he caught a 5-iron fat and dumped it in the water for a bogey.

"That's going to leave a taste in my mouth I won't forget for a long time," Kraft said after Doral.

Five years ago, he also was tied for the lead in the Western Open until playing the 72nd hold too aggressively and making bogey.

"I have nothing to prove to anybody but myself," he said Saturday.

Verplank, who had had three elbow surgeries this decade, was voted the comeback player of the year on the PGA Tour last year after having to go to Q-school to get his card and then finishing 18th on the money list.

"I played as good as I can play today," Verplank said. "There's no reason to worry about where you are right now. I'm doing the best I can."

Mayfair is one of only two players who has broken par all three rounds, and he attributes that to his putting. After missing the cut in the Nelson last week, he hung around Las Colinas to practice on the putting greens, and he has been the last player to leave Colonial every night this week.

"It's start to pay off," he said.

Divots: Tom Watson is never too old to learn. After opening with a 74, he had dinner Thursday night with Byron Nelson, who told him his swing didn't look right on television. Watson, who will join the senior tour in September, made a few adjustments, barely made the cut with a 70 and then had a 66 in the third round. "I wasn't making a very good turn, and I corrected it," Watson said. ... Verplank has played Colonial's two par-5s in 8 under this week. ... Cook ended his streak of six straight rounds in the 60s at Colonial with a 70.

AP