Crowne Plaza Invitational third-round notebook

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Third-round leader Phil Mickelson carded a 5-under 65 on Saturday and reclaimed the advantage to take a one-shot lead over Rod Pampling and Stephen Ames going into Sunday's final round.

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Phil Mickelson has the overnight lead into Sunday.

With a 36-hole cut resulting in 79 players, the PGA TOUR's secondary cut came into play on Saturday, meaning the field would again be cut to the low 70 players and ties following the third round. That cut left 73 players in the field for Sunday's final round.

The last six winners at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial have either held the 54-hole lead or been tied for the 54-hole lead. The last come-from-behind winner at Colonial was Sergio Garcia, who made up a five-shot deficit to win in the final round.

In the 61-year history of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, the 54-hole leader/co-leader has gone on to claim victory 33 times.

The 54-hole leader has gone on to win 12 out of 21 stroke-play tournaments thus far on the 2008 PGA TOUR, with the last being Anthony Kim's win at the Wachovia Championship.

With a crowded 54-hole leaderboard at the top, the possibility of a third-straight playoff finish at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial looms heading into Sunday. The last time a PGA TOUR event ended in a playoff for three consecutive years was from 2002-2004, when the RBC Canadian Open required extra holes to determine the champion.

The largest come-from-behind victory at the Crowne Plaza Invitational was recorded by Nick Price (seven strokes) in 1994. Mickelson (2000) and Ben Hogan (1952) came from six strokes back for their victories. At day's end, there were 19 players within seven shots of Mickelson's lead.

Mickelson found himself in a similar position at the 2001 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial when he was tied with Brett Quigley for the 54-hole lead before a final-round 70 left him two-shots-shy of eventual champion Sergio Garcia.

Brian Gay became the last player in the field to record his first bogey of the tournament when he bogeyed the par-4 ninth on Saturday.

Pampling's 2008 campaign has been rather up and down with seven missed cuts in 14 starts. Regardless, he has three top-10 finishes to his name even though, entering this week, he had only carded five rounds in the 60s in 35 rounds on the PGA TOUR.

The key to Pampling's success through three rounds this week? Putting. The two-time PGA TOUR winner entered the week ranked No. 138 on TOUR in Putting Average (1.820 putts per green in regulation). Through 54 holes, he is ranked No. 1 in the field with an average of 1.486.

Stephen Ames has had past success at Colonial with top-four finishes in 2006 and 2004. His final-round scoring average over the last five years at Colonial is 66.4.

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Chris DiMarco shot a bogey-free 65 Saturday.

Round No. of players Percent of players Thursday 33/125 players 26.4% Friday 48/124 players 38.7% Saturday 46/79 players 58.2%

Scoring Averages

Round Front 9 Back 9 Total Thursday 35.661 35.315 70.976 Friday 35.266 35.169 70.435 Saturday 34.646 34.316 68.962

Fort Worth resident Mark Brooks (tied for eighth) has not finished in the top five in a PGA TOUR event since a third-place finish at the 2002 Tampa Bay Classic. His last top-10 effort came at the 2005 EDS Byron Nelson Championship, where he finished tied for 10th.

Since finishing tied for 10th at last year's Buick Open and eventually earning a captain's pick on the victorious United States Presidents Cup team, Lucas Glover has only one top 10 to his name (a tie for sevent at the Verizon Heritage). Glover's third-round 65 was a pleasant surprise as he entered the week with back-to-back missed cuts in his last two events.

Tim Clark (fourth) is making his 12th start of the 2008 season this week and is still in search of his first top-10 finish of the year. This marks his longest top-10 drought to begin a PGA TOUR season since Clark became a full-time member in 2002.

Chris DiMarco recorded a bogey-free 65 on Saturday. The 65 is his best round since a 64 in the opening round of the 2007 Travelers Championship. Dimarco's second-round 69 and third-round 65 marks the first time he's shot two consecutive rounds in the 60s since he began the 2007 season at the FBR Open with matching 68s in the first and second rounds. DiMarco is looking for his first top-10 finish of the 2008 season. His last top-10 finish came at the 2007 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational (he tied for fourth).

Sean O'Hair eagled No. 18 from 82 yards away. It was the 14th eagle on the 18th hole in the last 61 years at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. The eagle capped a 4-under 66 for O'Hair, moving him to 2-under for the tournament and from a tie for 69th to a tie for 34th.

While no one expected first-round leader Johnson Wagner to struggle to a third-round 73 and fall from a tie for second to a tie for 28th, he entered the week ranked No. 193 on the PGA TOUR in Third-round scoring average (73.63).

Bogey-free rounds: Tim Clark (64), Stephen Ames (64), Chris DiMarco (65), Paul Goydos (66), Patrick Sheehan (67), and Mark Wilson (68).

A look at the number of players carding rounds in the 60s each day this week along with the percentage of the field that number represents:

The third-round average of 68.962 is the lowest single-round scoring average at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial since 1983, when the PGA TOUR began keeping such statistics.