The Live Report, Round 3: Arnold Palmer Invitational

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Sean O'Hair opened the third round with a three-stroke lead at Bay Hill, where he's looking for his first win of the year.

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Arnold Palmer Invitational

PGATOUR.COM's The Live Report is on the scene at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard and we'll provide updates all day long for each round, so check back often. (All timestamps are Eastern Time.) PGA TOUR Shot Tracker | Live Scoring | PGA TOUR Network | Facebook | Twitter

PAR WILL PLAY, SO WILL BOGEY (6:15 p.m.): Sean O'Hair appears to be in position to win for the third time in his PGA TOUR career as he takes the lead to Sunday, but you simply don't know out here. Especially when, at least today, over-par rounds actually moved you up the leaderboard.

Tiger Woods shot a 1-over 71, yet moved from fifth to third. Ditto Daniel Chopra, who was 2 over and moved up three spots to T10. A half-dozen others jumped 17 spots by shooting over par. In fact, 21 players that shot over par today actually improved their position. That's how absurd scoring was today. -- Brian Wacker

THE UGLY, UGLIER AND UGLIEST (5:45 p.m.): The Arnold Palmer Invitational has turned into the U.S. Open, just with a "hell of a lot wider fairways," as Tiger Woods put it yesterday. Only five players are under par today as the third round nears its conclusion. Woods isn't one of them, by the way, as he plays No. 18.

On the bright side, there were only two rounds of 80. Those belonged to Stuart Appleby and Mark Calcavecchia. Appleby was eight strokes worse today than yesterday, while Calc was only six worse.

Appleby had five bogeys, a double bogey and a snowman on the par-4 16th after he hit his tee shot into a hazard left, then his fifth shot into the water next to the green.

Calcavecchia's round, meanwhile, featured four bogeys, two doubles and a triple. The triple came on the infamous sixth hole, where he hit it into the water off the tee. -- Brian Wacker

MAHAN'S MESS (5:25 p.m.): Hunter Mahan was once just three shots off the lead today. Now, he's 12 back thanks to a bogey on No. 18 to close out a back-nine 40.

Mahan bogeyed four of his final five holes today. The one he didn't bogey? No. 17 -- which he double bogeyed after three putting from just inside 4 feet.

After taking just 10 putts on the front nine, Mahan took 16 putts on the back and plummeted down the leaderboard. That 40, by the way, came with a birdie on No. 12. Ouch. -- Brian Wacker

STAT OF THE DAY (5:05 p.m.): The crack research staff at NBC just flashed the most telling piece of information about today: Of the last six twosomes on the course today, only two players -- Sean O'Hair and Tiger Woods, who just moved up into a tie for second -- are under par. Collectively, the last six groups are 21 over on the day. -- Brian Wacker

ZACH ATTACK (4:50 p.m.): When Zach Johnson finished just after 4 p.m. on Saturday, the 68 he posted was one of just four rounds under par at Bay Hill.

He might have matched Brandt Snedeker for the day's low round, too, had Johnson not missed the fairway right at the 18th hole and made bogey. Still, he couldn't be unhappy with the round of five birdies and three bogeys that moved him to 1 under for the tournament.

Johnson

"Always sour ending the way that you do with a bogey, but at the same time I made some putts today and gave myself a lot of good opportunities to make some birdies and even salvage some pars," Johnson said. "All in all, I'm very pleased with the day and it puts me in position for tomorrow."

Survival was the key on Saturday, he was quick to add. " I'm not saying I should have shot 66 because I probably shouldn't have. But I could have shot 75 in a heartbeat."

Johnson, who won the 2007 Masters, thought tournament officials had put some water on the greens in anticipation of Saturday's brisk winds.

"So given that, you can hit quality shots and be rewarded," Johnson said. "At the same time, it's a position golf course now. It's plodding your way around -- hit the fairway, green and trying to two-putt most of the time. It's difficult. It's a great test.

"Par's a great number today."

So was that 68. -- Helen Ross

O'HAIR'S SWING (4:35 p.m.): Johnny Miller has a new favorite word -- "torquey." That's how he just described Sean O'Hair's swing.

Indeed. O'Hair is working with a new swing coach, Sean Foley, and has been able to create tremendous lag in his swing -- a la Sergio Garcia. That gives him tremendous power and given the mechanics of the rest of his swing, tremendous control. That's why he's been able to hit fairways and greens so often this week.

"It started in Canada of last year, started working on my setup and my leg action and then this off-season we really worked hard on my backswing and tried to get a little bit deeper, tried to change the arm plane and the shaft plane," O'Hair said yesterday.

Foley, who used to work with Stephen Ames, has known O'Hair for a while and when O'Hair felt it was time for a new coach, Foley was the first guy he called. The two have worked together ever since and obviously the move is paying off. -- Brian Wacker

LEADERBOARD CHECK (4:15): There are just two players among the top 10 on the leaderboard under par today. Leader Sean O'Hair isn't one of them. O'Hair just made his second bogey in his last four holes to make the turn at 1 over.

Tiger Woods isn't one of them either. Woods birdied No. 8 to get back to 1 over, but he's just three shots back.

The only players in the top 10 who are under par? Zach Johnson and Hunter Mahan. Both are 2 under. As a result, Mahan has climbed into a tie for second, while Johnson moved up 21 spots to T6. -- Brian Wacker

A sip of Maginnes

BATTLE OF HEADCOVERS (4:00 p.m.): When Ian Poulter unveiled a head cover of his likeness a couple of years ago it seemed a little creepy. The little stuffed Ian is complete with sun glasses, visor and a flop of blond hair popping out of the top. Ian is the cutting edge of fashion on the PGA TOUR, so quirkiness is to be expected. Not to be outdone, young Japanese phenom, Ryo Ishikawa has a head cover of his own. Ryo's headcover goes beyond the bobbing head of Ian's and is a complete doll with legs, arms and even a fashionable white belt around his little waist. Ryo came to the driving range this afternoon to put in a session after missing the cut on Friday. He brought a back-up driver to see if he could find a little magic. Interestingly enough, the back-up driver actually had Ian Poulter's likeness head cover on it. I noticed all of this because I had put a beverage in the cooler on the range. My diet beverage of choice is rarely available at golf tournaments, so I bring one or two in with me. When I went back to the cooler a short while later my drink was suspiciously gone. A quick look around and I realized that my bottle of diet soda was on the ground, right next to Ishikawa's head cover. The head cover undoubtedly stole my soda. I swear that for a moment that it was smirking at me. It better be careful or I will sick Jason Gore's gorilla head cover on the little guy. In his defense, Ishikawa didn't notice the exchange. -- John Maginnes

MAHAN'S MAGIC (3:40 p.m.): Hunter Mahan finished the front nine with 10 putts, but he lost ground when he double-bogeyed the ninth hole.

Mahan missed the fairway right there and had to chip back into the fairway. He didn't reach the green with his third shot, chipped up and two-putted from 12 feet to fall back to 3 under for the tournament and five strokes off the pace.

Hard to believe, but there are lots of players who have had fewer putts than Mahan over nine holes.

In addition to Utley's aforementioned six, Bill Nary (1952 El Paso Open) had seven. Jim Colbert (1967 Greater Jacksonville Open), Sam Trahan (1979 IVB Philadelphia Golf Classic), Bill Calfee (1980 Greater Greensboro Open), Kenny Knox (1989 MCI Heritage Golf Classic), John Inman (1994 MCI Heritage Golf Classic) and Tom Pernice Jr. 2005 FUNAI Classic at Walt Disney World Resort) each navigated nine holes with eight putts. -- Helen Ross

BOOM BOOM (3:20 p.m.): A sonic boom caught the fans and players at Bay Hill a tad unaware just after 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon as the space shuttle Discovery roared in for a landing at the Kennedy Space Center.

The noise sounded like a huge clap of thunder. The local NBC affiliate went to a split screen showing the action at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the white spaceship as it broke through the atmosphere and touched down about 60 miles away.

Tiger Woods was just about to tee off on the eighth hole when the noise reverberated through the course. Someone in the crowd yelled, "Wow, nice shot" to Woods' playing partner, Vaughn Taylor, as if his drive had caused the commotion.

Woods and Taylor had a laugh before the game's No. 1 player began to go through his pre-shot routine again. The timing might have been worse, though.

Discovery actually had been scheduled to land six minutes after Woods' and Taylor's scheduled 1:32 p.m. tee time. Wind conditions necessitated an extra orbit around the globe, though -- which took about 90 minutes. -- Helen Ross

KEY NUMBERS (3:00 p.m.): Two very important numbers on Sean O'Hair so far this week: first in the field in greens in regulation at 70.7 percent, fourth in putts per green in regulation at 1.655. That's a big reason, if not the biggest reason, why he's in the lead. So far, he's kept it up with nine putts -- and a birdie -- through five holes today. -- Brian Wacker

TIGER TIDBIT (2:45 p.m.): As dominant as Tiger Woods has been at Bay Hill, winning here five times, including four in a row from 2000-2003, he hasn't exactly dominated the weekends at Arnie's place, at least the last few years anyway.

Woods

Last year, Woods went 66-66 and capped the final round with that memorable 24-footer for birdie to win by one. That was his best weekend performance here by two strokes. In the four years prior to last season, however, Woods has failed to break 70 in the third round, shooting 70-71-74-74 over that span. His Sundays weren't any better with rounds of 76-72-72-73.

That said, winning any tournament five times is obviously pretty dominant and when Tiger's won here, he's done so with just two rounds of 70 or higher on the weekend. In 2002, he shot a third-round 74 before closing with a 69 and in 2000 he closed with a 70 after a 67 on Saturday.

What will he do today? So far, he's 1 over through five holes after opening with a bogey on No. 1. You can follow Woods' round live with Shot Tracker by clicking here. -- Brian Wacker

MAHAN MAKES A MOVE (2:30 p.m.): Hunter Mahan is having an unusual day. He's 3 under in his first four holes -- but he has only used two putts, and both of those came when he parred the third hole from 10 feet. Mahan chipped in from 37 feet at the first hole, 22 feet at the second and 51 feet at the fourth. He's now 5 under and three strokes off the lead held by Sean O'Hair.

Mahan

As interesting as Mahan's round has been, it doesn't look like one for the record books. He has five putts through six holes -- but the PGA TOUR nine-hole record is six by Stan Utley during the second round of the 2002 Air Canada Championship at Northview Golf & Country Club. Small wonder that Utley is now one of the game's foremost putting gurus. -- Helen Ross

ANOTHER DAY OF TOUGH SCORING (2:20 p.m.): If you've got five fingers on your hand -- or six in the case of pitcher Antonio Alfonseca -- then you can count the number of players currenty under par in today's third round. That's right, just five players are in the red right now. Three of them -- Jason Gore, Hunter Mahan and Zach Johnson -- are in the top 10. -- Brian Wacker

SINGH'S STRUGGLES (2:00 p.m.): Vijay Singh's season continues to be one filled with question marks. He shot a 7-over 77 today and is 11 over for the week, one spot out of last place at the moment after making the cut by a single stroke. He's also averaging 32.7 putts for the week and today posted four bogeys and two double bogeys.

Only once this season has Singh broken 70 -- in the first round of the World Golf Championships-CA Championship two weeks ago -- and seven times in 16 stroke-play rounds he's failed to break 73.

Has father time finally caught up to the PGA TOUR's most successful over-40 player? It certainly seems that way. He's 46 now and fought a slew of injuries late last year before having knee surgery earlier this year. About the only thing that is certain about Singh is no one will outwork him as he tries to regain his form. -- Brian Wacker

PERRY CLIMBING BOARD (1:40 p.m.): It looks like Kenny Perry has figured out the greens here at Bay Hill, at least for the moment. Perry's taken 13 putts through 9 holes today -- after a total of 30 and 27 in each of the first two rounds -- and is 2 under for the round with birdies at Nos. 5 and 7.

That has him at 1 under for the tournament and tied for eighth after starting the day T27, which should give you a pretty good idea of just how far an under-par round will go today. -- Brian Wacker

INSIDE THE NUMBERS (1:10 p.m.): Want another reason why Sean O'Hair is in the lead? He leads the field in scrambling, making par or better 11 of 12 times by leaving himself a number of short putts (4 feet on average). He's also a perfect 27-for-27 from inside 5 feet this week. -- Brian Wacker

BASKETBALL ON THE BRAIN (12:50 p.m.): The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament is on a lot of people's radar, especially on the PGA TOUR, where a number of avid sports fans reside. One of those is Stewart Cink, who watched last night's action at Chris DiMarco's house.

"Terrible games tonight. In fact the whole sweet 16 (except Pitt/Xav) have been blowouts," Cink said on his Twitter feed last night, twitter.com/stewartcink. Cink has really embraced Twitter by the way (so have we, as I insert shameless plug here: twitter.com/pgatour). -- Brian Wacker

O'HAIR IN THE LEAD (12:30 p.m.): With Sean O'Hair holding a three-shot lead as he gets set to tee off next hour, it's a good time to go inside the numbers on him.

This is the first time in O'Hair's PGA TOUR career that he's had the solo lead through two rounds -- he had a share of the lead through two rounds of the 2005 Byron Nelson Classic before ultimately finishing second.

One of the reasons he is in the lead is because, despite windy conditions all week, he's hit 20 of 28 fairways (T10 in the field) and when he has missed the fairway, it hasn't been by much -- just 6 feet, 9 inches.

Both of those are considerably better than his season averages prior to this week. Below are more numbers on O'Hair. -- Brian Wacker

TIGER ON THE GREEN (12:15 p.m.): Tiger Woods begins today five shots back and will tee off in a little over an hour from now, but he was busy working on the putting stroke here at Bay Hill, where he's trying to win for the sixth time.

"It's a U.S. Open type feel except for the fairways are a hell of a lot wider," Woods said after his 69 yesterday. "More than anything I think we haven't seen the greens repel like this before."

Woods has averaged just 24.5 putts through the first two rounds here, but that only ranks 27th in the field, which should tell you just how difficult things are this week. With the wind and the weather expected to pick up, that could be good news for Woods, who tends to play his best when conditions are toughest. He's going to need some of the players ahead of him to back up today, however. -- Brian Wacker

A sip of Maginnes

PERRY FEELING THE PAIN (11:40 a.m.): "I am going to need a strait jacket after this Florida Swing," Kenny Perry quipped on the putting green Saturday morning as the wind whipped through the palm fronds around Bay Hill. Kenny was referring to the difficulty of all the courses on the Florida swing before embarking on what could be the toughest day of the swing. The wind is blowing this Saturday morning and blowing hard. For guys like K.P., who starts the day at 1 over, a blustery Saturday presents a unique opportunity. Any red number could vault a guy from outside the top 25 into contention. On a day where you could lose a 4-year-old if you put a kite string in his hand, there will be more disaster than glory. Arnie's umbrella will blow inside-out today and so will the leaderboard. -- John Maginnes

STORM WATCH (11:30 a.m.): Due to the threat of storms overnight and Sunday morning, the decision has been made to move tee times for the final round back and utilize a two-tee start. Players will be sent off Nos. 1 and 10 in threesomes from approximately 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in hopes of finishing by 6 p.m. ET.

A strong cold front will move through central Florida Saturday night and Sunday morning that will push a line of showers and thunderstorms across the region. Some of the storms could be severe and have damaging winds. The skies should clear Sunday afternoon, though, and the temperatures will be in the mid- to high-70s. -- Helen Ross

EARLY ACTION (11:00 a.m.): If the early going is any indication, Bay Hill looks to present quite a challenge today. As of 10:50 a.m. ET, only two of the first 30 players on the golf course were under par for the day.

The winds are expected to increase -- coming out of the south at 10-15 mph with gusts to 30 by Noon -- and the temperatures will approach 90 degrees in the afternoon. -- Helen Ross

Groups We're Watching

Tee time Players   10:41 am ET No. 1 Chad Campbell, J.B. Holmes These two country boys have been sort of quiet so far this season. Can one of them climb into contention on Moving Day? Track 'em 12:29 pm ET No. 1 Charles Howell III, Scott Verplank "Charlie 3-Sticks" is in the middle of the pack with the flat stick this week, but leads the field in greens in regulation. Track 'em 1:23 pm ET No. 1 Lee Janzen, Nick Watney Janzen is again playing like a two-major champion. If he can cut out the back-nine bogeys, he can be right there. Track 'em

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