Furyk in control of PGA Tour event

PALM HARBOR, Fla. --- Jim Furyk has gone 58 tournaments over 32 months without winning on the PGA Tour. That doesn't make the final round of the Transitions Championship any more important than it would have been in good times.

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"It's not really, 'I want to show you' or anything like that," Furyk said after shooting 4-under-par 67 to open a three-shot lead. "It's more that I just want to win a golf tournament."

Furyk has heard one question -- "What has kept you from winning?" -- far too often since his victory in the 2007 Canadian Open. With a round as flawless as the spring weather in Florida, he put himself in great position to answer it. He made consecutive birdies early on the back nine, and kept bogeys off his card for his first 54-hole lead in nearly three years.

Pressure? No more than usual.

"It's not really a monkey-off-my-back perspective or 'Boy, I can't wait to not answer that question again,' " Furyk said. "It's just that I want to go out and win a golf tournament. That's what we play golf for. That's what I practice hard for. And I haven't been able to do that in over 21/2 years.

"It's disappointing, because I work pretty hard at it."

Furyk was at 11-under 202, with a strong group of contenders behind him.

Defending champion Retief Goosen birdied the last hole of a roller-coaster round that gave him 1-under 70, part of four-way tie for second. The others at 8-under 205 were two past champions at Innisbrook -- K.J. Choi (67) and Carl Pettersson (70) -- and Bubba Watson, who has never won on tour. He scrambled for 70.

Padraig Harrington, a three-time major champion who hasn't won since the 2008 PGA Championship, went 14 holes without a birdie to fall out of the lead, then dropped another shot on the 18th hole for 72 that left him four shots behind.

None of them felt like they were out of it.

"It's obviously only one person, so that's not so bad," Harrington said. "I don't want to give Jim a four-shot lead over a four-round tournament, let alone one round. There's enough guys behind that somebody is going to shoot a good score and put some pressure on him. Hopefully it's me."

Furyk last had a 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour at Colonial in 2007, when he lost in a playoff to Rory Sabbatini.

There have been times when he let tournaments get away down the stretch, and times when he was beaten, such as the Memorial last year when he was three shots better than everyone in the field except one guy -- Tiger Woods -- who won by a shot.

Today might be his best chance.

The few times when Furyk made a mistake, such as missing the green on the par-3 fourth, he made up for it with his putting. Later in the warm afternoon, when he was giving himself so many birdie chances, he had to settle for par.

The turning point came early on the back nine.

Four players had at least a share of the lead at some point, and eight players were within range until Furyk hit a 3-wood just left of the green on the par-5 11th and chipped to 4 feet for birdie. On the next hole, he hit 7-iron to some 35 feet behind the flag, and poured in a long, slippery put that broke sharply to the cup.

Suddenly, he was three shots clear and his prospects were looking up.

Not so for Pettersson, who closed out the front nine with consecutive bogeys, or Steve Stricker, who was tied for the lead until hitting his tee shot in the water on the par-3 13th and scrambling for bogey. Stricker dropped another shot on a par 3 coming in for 71, and wound up five shots behind.

EUROPEAN TOUR: In Rabat, Morocco, Louis Oosthuizen shot 9-under-par 64 to take a two-stroke lead over Rhys Davies after the third round of the Trophee Hassan II.

Oosthuizen had five birdies on the front nine and five more on the back to go with a single bogey on No. 17. Overnight leader Davies had seven birdies in his round of 68.

"I felt like I hit the ball well. I hit it farther with most of my clubs and my putting was good again," said Oosthuizen, who is chasing his first European Tour win. "Nice to have 10 birdies on my card, that doesn't happen every day."

Frenchman Thomas Levet and South Africa's Thomas Aiken were four strokes behind Oosthuizen, who headed into today's final round on the Royal Golf Dar Es Salam course at 20-under 198.

Ignacio Garrido had 69 to finish the day one stroke behind Aiken and Levet, while Danny Willett matched Oosthuizen's 64 to climb up the leaderboard to one shot behind Garrido.