Singh shakes off bogeyman as Duval's charge falters

The Masters champion, Vijay Singh, shot a bogey-free five-under-par 65 to remain level with Tiger Woods after three rounds at the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Saturday. Woods shot a 66 to stand with Singh on 200, 10 under par.

The Masters champion, Vijay Singh, shot a bogey-free five-under-par 65 to remain level with Tiger Woods after three rounds at the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Saturday. Woods shot a 66 to stand with Singh on 200, 10 under par.

David Duval, who held a one-shot lead over Woods heading into the third round, stumbled to a four-over 74 for 207 and a tie for ninth place, seven strokes behind the joint leaders. Phil Mickelson also shot 65 to sit a stroke off the pace with a nine-under par 201. Ernie Els, who carded 66, was another two behind at 204. Nick Price of Zimbabwe, the Australian Stuart Appleby and David Toms were all at four under.

Woods looked like he was going to leave the field behind, with birdies on three of the first four holes, but then his troubles began. He put a nine-iron over the green and missed a six-footer to bogey the fifth, and after tapping in for birdie on the sixth, he hit a tree and missed an eight -foot putt to bogey the seventh.

He then came out of the up-and-down stretch on the eighth, lofting a sand wedge to 10 feet and rolling it in for a birdie. "No doubt about it, today was one of those days where I didn't feel like I was hitting the ball well," Woods said. "But it was good enough where I was in play initially on the front nine. Then from there I felt pretty good with my irons. I just needed to get the ball in play. That was the struggle all week, actually."

Woods said both he and Duval, his playing partner, hit a lot of "borderline shots". But the 24-year-old again showed his familiar deadly form.

"I think David had one of those days where shots that he hit that were borderline ended up terrible," he said. "I was the exact opposite. Hit some borderline shots; ended up great."

In New Delhi, England's Simon Dyson hit a closing-round of 67 but had to settle for second best as his playing partner, Arjun Atwal of India, won the Hero Masters in New Delhi by two shots.

Dyson, who played his last 42 holes without a bogey, finished runner-up for the second week in a row but had the satisfaction of dislodging Yeh Wei-tze, of Taiwan, from the top of the Davidoff Tour Order of Merit.

In Cuba, Sweden's Henrik Stenson is on course to win the Challenge Tour Order of Merit when he completes the final round of the Grand Final today.

Stenson leads on 15-under-par and his closest rival is the Surrey-based Scot Andrew Raitt who, after a 67, needs to finish no worse than runner-up to secure his Tour card for next year.