Golf/PGA Tour: Stuart Appleby reclaimed the lead at the PGA Tour season-opening Mercedes Championships at The Plantation Course Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii on Saturday after shooting a seven-under-par 66 in the third round for a 199 total.
The Australian, who held the first-round lead, is at 20-under par, two ahead of Fiji's Vijay Singh, who shot 64 on Friday to take the second-round lead and followed it up with a four-under 69.
South Africa's Retief Goosen shot the day's low round, a nine-under-par 64 to leap up to third place at 15-under-par.
One shot back is Ireland's Darren Clarke, who made an eagle from 192 yards on the par-four 17th to highlight a 69.
World number one Tiger Woods finally broke 70, shooting an eight-under-par 65 and moved within seven shots of the lead at 13-under-par.
Defending champion Ernie Els registered his second even-par 73 and trails back in 23rd place in the 30-player field at three-under-par.
After a four-year absence at the Mercedes Championships, the 32-year-old Appleby has played some of his finest golf through 54 holes, minimising mistakes and capitalising on good shots.
"I played solid golf through basically all three days. Really nothing much different, I'm sorry to say." In what could only be described as a content, almost docile approach, Appleby has spent the first three rounds doing nothing more than executing shots and paying no attention to the rest of the field or his position on the leaderboard.
After Singh took the second-round lead with a 64, Appleby was unruffled.
"I'll just be going out, doing what I'm doing," said Appleby. "I can't really do anything else but that. That's certainly working for me. Get the golfing gods on my side. What everyone else does is up to them."
With Singh, Goosen and Woods bunched up behind him, Appleby is staring down at a trio that has combined to win 11 major championships.
Working in Appleby's favour is the fact he has registered two of his four PGA victories when leading with 18 holes remaining - the 1997 Honda Classic and the 2003 Las Vegas Invitational.
Appleby has averaged 26.3 putts per round and made 25 birdies to only five bogeys this week.
THIRD ROUND (USA unless stated, par 73)
199 - S Appleby (Au) 66 67 66
201 - V Singh (Fj) 68 64 69
204 - R Goosen (Za) 70 70 64
205 - D Clarke (NI) 67 69 69
206 - T Woods 71 70 65
208 - S Hoch 68 71 69, K Triplett 68 69 71
209 - J Furyk 70 71 68, D Love III 69 71 69
210 - S Micheel 70 71 69, JL Lewis 70 71 69, J Kaye 74 70 66
211 - B Crane 71 74 66, A Scott (Au) 69 74 68
212 - J Huston 69 72 71, J Leonard 68 73 71, K Perry 73 71 68, C Campbell 71 76 65
213 - F Couples 69 72 72, S Maruyama (Jp) 69 72 72
214 - P Jacobsen 70 71 73, M Weir (Ca) 71 70 73 216 - E Els (Za) 73 70 73
217 - S Flesch 73 72 72, T Armour 73 71 73 219 - F Lickliter II 73 76 70, C Stadler 73 78 68 221 - R Sabbatini (Za) 73 74 74 222 - B Tway 76 74 72 223 - B Curtis 73 80 70.
