By Leonard Shapiro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 13, 2007

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla., May 12 -- With sublime scoring conditions of high heat and barely a puff of a breeze, TPC Sawgrass transformed from vicious to vulnerable in Saturday's third round of the 34th Players Championship. Sean O'Hair took full advantage with birdies on his final three holes to take the 54-hole lead, and Phil Mickelson rode three birdies in his first four holes and two more on his last three to pull within a stroke and join the 24-year-old in the final pairing Sunday.

O'Hair, who turned professional after his junior year in high school, posted a 6-under-par 66 that included a five-foot birdie putt at the island green 17th hole after he struck a tee shot he initially thought was going to carry over the green and into the water. At the 462-yard 18th, he made a 12-footer for the eighth birdie on his card and came in at 9-under 207, good for a one-shot advantage over Mickelson (69--208), who also birdied 18 with a 9-iron that stopped two feet from the cup for a kick-in three.

O'Hair has been estranged from his father, Marc, for several years, a split caused by his father's unusually harsh approach when he coached him as a teenager. His father-in-law, Steve Lucas, has caddied for him on and off since his rookie year and has been back on the bag the last two months after O'Hair missed the cut in five of his first six events of the season. He hasn't missed a cut since.

"He's the in-law, sometimes he's the outlaw, and we have our moments," O'Hair said. "But I've got a great support group -- my wife, my kids, my in-laws. I've got a lot of good people behind me. . . . It's unfortunate my father and I are in the situation we're in. But it's not like I'm playing in spite of my father. I play golf because I love it."

Mickelson had a long morning session at the practice range with his new swing instructor, Butch Harmon, a day after he found only six fairways in his erratic second round. Whatever they worked on -- mostly shortening Mickelson's backswing -- clearly kicked in at the start of a sun-splashed afternoon when he hit the first five fairways he played.

Mickelson hit nine fairways this day (and was in the first cut twice) after hitting only 11 in his first two rounds, though he didn't make a back-nine birdie until the 523-yard 16th, when he two-putted from 30 feet to get to 7 under. He flirted with the water down the left side on his tee shot at 18, but his 9-iron to the green was practically perfect, leaving him closer to the hole than anyone else in the field.

"It allowed me to be more aggressive and try to make some birdies," Mickelson said of his newfound driving accuracy. "I hit a lot of good shots. I'll take 3 under par. I would have liked to have gone lower . . . but I was able to finish strong."

With benign conditions, balls were flying from fairways toward flagsticks all over the property, and some were even finding the hole.

Australian Peter Lonard made a rare double eagle at the 532-yard No. 2 when his 5-iron from 227 yards out hit the front of the green and rolled 40 feet into the cup. It was only the second "albatross" in tournament history, and Lonard held a share of the lead with O'Hair until a wayward tee shot at the 18th led to a bogey that left him tied for third with rookie Jeff Quinney, in with the week's best score, a 64 and 7-under 209.

A few minutes after the double eagle, another Aussie, Aaron Baddeley, holed out a wedge from 71 yards at the 583-yard No. 9, posting the first eagle on that brutish hole since the 2002 tournament. Baddeley shot 67 and was at 5-under 211 in a five-way tie for fifth place.

Quinney's 64 was a shot off the course record held by Greg Norman and Fred Couples, and vaulted him up the leader board in his first Players appearance after missing the cut in his last four events.

Last week at the Wachovia Championship, he couldn't break 80 in either of his two rounds, but on Saturday he had eight birdies on his card, including a holed out bunker shot at the 15th on a stretch of three straight back-nine birdies.

"You're just at ease," he said of his mind-set. "You just don't notice the surroundings, you're just kind of in another place. You don't think about score. At times, I was like, 'I don't know how many under par I am right now.'

"I'm just going to the next shot, the next hole. I basically know I'm going to hit a good shot. I'm not looking where the trouble is. I'm just worried about what can go the right way. I was just able to really stay calm."

Tiger Woods was not. The No. 1 player in the world had another frazzling day, spraying his driver left and right and again failing to figure out the new greens that have vexed him all week. After signing his scorecard, he blew past several members of the media and had no comment on his round of 73 that put him at 5-over 221, leaving him 14 shots off the lead.

Woods missed eight fairways, none worse than his drive at the 442-yard No. 7 that went dead left and splashed in a water hazard. His third shot found a bunker, and a blast from the sand and two putts from 15 feet cost him his first double bogey of the tournament. He followed that by missing the green at the 237-yard No. 8, chipping to 15 feet and botching that par putt as well.

After a front-nine 39, Woods steadied himself with birdies at both back-nine par 5 holes, the 11th and 16th, and had seven pars, but his goal of getting back to even par for the tournament never came close to being fulfilled.

His playing partner, Sweden's Henrik Stenson, had a far better round, posting a 66, with a 10-foot eagle putt dropping at the 523-yard 16th, that left him at 2-under 214 for the week. He had a front-row seat for Woods's continuing problems, and clearly sympathized with the top player in the world.

"He was struggling, having a rough day," Stenson said. "Of course he's frustrated. But he's allowed to have a bad week as well. I don't think everybody realizes that he's human. A lot of times he doesn't seem to be.

"He's allowed to have a bad week or a bad spell, like everybody else. . . . It's kind of hard to get a good score going if the putts don't drop and you hit a couple of bad ones."