Veterans Verplank, Ames share lead at Disney World

For years, PGA Tour players at Disney was a guarantee that birdies would fall as often as the whistle blows across the street at Thunder Mountain.

Stephen Ames gladly would have settled for a few pars Saturday afternoon at Lake Buena Vista, Fla..

Brett Wetterich could have lived with a bogey.

After so much volatility on the leaderboard, the final holes on the Magnolia Course turned into a grind at the Children's Miracle Network Classic, and Scott Verplank made 3 pars that allowed him to surge into a tie for the lead with Ames.

"They're hard holes now, not that there's anything wrong with that," Verplank said after a steady 71. "But they don't fit the rest of the golf course because of that. Those are difficult holes just to make pars on. I can see that scenario becoming more common around here, versus having to birdie the last three holes."

Ames had the largest lead of the day at 2 shots before 3-putt bogeys from 60 feet on No. 16 and just off the green from 70 feet on the 18th. He finished with a 70 to join Verplank at 13-under 203.

The biggest blunder, and most unusual, belonged to Wetterich.

He was 1 shot behind Ames when he reached the 18th, where he pulled his tee shot into a hazard. He took a club to figure out if he had a shot, but during his pre-shot waggles, inadvertently moved a twig. He was given a 2-stroke penalty for moving a loose impediment in a hazard, then took a third penalty shot with his drop. He wound up with a triple bogey for 72 and was 3 shots behind.

Wetterich walked off the course without speaking to reporters or a PGA Tour official.

Once he cools down, he might realize he still has a chance.

Then again, so does everyone else.

"There's got to be 30 guys that have a chance to win," Verplank said.

Verplank and Ames had a 1-shot lead over five players, including Justin Leonard (70) and longshot Tag Ridings (71), who is No. 210 on the money list and must win to secure his job for next year.

Two dozen players were separated by 4 shots going into the final round of the last PGA Tour event of the year.

"If you play steady tomorrow, you'll have some birdie opportunities and be at the top of the board at the end of the day," Ames said.

He played better than most, riding consecutive birdies on the 13th and 14th holes to a two-shot lead before his approach shots went to the opposite end of the green from where the flag was whipping in the wind.

That's no disgrace on the Magnolia Course, at least not anymore.

The final three holes measure 451 yards, 489 yards and 473 yards, and the soggy conditions for a week of rain made it play even longer. Leonard hit 4-iron for his second shot on all three of them, dropping one shot but still staying in the picture as he tries to win for the second time or at worst qualify for the Masters.

"It wasn't an easy day," Leonard said. "If you could shoot a couple under, you knew you weren't going to lose ground."

LPGA Mizuno Classic: Laura Davies was penalized 2 strokes for putting from the wrong place, a penalty that dropped the 44-year-old English star into a tie for the lead with Momoko Ueda in the Mizuno Classic at Shima, Japan.

The penalty led to a double bogey on the par-4 14th, and Davies settled for an even-par 72 and a tie with Ueda (67) at 7-under 137. American Reilley Rankin (72), Sweden's Maria Hjorth (68) and Japan's Mie Nakata (70) were 1 stroke back.

LPGA Tour vice president Doug Brecht explained the ruling on the putt, citing rule 20-7. He said Davies marked her ball and was then asked to move her mark because it was in a competitor's line. He said Davies forgot to move her mark back and putted from the spot to which she had moved her mark.

Volvo Masters: England's Justin Rose shot an even-par 71 to take a 4-stroke lead over European Order of Merit rival Padraig Harrington and countryman Simon Dyson after the third round of the Volvo Masters at Sotogrande, Spain.

Rose had a 4-under 209 total on the Valderrama course, Harrington shot a 71, and Dyson had a 71.

Ernie Els tops the money list, $313,892 ahead of Harrington, but skipped the tournament to play in Singapore. Harrington, who won last year's Order of Merit title at this event, leads Rose by $948.