Furyk holds narrow lead

Jim Furyk managed to hold on to the lead on day three of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, but Louis Oosthuizen is just one shot behind.

Furyk was five strokes clear at one stage during his round but it was cut to just one at the finish after only managing to go round the Akron course in level par to remain on 11 under overall.

Oosthuizen moved into second place with three birdies in his last 10 holes after he had bogeyed the par-four eighth, while Keegan Bradley was a further three shots back in third.

American Furyk, who followed up a magnificent opening round of 63 with a four-under 66 at the Firestone CC (South Course) to open up a two-stroke lead, was rather more subdued in his third round.

He picked up just the one birdie at the par-five second to move to 12 under but fell back after dropping a shot at the par-three 13th.

His closest challenger overnight had been Rafael Cabrera Bello but the Spaniard saw his chances of victory evaporate after an horrendous seven-over-par 77 that drops him back to two under.

It was therefore left to 2010 Open champion Oosthuizen, who has dropped just three shots in Ohio this week, to close the gap on Furyk.

Bradley has a chance of catching the frontrunners after his three-under-par 67.

Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy was a shot further back in a tie for fourth overall alongside Steve Stricker of the United States.

Justin Rose's round of 66 put him on five under alongside Bo Van Pelt and John Senden, while world number one Luke Donald and Jason Dufner were a

further shot adrift.

Furyk felt conditions were a little tougher compared to previous days, saying: "We had a little bit more wind going on, the greens firmed up a little bit, and I just felt like it was a lot harder to get iron shots close to the pin."

McIlroy was also in optimistic mood after his round as he feels his confidence starting to return after a disappointing few months in which he missed the cut at three of his five tournaments before finishing joint 60th at The Open last month.

"Yeah, it's getting there, it definitely is.

I've worked hard to get it back. Obviously my expectations every time I tee it up are pretty high, and not to live up to my own expectations is not nice, but I feel like I'm definitely moving in the right direction," said the world number three.

Further down the field, Tiger Woods, who was seeking to win the tournament for a record-equalling eighth time, carded a two-under-par 68 - his best round this week - to move to level par for the event.

His fellow American Phil Mickelson was three over after a 73 while Open champion Ernie Els moved to four over after a 68.

Lee Westwood was 11 over after a nightmare 81 that included 10 bogies and a double-bogey, with just the one birdie.

Tee times for the final round have been moved forward with thunderstorms expected to move into the area in the early hours of Sunday.

Collated third round scores & totals in the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational, Firestone CC, Akron, Ohio, United States of America

(Par: 70)

199 Jim Furyk (USA) 63 66 70

200 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 67 65 68

203 Keegan Bradley (USA) 67 69 67

204 Steve Stricker (USA) 68 68 68, Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 70 67 67

205 Justin Rose (Eng) 70 69 66, John Senden (Aus) 66 70 69, Bo Van Pelt (USA) 70 69 66

206 Jason Dufner (USA) 67 66 73, Luke Donald (Eng) 66 69 71

207 Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 70 67 70, Simon Dyson (Eng) 66 71 70

208 K.t. Kim (Kor) 67 67 74, David Toms (USA) 68 67 73, Branden Grace (Rsa) 72 70 66, Lee Slattery (Eng) 65 71 72, Bill Haas (USA) 67 71 70, Martin Laird (Sco) 68 72 68, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 67 70 71, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 66 65 77

209 Zach Johnson (USA) 68 73 68, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 67 70 72, Scott Piercy (USA) 69 70 70

210 Dustin Johnson (USA) 69 68 73, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 73 66 71, Tiger Woods (USA) 70 72 68, Kyle Stanley (USA) 69 73 68, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 67 72 71, K J Choi (Kor) 71 72 67, Matt Kuchar (USA) 70 70 70

211 Nick Watney (USA) 69 70 72, Bubba Watson (USA) 66 73 72, Brandt Snedeker (USA) 71 70 70

212 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 67 72 73, Adam Scott (Aus) 71 70 71, Marc Leishman (Aus) 70 72 70, Ian Poulter (Eng) 74 69 69, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 68 72 72

213 Phil Mickelson (USA) 71 69 73, Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 71 72 70, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 74 70 69, Johnson Wagner (USA) 71 74 68, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 70 71 72

214 Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 72 66 76, Paul Lawrie (Sco) 72 68 74, Ernie Els (Rsa) 73 73 68, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 71 73 70, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 69 71 74

215 Peter Hanson (Swe) 73 71 71, Jason Day (Aus) 75 70 70, Hunter Mahan (USA) 73 73 69, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 70 74, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 73 68 74, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 70 71 74, Jonathan Byrd (USA) 73 73 69

216 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 69 75 72, Jamie Donaldson (Wal) 68 73 75, Mark Wilson (USA) 72 71 73

217 Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 71 73 73, Toshinori Muto (Jpn) 73 71 73, Greg Chalmers (Aus) 71 75 71, Marcel Siem (Ger) 76 71 70

218 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 73 74 71, Yoshinori Fujimoto (Jpn) 73 74 71

219 Ted Potter, Jr. (USA) 72 72 75, Danny Willett (Eng) 72 74 73, Rickie Fowler (USA) 70 80 69

220 Kevin Na (USA) 72 76 72, Joost Luiten (Ned) 72 71 77

221 Lee Westwood (Eng) 68 72 81

222 Robert Rock (Eng) 76 72 74

223 Michael Hoey (NIrl) 78 75 70

224 Robert Allenby (Aus) 73 79 72

225 Oliver Bekker (Rsa) 77 72 76

228 Tom Lewis (Eng) 78 76 74