Phil Mickelson battled the elements to open up a two-stroke lead at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions, but will have world number one Tiger Woods and fellow American Nick Watney for company in Sunday's highly-anticipated final round.

With reversed wind conditions changing the entire make-up of the course, 2007 champion Mickelson dropped just one shot in the third round for a five-under-par 67 - the only sub-70 score from the leading contenders.

While Woods' bid for a 17th WGC title faltered with a unproductive back nine which led to a two-under 70, Mickelson picked up three gains over his final five holes including a lead boosting birdie at the last to move to 14 under overall.

Watney, second round leader with Woods, also posted a battling 70, while Ryan Moore matched his playing partners to sit three behind the leader.

European order of merit leader Lee Westwood is also firmly in the hunt at 10 under following a sparkling seven-under-par 65 from the Englishman to break up the American dominated leaderboard.

"The weather was more difficult with the winds being stronger and from a different direction and I was pleased to shoot 67," said world number two Mickelson.

"I made more birdies, but I didn't make too many big mistakes. I had the bogey on nine, but kept the ball in play and took advantage of the other birdie holes.

"The course played kind of backwards with birdie holes being more difficult with the wind and holes which are normally the challenging pars were the birdie holes."

Left-handed Mickelson has an impressive 73 per cent conversion rate when leading heading into the final round, with his last coming as he edged out Watney to win a first WGC title at March's CA Championship.

And after being forced to play a right-handed shot in his final round at Doral, Mickelson sees it as a sign after a similar play from behind a tree in Shanghai salvaged a bogey, which accounted for only his second dropped shot of the week.

"I was up against a tree and took a pitching wedge and flipped it over and chipped out onto the fairway," he explained.

"I said to my caddy after I did that, I thought that was a good omen because I ended up winning at Doral having to hit a right-handed shot. I thought that might be a good omen even though it led to a bogey."

While Woods holds the advantage when the duo are paired together, Mickelson claimed the bragging rights in the final round of The Masters earlier this year although both will hope for better end results this week after Angel Cabrera walked away from Augusta with the green jacket.

Woods will need to rediscover the form which led to back-to-back opening rounds of 67.

"It was a little bit more difficult. I didn't putt as well as I did on the first two days. I didn't make as many putts and consequently I was three shots worse off," Woods said after Saturday's round.

"Nick and I have a chance and we are going to have to go out and obviously play well. For me to win the championship, I'm going to have to play well and make some putts."

Collated third round scores & totals in the WGC HSBC Champions, Sheshan International GC, Shanghai, China

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72)

202 Phil Mickelson (USA) 69 66 67

204 Nick Watney (USA) 64 70 70, Tiger Woods (USA) 67 67 70

205 Ryan Moore (USA) 66 69 70

206 Lee Westwood 70 71 65

208 Anthony Kim (USA) 67 69 72, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 68 70 70

209 Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 72 67 70, Ernie Els (Rsa) 70 71 68, Wen-Tang Lin (Tpe) 67 72 70, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 66 74 69

210 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 73 67 70, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 71 71 68, Brian Gay (USA) 69 69 72, Paul Casey 67 73 70, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 71 69 70

211 Koumei Oda (Jpn) 70 69 72, Rory McIlroy 73 68 70, Shane Lowry 66 74 71, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 72 74 65, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 69 66 76

212 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 72 71, Pat Perez (USA) 68 69 75, Ross Fisher 70 70 72, Alexander Noren (Swe) 70 71 71, Robert Allenby (Aus) 73 69 70, Camilo Villegas (Col) 70 69 73, Matt Kuchar (USA) 68 72 72

213 Jason Dufner (USA) 69 71 73, Simon Dyson 72 69 72

214 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 75 70 69

215 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 73 72 70, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 74 71 70, James Kingston (Rsa) 70 70 75, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 71 74 70, Daisuke Maruyama (Jpn) 72 69 74, Padraig Harrington 74 69 72, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 69 72 74

216 Rodney Pampling (Aus) 69 72 75, Oliver Wilson 71 72 73, Mark Brown (Nzl) 71 74 71

217 Garth Mulroy (Rsa) 69 72 76, Yuta Ikeda (Jpn) 73 73 71, Scott Strange (Aus) 71 72 74

218 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 74 68 76, Yong-eun Yang (Kor) 72 71 75, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 73 73 72

219 Peter Hanson (Swe) 72 72 75, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 72 74 73, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 73 73 73, Martin Laird 72 74 73, Greg Chalmers (Aus) 72 74 73, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 74 73 72

220 Jerry Kelly (USA) 71 75 74, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 81 69 70, Ian Poulter 72 69 79, Stewart Cink (USA) 71 74 75, Chih-bing Lam (Sin) 71 74 75, Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 75 68 77

221 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 73 77 71, Danny Lee (Nzl) 74 71 76, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 76 72 73, Steve Marino (USA) 77 70 74, Sean O'Hair (USA) 74 71 76, C Muniyappa (Ind) 74 69 78

222 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 74 74 74

223 Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 73 70 80

224 Nick Dougherty 68 80 76, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 77 71 76

225 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 74 78 73

226 Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 74 76 76, Mark Murless (Rsa) 71 76 79, Thomas Levet (Fra) 77 77 72

227 Anthony Kang (USA) 75 76 76, Wei-Huang Wu (Chn) 74 78 75

228 Nathan Green (Aus) 79 77 72, Jean Hugo (Rsa) 78 76 74, Ashun Wu (Chn) 74 71 83