Sergio Garcia continued to tame the Firestone Country Club as he maintained his charge towards WGC-Bridgestone Invitational glory.
The Spaniard, who is in superb form having finished second in the Open Championship, produced a career best round in Akron yesterday when hitting a stunning 61.
And he was on song once more today, prospering either side of a delay spanning over three hours to enhance his chances of becoming the first European to win this competition since Darren Clarke in 2003.
While his effort did not feature the kind of fireworks produced yesterday, when eight birdies in the final nine holes contributed to a inward 27, a 67 moved Garcia to 14 under par overall.
He was, therefore, three shots ahead of nearest challenger Rory McIlroy, the man who beat him to the Claret Jug two weeks ago.
The Northern Irishman will head into Sunday brimming with confidence, though, having re-emerged from the interruption by birdying the final two holes.
With poor weather forecast, all of the players began earlier in a two tee start with some groups three strong.
Yet that had little impact on Garcia, who continued his untroubled progress by picking up three birdies on the front nine for an outward 32.
Having missed a six-footer which would have taken his birdie streak to eight on the first, he rediscovered the Midas touch.
A fine wedge set up a gain at the simple second before Garcia holed a12 footer at the tricky fourth to reach 13 under.
Not content, he picked up another on the sixth, his putter continuing to complement a typically impressive long game.
It was the latter that was to the fore at 11, with a stunning approach leaving the simplest of tap-ins.
A rare bogey undermined his effort at 14, yet Garcia still led by five shots when everybody was forced from the course.
The long delay certainly had an impact, with the 34 year old suddenly enduring some rare misses.
However, a couple of wonderful shots - particularly one out of the trees following an drive on 18 - created pars to complete another impressive round.
It was still one shot adrift of that produced by McIlroy, whose shadow looms large ahead of the finale.
Having also picked up shots on three of the opening nine holes, he was undermined by a bogey at the 12th.
But after struggling to get anything going on the way in, McIlroy produced the goods upon the resumption to leave himself in touching distance.
"I came here this week talking about wanting to just keeping the momentum going and not really dwell on The Open too much and keep moving forward and I have done that really well this week," McIlroy said. "I'm obviously really excited to give myself another chance to win a tournament tomorrow.
"I drove it great at the Open as well and have been driving it great all year and that's why my results have been pretty good. Driving is the foundation of my game and if it's good it seems like everything feeds down from there and I've never driven the ball better than I am right now."
Marc Leishman was a further three strokes back, one ahead of Adam Scott, Keegan Bradley and Justin Rose.
