Sergio Garcia is setting a blistering final round pace as he bids to catch leader Ben Curtis at the US PGA Championship.
The Spaniard, who started his final round barely two hours after taking his 54-hole tally to one over, has since stormed to three under par through eight holes.
It leaves him just one stroke off Ben Curtis, the 2003 winner of the Open Championship who has collected two strokes from seven holes, while Henrik Stenson is third on two under.
Padraig Harrington started the round three shots off the lead on one over, but, despite collecting a stroke from his first eight holes, is now four adrift.
Playing in three-man groups and with the back markers starting on the tenth tee to try and get back on schedule after losing half the day’s play to rain on Saturday, Curtis got off to a great start as playing partners J B Holmes and Stenson both found the trees to the left off the first tee.
Holmes’s chances all but imploded there and then as he tried to punch the ball out from under a low-branched pine, only to advance it a couple of yards and take a penalty drop.
Holmes, the 36-hole leader, took a triple-bogey seven, Stenson managed to get up and down for par but Curtis patiently took a birdie to go to three under.
Garcia and Harrington were playing together with Charlie Wi - all three started at one over par - with the Open champion making par and his two partners going to level par overall with birdies.
Garcia closed the gap on the par five second with an eagle to move to within a shot of Curtis and had a chance to move level with the American with a brilliant recovery shot at the seventh after driving wide right.
In gusting winds and increasingly heavy rainfall Garcia buried the birdie putt to move to three under after six with Curtis having played five alongside Stenson, who had birdied the second to move to one under.
Harrington, who had bogeyed the fifth, got back to level for the tournament with a birdie at six, while Curtis later birdied the same hole to go to four under.
Elsewhere, Jeev Milkha Singh is one over par after claiming a stroke from his front nine, while America’s Phil Mickelson is on three over. Andres Romero has dropped a shot from nine holes to go three over.
