American Nick Watney birdied five of his first seven holes to snatch the outright lead midway through the US PGA Championship third round Saturday. Watney drained a series of huge putts to reach 12 under par and open a four-shot lead before he dropped a stroke with a bogey at the eighth hole and the chasers started closing on. American Dustin Johnson and German Martin Kaymer cut the margin to two strokes to share second place on an increasingly congested leaderboard at Whistling Straits. Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy and American Jim Furyk were among a group of four players at eight-under while another five, including second-round leader Matt Kuchar, were a further shot back. After a late surge to survive the halfway cut, Tiger Woods slipped back to nine shots off the lead with four holes left to play. He was tied in 42nd place with US Masters champion Phil Mickelson, who needed to finish in the top four to take over as the new world number one. American Tom Lehman, this year's Senior PGA champion, produced the shot of the day when he aced the 17th, the 51-year-old holing his tee shot before jubilantly high-fiving playing partners Darren Clarke and Troy Matteson. More than 50 players were under par approaching the end of the third round as conditions eased despite half the 156 starters being forced to complete their seconds rounds on Saturday after almost six hours were lost on the first two days. In an attempt to make up for lost time, tournament officials ordered that the third round be played in groups of three off front and back tees. The winners of the last two majors, South Africa's British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and Northern Ireland's US Open winner Graeme McDowell, both missed the cut. Last year's PGA winner, South Korean Yang Yong-eun, also made an early exit, along with the 2008 champion Padraig Harrington, who double-bogeyed the last hole to jeopardise his chances of making the European Ryder Cup team. “I have done everything I can now, and there is nothing more I can do,” Harrington said. “My majors have been poor this year but everything else has been good.” Saturday was the first time that the day's action got off on time. There have been a total of nearly six hours in fog delays followed by strong winds and rain during much of Friday's play. A total of 72 players made the cut and the abbreviated weekend field began round three in threesomes Saturday off the first and 10th tees to try and make up for lost time.
