Michael Sim (65) shoots lowest third round in Aussie

PGA championship as Robert Allenby takes lead

Robert Allenby sank a 10ft birdie putt on the 18th hole to complete a 5-under-par 66 today and take a one-stroke lead after three rounds of the Australian PGA championship at Coolum, Queensland.
The Australian, who won last week's Nedbank Challenge in South Africa, had a 54-hole total of 9-under 204 on the par-71 Hyatt Regency resort course.
Australians Scott Strange (68) and Greg Chalmers (67) were a stroke back.
Aberdeen-born Michael Sim, who had six birdies on the back nine for a 65, the best round of the day, was tied for fourth with last week's Australian Open winner Adam Scott (68) and defending champion Geoff Ogilvy (70), two strokes off the lead.
"I played pretty solid all day," said Allenby. "It could have been better, but it should be quite a finish tomorrow with that leaderboard."
Ogilvy, a former U.S. Open winner, agreed.
"There are five or six guys who could go five or six under tomorrow, and someone probably will," said Ogilvy. "I've never successfully defended a tournament, so it would be nice to do it Sunday."
Most of the buzz on and off the course came from news that Tiger Woods would take an indefinite break from the game because of his ongoing martial problems and admission of infidelity.
John Daly, who shot 72 Saturday and was nine strokes off the lead, said he hopes the tour gets him back soon.
"He is trying to save his marriage," said Daly, who has had his share of marital problems and issues off the course. "My advice to him last week was that he should have come out a lot earlier ... told the truth, got it all out on the table."
Paul Gow of Australia shot a third-round 73, not bad for a guy who didn't think he had made the cut. He flew back to Sydney -- a 90-minute trip -- from Coolum on Saturday afternoon after finishing with at 4-over and seeing the projected cut was 1-over.
But the cut remarkably blew out to 4-over, so Gow had to catch a later flight from Sydney for the 600-mile trip north.
"What an idiot," said Gow. "We even got back in the same [hotel] room. Got back here just before 10 p.m., so it wasn't bad as I was actually in bed and asleep in time."

THIRD-ROUND LEADERBOARD
Par 213 (3x71)
204 Robert Allenby 70 68 66.
205 Greg Chalmers 68 70 67, Scott Strange 67 70 68.
206 Geoff Ogilvy 70 66 70, Adam Scott 68 70 68, Michael Sim 71 70 65.
207 Marc Leishman 70 71 66, John Senden 73 67 67.
208 Cameron Percy 72 69 67, Matthew Griffin 67 68 73
209 Steve Marino (US) 70 73 66, Shin-Ching Chan (Tpe) 68 70 71, Michael Curtain 73 65 71, Nick O'Hern 70 70 69, Stuart Appleby 67 69 73, Josh Geary (Nzl) 70 73 66.
210 Chris Campbell 72 67 71, Scott Laycock 76 66 68, Aron Price 74 69 67, Stephen Leaney 71 70 69, Michael Wright 71 69 70, Brett Rumford 70 70 70, Min-kyu Han (Kor) 62 75 73, Mathew Goggin 70 72 68, Stephen Dartnell 68 73 69, Anthony Brown 71 71 68, Paul Sheehan 73 68 69
211 Marcus Both 70 72 69, Andrew Dodt 67 73 71, Brad Kennedy 76 66 69
212 Rodney Pampling 73 69 70, Mahal Pearce (Nzl) 73 70 69, Kyle Stanley (US) 71 71 70, Tim Wilkinson (Nzl) 68 71 73, Adam Crawford 71 71 70, Jason Norris 69 67 76, Jarrod Lyle 70 73 69, Richard Green 71 70 71, Bryce Molder (US) 73 69 70, Gavin Flint 71 71 70
213 John Daly (US) 71 70 72, Henry Epstein 67 74 72
214 Paul Marantz 69 72 73, Scott Barr 74 70 70, Matthew Millar 71 73 70, Heath Reed 70 75 69
215 Leigh Mckechnie 72 70 73, Ji-Man Kang (Kor) 74 72 69
216 Nathan Green 71 72 73, Brad Andrews 72 74 70, Craig Parry 71 73 72, Kurt Barnes 76 70 70, Nick Flanagan 76 67 73, Chao Li (Chn) 71 71 74, Peter O'Malley 73 71 72
217 Tae hee Lee (Kor) 75 70 72, Darren Beck 74 72 71, Bronson LaCassie 68 69 80, Steven Conran 70 75 72
218 Rick Kulacz 71 74 73, Ryan Haller 66 77 75, Peter Wilson 72 74 72, Terry Pilkadaris 71 75 72
219 Paul Gow 75 71 73
220 Anthony Summers 76 70 74
222 David Smail (Nzl) 71 75 76
223 Ben Burge 79 67 77
224 Graeme Stockley 75 71 78
225 Aaron Townsend 69 77 79, Andrew Tschudin 73 69 83