Flanagan lead by one in Nationwide Tour event at Ohio State

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Australia's Nick Flanagan fired a two-under-par 69 Saturday to move into sole possession of the 54-hole lead at the Nationwide Tour's Children's Hospital Invitational. Flanagan stumbled with a double-bogey on his next-to-last hole but still managed to post a 7-under 206 total after three rounds at the Ohio State University Scarlet Course, good for a one-stroke lead over countrymen Alistair Presnell (70) and Won Joon Lee (66).
Keegan Bradley, Chris Nallen, 2007 champion Daniel Summerhays and second-round leader Michael Putnam are just two off the pace heading into Sunday's finale.
"I played really well today and if someone had said I could have had 2-under starting the day I would have taken it," said Flanagan, who had gotten to 9-under par before surrendering two shots to the field at the par-3, 17th.
"I've got a big gap between my 3-iron and my 4-iron and the 3-iron really wasn't the club there," Flanagan said of the 201-yard hole. "I tried to hit a low 4-iron in there and got a little quick and came over the top of it. The bunker shot wasn't a very good bunker shot at all and then I three-putted from 40 feet. Two bad golf shots cost me two strokes."
Other than that, it was smooth sailing for Flanagan, who had struggled a bit the first two days to find a rhythm but was nearly perfect until his hiccup on 17.
"I hit it great today. I didn't miss many shots and I was really happy with the way I hit it," he said. "That was probably as good as I could hope for in the conditions we've had and the way I've been hitting it the last few days."
The former U.S. Amateur champion missed only two greens all day and moved to the top of the leaderboard for the first time since he won the 2007 Xerox Classic in Rochester, NY.
"This is the closest I've been in a long time," he said. "My whole mentality right now is just to take baby steps and if I can win golf tournaments, great. If I don't win tomorrow it's not going to be disappointing."
The Korean-born Lee made the day's biggest charge, posting a 5-under 66 and getting to the clubhouse three full hours before the leaders.
"I think I missed maybe three greens today. I hit a lot of shots close," said Lee, whose score was the lowest of the day by two strokes. "I played the par-5s good today, which I hadn't done in a long time. I thought there was a 64 out there. I was a couple of shots short but still a good result."
Lee and Flanagan will be joined in Sunday's final pairing by Presnell, who had six birdies and five bogeys on his Saturday card.
"I hit the ball pretty good and if I had a chance off the fairways my distance control was pretty good," he said. "Today I didn't hit too many fairways and that made for a bit of hard work. I was in behind trees and things. Thursday, Friday it was a bit easier but today was a bit of a battle."
• Flanagan is in search of his fourth career win on the Nationwide Tour. He won three times in 2007 and earned an instant promotion to the US PGA Tour that year. All three of those wins were come-from-behind victories:
THIRD-ROUND TOTALS
Par 213 (3x71)
206 Nick Flanagan 66 71 69
207 Won Joon Lee 74 67 66, Alistair Presnell 68 69 70
208 Keegan Bradley 73 67 68, Chris Nallen 68 72 68, Daniel Summerhays 67 72 69, Michael Putnam 67 69 72
209 Jamie Lovemark 70 71 68, Matt Davidson 71 68 70, Scott Gardiner 71 68 70
210 David McKenzie 67 74 69, Trevor Murphy 73 67 70, D.J. Brigman 66 72 72, David Mathis 71 67 72, Camilo Benedetti 67 70 73
211 Frank Lickliter II 71 72 68, Tag Ridings 70 73 68, Brad Elder 74 69 68, Kelly Grunewald 68 74 69, Jeff Brehaut 74 67 70, Morgan Hoffmann 70 70 71, Tjaart van 66 74 71, Hunter Haas 70 70 71, Zack Miller 72 67 72, Kyle Stanley 67 71 73
212 Casey Wittenberg 72 71 69, Adam Bland 73 69 70, Doug LaBelle II 68 74 70, Tommy Gainey 72 70 70, J.J. Killeen 71 70 71, Andrew Buckle 68 73 71, Kyle Reifers 71 69 72, Patrick Sheehan 70 68 74
213 Steven Bowditch 69 72 72, Chris Kirk 71 70 72, Jim Herman 69 72 72, William McGirt 66 74 73, Bob May 70 71 72, Brendan Steele 68 71 74, Bronson La'Cassie 69 69 75, Scott Brown 65 72 76
214 Clint Jensen 69 73 72, Brady Schnell 72 70 72, Mark Anderson 70 72 72, Joe Affrunti 67 74 73, Fabian Gomez 69 71 74, Nate Smith 69 70 75.
215 Travis Bertoni 74 69 72, Esteban Toledo 71 72 72, Jason Gore 68 74 73, Ty Harris 71 71 73, Peter Tomasulo 69 72 74, Jonathan Kaye 63 76 76, Russell Henley 68 70 77, Matthew Borchert 68 70 77
216 Jason Enloe 71 71 74, Ken Duke 69 73 74, Darron Stiles 69 73 74, Adam Meyer 74 68 74, Scott Dunlap 70 71 75, Jay Delsing 69 71 76, Aaron Watkins 71 67 78
217 Bryan DeCorso 71 71 75, Paul Claxton 68 71 78
218 Peter Gustafsson 72 71 75, Kyle Thompson 72 71 75, Gavin Coles 72 71 75, Stephen Poole 72 70 76
219 Justin Hicks 71 72 76, Bradley Iles 71 72 76, John Chin 68 74 77
220 Miguel Angel Carballo 70 71 79