Vaughn Taylor recovered from a poor start to his third round to forge into the lead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill on Saturday.
Taylor stumbled with two early bogeys, but roared back with five birdies to post a three-under-par 67 in pleasant conditions in Orlando to move to eight under par, two strokes ahead of second-placed Ben Curtis (69), with Vijay Singh (67) and Tom Lehman (69) three behind.
Four-time winner and world number one Tiger Woods (70) is also still in contention five shots back in a tie for tenth.
It was not a good day for halfway leader Rocco Mediate, who tumbled down the leaderboard with a 76 that left him level with Woods.
And Paul Casey, who took the lead with three early birdies, also ended the day five behind after posting a 73.
Taylor, a member of last year's American Ryder Cup team, has won just twice on the PGA Tour, both times at the Reno-Tahoe Open, a relatively weak event.
However, he believes that will stand him in good stead come Sunday.
The 31-year-old said: 'This will be a little different atmosphere (but) any time you win a tournament, you learn from it and draw from those experiences.
'I got off to not the best start, but just hung in there and played pretty solid the rest of the day.
'Conditions were pretty tough. It was a little cooler, the wind was blowing and everything was faster, fairways and greens.'
Taylor knows, however, that he must overcome his dismal recent record on the Sundays of championships. He may not have dropped a shot on a back nine all year, but his Sunday round average is 74.2.
'I don't know what's been going on,' he said. 'Last year I played really well on Sundays and got it done. I'm trying to look at it as I've got my bad Sundays out of the way already.'
Curtis has made just six career top-tens, but converted three of them into victories and was looking good after picking up two birdies on a bogey-free back nine.
'I'm just happy to be in this position,' Curtis said. 'Any time you can shoot in the 60s three days in a row, you'll be happy.'
Woods is better at defending a lead than coming from behind - but it would be foolish to write him off.
'I hung in there and gave myself a chance,' said Woods, pleased with his position after after a poor second round and just one birdie and one bogey in the third.
'The way I played yesterday, I really shouldn't be in the hunt. But the way I played today, I should be right next to the lead. If a couple of those putts go in, it's a whole different ball game.'
Only three players shot better than 69 on a day when the average score was 72.9 strokes.
