A birdie at the last earned Ryan Moore a third-round 67 and a one-shot lead at the Valspar Championship in Florida.
A birdie at the last earned Ryan Moore a third-round 67 and a one-shot lead at the Valspar Championship in Florida.
The American carded four birdies in a flawless round to hold a narrow advantage over Jordan Spieth.
He went through the first 12 holes in level par before picking up shots at the 13th, 14th, 16th and 18th to move on to nine under par for the tournament
Spieth went round in a three-under 68, with four birdies and a bogey, with a third American, Derek Ernst, on seven under following a 69.
Sean O'Hair was three shots off the pace in fourth place after shooting 69 ahead of a group of three on five under, Patrick Reed, Matt Kuchar and Henrik Stenson.
Scotland's Russell Knox was the highest-placed Briton, in a tie for 10th on three under after a 70.
England's Ian Poulter crashed completely out of contention, carding a four-over 75 to slip back to level par.
Moore was pleased with his day's work, telling the PGA Tour website: "Any day around this golf course with no bogeys is pretty good, especially the spots where I hit it.
"I was able to save par really low in the middle of my round, made some good putts but had some good chip shots. Was able to get it rolling there and make some birdies coming in."
Halfway leader Brendon de Jonge fell off the pace, his 75 leaving him two under heading into Sunday.
But final-pairing partner Spieth fared much better, and was tied for the lead until Moore's birdie at 18.
"I got a lot of confidence at the end right there with my putter," Spieth said, having saved par on 18 with a six-foot putt.
"I had those six-, seven-footers that, you know, when I'm close but not quite there those are the ones that slide by the hole because I just kind of baby it a little bit and hit confident putts coming in. Hopefully, that does a lot of good for me (on Sunday)."
Spieth knows he will have his work cut out to get ahead of Moore, though.
He added: "Ryan has been obviously on his game for weeks now and I've just been starting to trend up where I want to be. We're both really right where we want to be this week.
"So, with that being said, he's a great ball-striker. He hits it very straight and very disciplined and good putter. I expect him to shoot a few under [on Sunday] and I'm going to have a really good round to win."
