Australia's Jason Day, seeking his eighth PGA Tour victory, rebounded from a stumbling start to preserve a two-shot lead after Saturday's third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida.
Two ahead overnight, the world number three bogeyed the par-three second after finding a bunker off the tee but birdied three of the next six holes on the way to a two-under 70 at Bay Hill.
Though Day also bogeyed the 11th, he broke two strokes clear of a tightly bunched leaderboard with a two-putt birdie at the par-five 16th before parring the last two holes to post a 15-under total of 201.
Swede Henrik Stenson, who briefly led by one after sinking a 13-foot putt to eagle the par-five sixth, returned a 70 to share second place at 13-under with Americans Troy Merritt (67) and Kevin Chappell (67).
Former U.S. Open champion Justin Rose of England (71) was a further two strokes back, level with American Derek Fathauer (69).
Australian Adam Scott, seeking a third straight victory on tour, shot 70 to fall nine strokes behind.
World number two Rory McIlroy mixed three birdies with three double-bogeys to card 75 and fall a distant 16 strokes off the pace.
Speaking about saving par on the 18th, Stenson told reporters: "It was pretty deeply plugged and I had to be very gentle and try to pop it out of the bunker and then I knew it was going to feed down to the hole and it came out just perfect.
"You can't be more aggressive because you've got water on the other side so, if anything, you've got to almost leave it in the bunker if it doesn't come out right.
"So, yeah, it was a nice one. That's going to make the dinner taste a little bit better and keeps us in contention obviously a bit more for tomorrow.
"I don't think I did too many bad things (in the final round) last year. We got put on the clock on 15 and I felt like I rushed myself on the routine and three-putted that one and that kind of threw me off my rhythm a little bit.
"Other than that, when you're in contention you've got to go out and play a solid round of golf. I played all right last year but I didn't get it finished. Hopefully we're in a different position now. We need to come from behind and play a really good round tomorrow if we want to have a shot at it."
