Woods Leads After Another 66

Tiger Woods closed in on his second consecutive victory with a big assist from a fan Saturday, birdieing two of his last three holes for his third straight six-under-par 66 and a two-stroke lead in the Buick Open at Grand Blanc, Mich.

Woods surged to the top of the leaderboard with a birdie at No. 16 and caught a break on the last hole, helping him pull away from a pack of players at Warwick Hills. He is at 18-under 198.

His tee shot on 18 went way left, but it ricocheted off a spectator and into the fairway. Woods thanked the fan by giving him a signed glove, and ended up making a seven-footer for birdie.

Woods, with 49 victories, is 20 for 20 when leading tournaments by more than one shot and is 35 of 38 when leading or tied entering a final round.

Robert Allenby, Lucas Glover and Scott Verplank were tied for second after 66s. Two-time defending champion Vijay Singh (68) was three strokes behind in a group of five that included Vaughn Taylor, who matched the third-round tournament record with a 63.

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Sherri Steinhauer rolled in a 50-foot putt on the way to a six-under 66 to take a three-stroke lead in the Women’s British Open at Lytham St. Annes, England.

As Juli Inkster squandered the three-stroke lead she held after the second round, Steinhauer took over on the course where she won the first of her two British Open titles to move to seven-under 209 after three rounds.

Inkster (74), Lorena Ochoa (65), 2000 British Open champion Sophie Gustafson (69) and 2004 winner Karen Stupples (70) were all at four-under 212.

Annika Sorenstam, who won the event in 2003, was seven strokes back after she shot a one-over 73.

Michelle Wie, 16, failed to finish below par for the sixth consecutive round in a major, shooting an even-par 72 and falling 11 strokes off the lead.

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Curtis Strange moved into position for his first Champions Tour victory, shooting a six-under 66 in windy conditions to take a three-stroke lead over David Edwards in the 3M Championship at Blaine, Minn.

Strange, the two-time U.S. Open champion in his second season on the 50-and-over tour, is at 10-under 134 on the TPC Twin Cities.

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Billy Mayfair, 40, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, was diagnosed with testicular cancer at the Buick Open and had surgery in Arizona.

Dr. Gil Brito at the Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Hospital said surgery went well Thursday and the cancer was contained. Mayfair’s testicular cancer is considered one of the most common types and highly curable.