Paul Goydos doesn't have a Q-rating, an endorsement deal or a top-30 finish in the past 16 months. What he does have for the first time in his career is a 54-hole lead -- in The Players Championship, no less.

Seemingly immune to the mounting pressure and a course getting tougher by the day, Goydos seized the lead yesterday with a 10-foot birdie on the island-green 17th and a great escape on the closing hole for a 2-under 70 and a one-shot lead over Kenny Perry.

As well as he played, his self-deprecating humor was even better.

Asked if he had ever had a 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour, Goydos shook his head.

"But I've only been on tour for 16 years," he said.

He was at 7-under 209, the highest score to lead at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., since 1999.

Perry saved par with a nifty wedge on the 18th hole for a 72 that put him at 210 and in the final group today. Sergio Garcia hit the ball as well as anyone for the second day in a row, and got nothing in return.

Garcia was tied for the lead standing on the 17th tee, but he three-putted from just outside 10 feet, then hit into the rough on the 18th and closed with another bogey for a 73, leaving him three shots behind.

Through three rounds, Goydos has taken 78 putts, which is 18 fewer than Garcia.

"I'm a little bit disappointed because I feel like the last two days, I show the highest score I could shoot," Garcia said. "And I still have a chance. With everything that has happened, I'm still there."

The numbers are shrinking, with only 13 players remaining under par, just three of those with a major to their credit.

Phil Mickelson, trying to become the first repeat champion in the 35-year history of this tournament, was making a move up the leader board until he knocked his tee shot into the water on the 14th and took double bogey. He still wound up with a 71 and was in the group at 214, five shots behind and very much in the game.

Even Goydos would concede that.

"I'm pretty sure Mickelson is not going, 'Well, I'm playing for second,'" he said.

Also five shots behind was Bernhard Langer, 50, whose two victories this year have come on the Champions Tour.

Other tournaments

• Michelob Ultra Open: Rarely spectacular but remarkable for her consistency, Annika Sorenstam shot her third consecutive nearly mistake-free round, and her 2-under 69 for a 199 total at Williamsburg, Va., signaled that she may be ready to give Lorena Ochoa a run for No. 1 again. Sorenstam, eight-time player of the year and plagued by injuries in a winless 2007, gave Ochoa and Jeong Jang up-close evidence that the maddeningly steady game that made her the top female player in the world for so long is coming back. Ochoa lost her putting stroke and fell back quickly with 74, eight shots back. Jang, who played in the final group with Sorenstam and Ochoa, shook off an aching wrist and a slow start for a 69 to be alone in second place at 202.

• Italian Open: Hennie Otto shot a 9-under 63 to take a four-stroke lead into the final round in Milan. Otto, of South Africa, had 11 birdies and two bogeys in the third round to give him 22-under 194. Robert Karlsson, who shot a course-record 61 Friday, had a 69 to be in a tie for second place with Christian Nilsson (67) and Alvaro Velasco (64).