Woods joins army at the top

O'Hair also soars on day of tumbles

Tiger Woods missed a birdie at the fifth, but he made six in the third round, shooting 66 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. (Phelan m. ebenhack/Associated Press)

ORLANDO, Fla. - For as long as they've been putting up purses to quench the competitive fires of professional golfers, the standard cliché has been to call Round 3 "moving day."

There are moving days, then there are those special times, like yesterday's third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, when watching a leaderboard causes motion sickness.

Movement? Picture a NASCAR race in which drivers are allowed to go in both directions, and use the infield as a shortcut, to boot.

Indeed, on a warm day when afternoon winds kicked up to 25 miles per hour, the Bay Hill Club proved no place for front-runners, but so friendly to those charging up the leaderboard. Go figure.

Ponder the most striking news of the day: In search of his fifth consecutive PGA Tour win, Tiger Woods fired a 4-under-par 66 to come from seven shots behind and into a share of the lead at 6-under 204 with Sean O'Hair (63), Bart Bryant (68), Bubba Watson (68), and Vijay Singh (73), the man who could be held up as the poster child for this wild day. In possession of a two-shot lead at the start, the big Fijian went bogey, double bogey, bogey, bogey in a front-nine stretch to squander his cushion faster than a teenager spending birthday money.

Woods took note of the Singh slip on the leaderboard, but after he birdied the 16th, he knew that he and O'Hair were still three behind, for Nick Watney had eagled the par-5 sixth and par-5 12th to push to 9 under.

"I'm going home to work out," said Woods, on his way cross-town to his Isleworth estate.

More accurately, he went home and it worked out for him, for back at the blustery Bay Hill Club, everything blew apart for the pacesetters. Watney, most notably.

The 26-year-old followed that eagle at the 12th with a bogey at the par-4 13th, but still was in the lead when he stepped onto the 16th tee. Then, it all went wrong, from a "pretty bad [tee] shot" that went dead left and out of bounds, to an approach that came up short and in the water. To compound matters, Watney missed a 4-foot putt when he reached the green, thus a snowman was compiled (a quadruple-bogey 8). He went from first to a share of seventh at 4-under 206, two off the lead, but the glass, he said, was half full.

"Overall, today was a positive," said Watney, who shot 70.

That, of course, depends upon which end of the leaderboard you were looking at, for the contrast was striking.

Take the top three names at the start of the day, for instance. Singh, Carl Pettersson (74), and Lee Westwood (72) combined for nine bogeys, two double bogeys, and just four birdies as they went 9 over to kick open the doors for those charging from behind. It was a march led by O'Hair, who was out in the seventh pairing, tied for 49th and situated 10 shots off the lead.

"You just have to take it one shot at a time, and I did a good job with that," said O'Hair, last week's winner at the PODS Championship in Tampa.

Good? Put him down for an understatement, because after going to the turn in 33 to sit at 1 under, O'Hair caught fire. He birdied the par-4 10th, eagled the 12th, then birdied the 13th and par-4 14th and within a short time, there were a pair of numbers that could sum up this wild day: a 30 by O'Hair on the back, and a 40 by Singh on the front.

"It wasn't Sunday," said Singh. "I have 18 holes to go."

He was grabbing hold of that half-full glass after coughing up his lead, because Singh helped set in motion a huge day of dramatic jumps up the leaderboard. Not only did O'Hair hurdle 44 players to settle into a share of the lead and Woods leapfrogged 15, but Hunter Mahan got into the act, too. Nine off the lead at the start, he shot 65, jumped 31 places, and is solo sixth, but just one behind.

Watson and Bryant had more subtle pushes, for each started the day tied for 10th and only five off the lead. Watson had a tidy trip, three birdies against one bogey, and Bryant had the outright lead, albeit briefly. After Watney chopped up the 16th, Bryant was at 7 under and ahead by one, only he, too, hit into the water at the 16th and made bogey. Back at Isleworth, perhaps as he was slipping into his workout gear, Woods probably discovered that things had worked out on his behalf.

Still, Bryant was reminded that he scored a six-shot triumph over Woods at the 2005 Tour Championship. Did that signal he had the great one's number?

Bryant could barely contain his laughter.

"He didn't give me his phone number. He doesn't want to hear from me. I do not have his number," said Bryant. "Nobody has his number and you ain't going to get me to say that."

No one expected him to.

Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com.