AKRON (Ohio), Aug 21: Tiger Woods and Kenny Perry remained tied at the top of the leaderboard after returning early on Sunday to complete their weather-hit third rounds of the WGC NEC Invitational.

Level when play was halted on Saturday due to rain and lightning, Americans Perry and Woods parred their remaining holes to stay deadlocked at seven-under 203 heading into the final round beginning at 1300 GMT at the Firestone Country Club.

An unhappy Perry was pulled off the 18th green when he was about to putt out on Saturday. He returned and two-putted from 10 feet for his par to finish his round at six-under 64.

Woods had more to ponder overnight after carving his tee shot on the mammoth 667-yard 16th into the trees.

The world number one muscled the ball out of the rough into the fairway and, with a solid approach, was able to salvage par.

Woods also parred the par four 17th and 18th to complete his round at three-under 67.

Leading third round scores:

203 — Kenny Perry (US) 70, 69, 64; Tiger Woods (US) 66, 70, 67.

204 — Paul McGinley (Ireland) 71, 66, 67.

205 — Sergio Garcia (Spain) 68, 70, 67; Stuart Appleby (Australia) 68, 70, 67.

206 — Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain) 72, 68, 66.

207 — Ryan Palmer (US) 72, 68, 67; David Toms (US) 71, 67, 69; Chris DiMarco (US) 67, 70, 70.

208 — Lee Westwood (Britain) 73, 72, 63; David Howell (Britain) 70, 68, 70.

209 — Rory Sabbatini (South Africa) 73, 69, 67; Davis Love III (US) 67, 73, 69; Zach Johnson (US) 70, 70, 69; John Daly (US) 71, 69, 69; Justin Leonard (US) 72, 66, 71; Vijay Singh (Fiji) 66, 71, 72; Henrik Stenson (Sweden) 66, 71, 72; Thomas Bjorn (Denmark) 70, 67, 72.

210 — Paul Casey (Britain) 75, 68, 67; Colin Montgomerie (Britain) 70, 72, 68; Mike Weir (Canada) 71, 69, 70; Luke Donald (Britain) 69, 67, 74.

211 — Ian Poulter (Britain) 73, 69, 69.

212 — Jay Haas (US) 76, 69, 67; Padraig Harrington (Ireland) 75, 68, 69; Rod Pampling (Australia) 71, 70, 71.

213 — Chad Campbell (US) 72, 72, 69; Jim Furyk (US) 72, 73, 68; Stephen Ames (Canada) 74, 71, 68; Peter Lonard (Australia) 74, 71, 68; Adam Scott (Australia) 70, 76, 67; Nick O’Hern (Australia) 68, 73, 72; Scott Verplank (US) 73, 73, 67.

214 — Niclas Fasth (Sweden) 72, 72, 70; Fred Funk (US) 74, 71, 69; Kenneth Ferrie (Britain) 71, 70, 73; Bart Bryant (US) 74, 73, 67.

215 — Thomas Levet (France) 72, 71, 72; Trevor Immelman (South Africa) 73, 71, 71; Fred Couples (US) 71, 74, 70; Brent Geiberger (US) 70, 76, 69.

216 — Darren Clarke (Britain) 76, 68, 72; Shigeki Maruyama (Japan) 75, 70, 71; Phil Mickelson (US) 69, 72, 75; K.J. Choi (South Korea) 71, 76, 69; Angel Cabrera (Argentina) 75, 74, 67.

217 — Sean O’Hair (US) 70, 74, 73; Stewart Cink (US) 72, 72, 73; Marc Cayeux (Zimbabwe) 71, 75, 71; Mark Hensby (Australia) 70, 76, 71.

218 — Woody Austin (US) 73, 68, 77; Tim Clark (South Africa) 71, 75, 72; Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) 74, 74, 70; Nick Dougherty (Britain) 67, 81, 70.—Reuters