AKRON (Ohio), Aug 24: Darren Clarke used a deft short game to seize the lead after three rounds of the World

Golf Championships-NEC Invitational on Saturday as the Northern Irishman moved into position for his first win of the season.

The 35-year-old, who beat world number one Tiger Woods to win the 2000 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, cobbled together a four-under-par 66 on Firestone’s South Course.

Leading scores:

201 Darren Clarke (Britain) 65 70 66

202 Jonathan Kaye 68 69 65

203 Chris Riley 66 67 70

204 Tiger Woods 65 72 67, Davis Love III 66 70 68

205 Steve Flesch 71 67 67, Hal Sutton 68 69 68, Retief Goosen (South Africa) 67 69 69, Brad Faxon 68 67 70

206 Jim Furyk 69 69 68, Robert Allenby (Australia) 69 69 68, Fred Funk 72 62 72, Vijay Singh (Fiji) 69 65 72

207 Dan Forsman 69 68 70

208 Paul Azinger 72 69 67, Ian Poulter (Britain) 73 68 67, Colin Montgomerie (Britain) 68 70 70, Trevor Immelman (South Afica) 70 68 70, Ernie Els (South Africa) 67 70 71, Peter Jacobsen 73 64 71

209 Bernhard Langer (Germany) 71 73 65, Toshi Izawa (Japan) 70 71 68, Sergio Garcia (Spain) 64 76 69, Scott Verplank 66 73 70, Fred Couples 67 71 71, Paul Casey (Britain) 72 66 71, David Toms 66 67 76 — Reuters