GRAND BLANC (Michigan), Aug 6: Tiger Woods birdied two of his final three holes to grab a two-shot lead in the Buick Open third round and move within sight of his 50th career title on Saturday.

The world number one, fresh from his British Open triumph, got his round off to a dubious start with a bogey at the second but was flawless the rest of way, hitting seven birdies to post a six-under 66 for the third consecutive day and leading total of 18-under 198.

Lurking just two shot back were Americans Lucas Glover and Scott Verplank and Australia's Robert Allenby, who all returned 66s under ideal scoring conditions to get to 16-under 200.

Two-times defending champion Vijay Singh moved into contention for an unprecedented third consecutive and fourth Buick title with four-under 68.

Leading third round scores:

198 – Tiger Woods (US) 66, 66, 66.

200 – Lucas Glover (US) 67, 67, 66; Scott Verplank (US) 68, 66, 66; Robert Allenby (Australia) 67, 67, 66.

201 – Vaughn Taylor (US) 67, 71, 63; Stephen Ames (Canada) 69, 66, 66; Joe Durant (US) 65, 69, 67; Mike Weir (Canada) 63, 70, 68; Vijay Singh (Fiji) 64, 69, 68.

202 – Sean O'Hair (US) 68, 68, 66; Charley Hoffman (US) 68, 67, 67; Woody Austin (US) 65, 69, 68; Brett Quigley (US) 65, 66, 71.

203 – Harrison Frazar (US) 70, 64, 69; Jim Furyk (US) 66, 68, 69.

204 – Camilo Villegas (Colombia) 66, 72, 66; Brian Gay (US) 71, 68, 65; Shane Bertsch (US) 70, 68, 66; Jay Delsing (US) 68, 68, 68.

205 – Craig Barlow (US) 71, 67, 67; Scott Gutschewski (US) 69, 68, 68; Skip Kendall (US) 70, 67, 68; Jeff Sluman (US) 66, 67, 72.—Reuters