HARRISON (New York), June 26: Ireland’s Padraig Harrington carded a three-under-par 68 to join American Jim Furyk at the top of the leaderboard after the third round of the Barclays Classic on Saturday.

Harrington, who is chasing his second win of the season, and Furyk (70) finished with matching nine-under totals of 204, two strokes ahead of Brad Faxon and Brian Gay.

Furyk, the 2003 US Open champion, has led since day one after opening with rounds of 65 and 69.

World number two Vijay Singh of Fiji, twice a winner at the Westchester Golf Club, shared fifth place with Kenny Perry and Australia’s John Senden on 208.

Faxon registered the lowest round of the day, a five-under 66 helping him to join Gay (71) on seven-under.

Leading third round scores:

204 — Jim Furyk 65, 69, 70; Padraig Harrington (Ireland) 71, 65, 68.

206 — Brad Faxon 72, 68, 66; Brian Gay 69, 66, 71.

208 — John Senden (Australia) 69, 67, 72; Kenny Perry 68, 68, 72; Vijay Singh (Fiji) 68, 71, 69.

209 — Pat Perez 70, 71, 68; Len Mattiace 71, 65, 73; Dean Wilson 72, 71, 66; Brett Quigley 73, 68, 68.

210 — Justin Leonard 72, 71, 67; Dudley Hart 71, 69, 70.

211 — Hidemichi Tanaka (Japan) 68, 68, 75; Mathias Groenberg (Sweden) 70, 70, 71; Tom Pernice Jr 70, 69, 72; Graeme McDowell (Britain) 73, 71, 67.

ROMERO ON TRACK

SAINT-QUENTIN (France): Argentine Eduardo Romero kept alive his hopes of becoming the oldest winner on the European Tour, despite closing with a bogey in a French Open third round dominated by home players on Saturday.

Romero, whose 51st birthday comes up on July 17, dropped two shots in the last three holes to slip back into a three-way tie for the lead with Frenchmen Jean Van de Velde and defending champion Jean-Francois Remesy at nine-under 204.

Leading third round scores:

204 — Jean-Francois Remesy (France) 68, 69, 67; Eduardo Romero (Argentina) 70, 62, 72; Jean Van de Velde (France) 64, 70, 70

205 — Soren Hansen (Denmark) 65, 69, 71; Jonathan Lomas (Britain) 65, 69, 71.

206 — Francois Delamontagne (France) 67, 68, 71; Philip Golding (Britain) 69, 69, 68.—Reuters