Charlotte - Jonathan Byrd shocked himself by firing seven birdies in a nine-hole span Saturday on his way to a five-under par 67 and the 54-hole led a one-shot lead at the Wells Fargo Championship.
Byrd stood on 15-under 201 after three rounds at the $6.5 million PGA Tour event, one stroke ahead of fellow American Pat Perez with 2009 British Open winner Stewart Cink and 2009 US Open winner Lucas Glover sharing third on 204.
"I don't know if I'm going to win, but I'm playing good enough to win," Byrd said. "I'm just going to go out there and play and see what happens."
Byrd, whose hometown is only an hour's drive south of the course, was stunned after the round when told of his impressive birdie binge.
"My response was, 'Wow, I did that?' I didn't really realize it was going that good there for a while," said Byrd, who was thrown off at the start by a vocal and large crowd following him and playing partner Phil Mickelson.
"I was pretty shaky starting off. I just had a hard time settling down anbd then made some good swings kind of middle late of the front nine. That kind of settled me down, and I kind of just relaxed and started enjoying it a little."
Byrd, two back of leader Perez when the day began, opened with a bogey but began his run at Quail Hollow with back-to-back birdies at the par-5 seventh and par-4 eighth.
After a bogey to finish the front nine, Byrd began the back side with back-to-back birdies, parred the 12th, then ran off three birdies in a row starting at the par-3 13th and ending at the par-5 15th.
Byrd seeks his sixth PGA title and third triumph in the past 12 months, having won last year at Las Vegas and in this year's season-opening Tournament of Champions.
"That would be great," Byrd said. "Twelve months ago I would never have thought that could have happened, but now the way my game is, why couldn't it happen? I'm playing well. I feel like I have all the tools to play well."
Perez birdied the par-3 17th to close within a stroke after firing a 70 on Saturday.
"It was kind of scrappy all the way around. It wasn't great, but I guess I played pretty good to shoot 70," Perez said. "I'm going to have to shoot low tomorrow."
Mickelson, who played his way into contention with a 66 on Friday, soared to a 74 to stand eight strokes off the pace, a double bogey at 17 his major undoing after three birdies and three bogeys earlier.
All players wore black armbands in tribute to Seve Ballesteros, the Spanish golf legend who died earlier on Saturday. Final-round play will stop for one minute on Sunday to pay homage to the five-time major champion.
Leading results on Saturday after the third round of the $6.5 million PGA Tour Wells Fargo Championship (USA unless noted, par-72):
201 - Jonathan Byrd 66-68-67
202 - Pat Perez 67-65-70
204 - Stewart Cink 71-65-68, Lucas Glover 67-68-69
205 - Andres Romero (ARG) 71-67-67, Kevin Na 69-69-67, Bill Haas 64-70-71
206 - Brian Davis (GBR) 70-67-69
207 - JB Holmes 70-72-65, Davis Love 70-69-68
208 - Rickie Fowler 68-72-68, Bobby Gates 69-70-69, Matt Jones (AUS) 70-69-69, Steve Marino 70-67-71, Carl Pettersson (SWE) 68-68-72
Notable others:
209 - Rory Sabbatini (RSA) 72-71-66, Alex Cejka (GER) 71-68-70, Vijay Singh (FIJ) 68-68-73, Phil Mickelson 69-66-74
210 - Padraig Harrington (IRL) 69-72-69, John Senden (AUS) 74-64-72
211 - Steven Bowditch (AUS) 71-68-72
212 - Robert Allenby (AUS) 72-71-69, Sergio Garcia (ESP) 69-69-74
213 - Justin Rose (GBR) 71-73-69
214 - Edoardo Molinari (ITA) 72-71-71, Brendon de Jonge (ZIM) 75-68-71, Trevor Immelman (RSA) 73-70-71, Martin Kaymer (GER) 70-71-73
215 - Marc Leishman (AUS) 73-71-71, Jarrod Lyle (AUS) 71-71-73, Ryuji Imada (JPN) 69-70-76
216 - Mathew Goggin (AUS) 70-74-72, Richard S. Johnson (SWE) 74-69-73
218 - Arjun Atwal (IND) 72-71-75
219 - Bi-o Kim (KOR) 73-71-75
222 - Nathan Green 73-71-78