GOLF ROUNDUP : Zoeller Zooms to a Four-Stroke Lead With a 66

Fuzzy Zoeller, playing his best golf in years, earned a share of the lead with a birdie on the first hole, then pulled away from the pack in the third round of the Buick Open Saturday at Grand Blanc, Mich.

Zoeller shot a six-under-par 66 for a three-round total of 200, 16 under, and a four-stroke lead over Larry Mize, who shot 71 at Warwick Hills Country Club.

Zoeller, starting the day at 10 under, birdied the first hole to pull even with Mize. By the turn, he was two shots ahead and making it look easy.

His biggest test came at the 548-yard 13th. Zoeller, who had birdied No. 12 to go 15 under, drove behind a large tree. When he pitched out, the ball landed beside a cart path.

But Zoeller lofted a 90-yard shot over a greenside pond within 12 feet of the pin. He two-putted to save par, then birdied No. 15.

Zoeller, 41, who plays a limited schedule because of back problems and outside business interests, hasn’t won since 1986.

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Dana Lofland-Dormann’s chances to maintain her lead in the McCall’s LPGA Classic at Stratton Mountain, Vt., were sinking quickly until the cup at the ninth hole swallowed up a poor putt and turned things around.

The birdie at the turn set her on course to a two-under-par 70 and a 54-hole total of 206 and a one-stroke lead after three rounds.

The leader for two rounds, Lofland-Dormann, 25, bogeyed two of the first four holes Saturday and appeared headed for collapse when she hit her 18-foot putt “really hard” on No. 9.

“People were saying that it was going into the water,” she said of a distant pond. More likely, it would have rolled off the green’s upper tier. Instead, the ball hit the center of the hole and dropped in.

She had three more birdies on the back nine to break out of the pack. Donna Andrews, who had a 67, the lowest round of the day, is at 207.

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Kermit Zarley broke out of a nine-way tie in the middle of the second round and went on to equal the tournament record with an eight-under-par 64 for a share of the lead with Bob Betley in the PGA Bank of Boston Senior Classic at Concord, Mass.

Betley, the first-round co-leader, finished with a 69 nearly two hours after Zarley. They are at 135, nine under par.