Perry Could Be Cinderella Story : Golf: He quietly takes three-shot lead at Pebble Beach as Bill Murray and his hat steal the spotlight on TV.

Kenny Perry is a soft-spoken Kentuckian who borrowed money to build a golf course back home, but he was more than the loan ranger Saturday.

After all, here he was leading the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and you could fit his gallery at Pebble Beach inside the first hole.

Perry fired an anonymous 67 at Pebble Beach and, at 13-under-par 203, holds a three-shot lead over Peter Jacobsen, Brad Faxon, Guy Boros and David Duval as the year’s most conspicuous celebrity golf event enters its final day of people-watching and putt-rolling.

It’s pretty clear which was the more important Saturday. Perry was totally ignored on CBS’ telecast and was never shown. On the other hand, comedian Bill Murray was omnipresent, assumed ultra-celebrity status and dominated television coverage.

Of course, Perry didn’t wear a hat like Murray, who chose a little number that looked like a driving range mat with a plastic flagstick and ball on top.

Perry estimated his gallery at about 50, but admitted he counted them at the seventh hole, where a crowd had gathered to watch each group come through.

Perry didn’t seem to mind being ignored.

“I kind of like that,” he said. “I had John Denver as a partner one year and Joe Montana last year and I had all the people running around.”

Faxon shot 72 at Pebble Beach and has a chance to win his first tournament in three years, but that wasn’t much of a story line for television either.

Faxon was shown once Saturday. That was when cameras trained on actor Joe Pesci smoking a cigar and Faxon happened to be standing in the background.

Faxon made himself busy anyway: “I watched Bill Murray.”

Nick Faldo, Payne Stewart, Davis Love III and Emlyn Aubrey are four shots behind Perry at 207, one shot better than Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Hal Sutton.

Boros shot 71 at Poppy Hills for a 54-hole score of 206 and found himself in a four-way tie. He liked it when he checked out the scoreboard.

“It’s pretty good to see Nicklaus and Boros up there again,” said Boros, son of the late Julius Boros.

The Boros gallery numbered four, he said, the four people staying with him this week.

“Two guys joined them,” Boros said. “You had front-row seats if you were following me.”

Watson had a good crowd but a bad putter. He led briefly, but dropped four shots in four holes at Pebble Beach, then missed a short birdie putt at No. 17 and three-putted No. 18 for bogey.

Jacobsen is winless since 1990, but he is encouraged by his putting on the soft greens.

“I rolled the ball well,” he said.

Perry hopes he continues to roll the ball in the right direction today, mainly because he can help pay off the $1.5-million bank loan he took out in Frankfurt, Ky., so he could build a public golf course.

Perry finished second here in 1990 and has won twice on the tour, so he is accustomed to the last-day pressure.

There is one thing he has learned.

“You can’t ever get a big enough lead,” Perry said. “But I’m excited with a three-stroke lead. I’m not really having to think a lot. It’s coming natural. That’s when golf is fun.”

And he probably won’t even need a funny hat to get on TV.

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Nicklaus, who turned 55 two weeks ago, hasn’t won an event on the regular PGA Tour since he shocked the golf world with a victory at the Masters in 1986.

Last year, Nicklaus played eight PGA Tour events and made the cut once. That was when he tied for 28th at the U.S. Open at Oakmont, where he shot 77-76 over the weekend.

So it has been a long, dry spell for the man who has won 70 tournaments, a record 18 of them major titles.

Nicklaus’ 1995 tournament schedule is up in the air, but he said it depends entirely on how well he is playing.

At least he is encouraged.

“The biggest problem with my game is here,” Nicklaus said, tapping his head.

It remains to be seen if Nicklaus came make up a five-shot deficit, but after his third-round 67 at Pebble Beach, he’s ready to try.

“I’m tickled to be here,” he said. “I’m going to be in there, I just don’t know where it is going to be.

“I want to play, but I don’t want to play poorly. It’s no fun to beat it around and shoot 75.”